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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why would the GS-15 do more than is asked?  There's no room for promotion (unless they want to go SES, which for most non-supervisory GS-15s is a big no thank you).  And in government, "initiative" is as likely to get someone in trouble as rewarded (to the extent rewards are even available).

So, basically: welcome to management in the federal government.  If your worst problem is an employee who does what's asked and nothing more, consider yourself lucky.[/quote]

I hear you and don’t fully disagree. But if you ago back to the standards for a GS-15 (OPM classification guide), 15s are expected to take an ambiguous assignment / requirements and figure it out. You should be able to articulate the desired outcome and the 15 develop and implement the path/activities to achieve it. I manage 8 GS-15s and they don’t all exceed expectations, but I have NEVER have to tell them how do get something done. They figure it out including asking clarifying questions if needed. I would discuss with HR and set a higher expectation. You’d be justified in doing so—OPM standards would support you. [/quote]

LMAO, good luck with trying to do something to someone who is getting their work done. There are no sticks and barely any carrots. I'm a 15 and in a union, is this person?[/quote]

but they are not getting their work done independently. By the [b]standards[/b] 15s are supposed to be independent WITHOUT guidance. If I have to ride you to get decent quality out of you, then you are not working independently and not meeting expectations. You can go read the OPM standards on that. Every PD is based on these standards. These standards are what determines the grade level. THE REAL PROBLEM is that whoever is supervising is not holding this 15 accountable to the BASIC expectations. The expectations for a 15 and  GS9/11/12/13 are NOT the same. Given that this person has gotten away with performing at a GS-12 as 15 makes the situation hard to correct. But it is not irreversible. I've done it for GS-14s. I consulted with HR and executed the plan. It worked! and all three of those 14s stepped up. a few years after I moved on, I got a very nice thank you note form two of them. The supervisor that came behind me was a real stickler, but they were able to meet her expectations because they knew exactly how a 14 should perform.

And the reason why I was tough on those guys was because that federal agency was downgrading staff that could not perform at their grade level. Leadership was serious about people performing at their grade level. The head honcho downgraded one of her own SES to a GS14. That sent shockwaves throughout the organization. We saw a 15 get downgraded to a 13 and several 14s went back to 13s.[b] They all grieved and lost [/b]because the managers worked with HR to do it the right way which included giving them time to improve their performance. They didn't and it was well documented. I didn't want my guys to experience that, so we had a half day retreat to talk about what it means to be a 14 (cheesy but it worked). We dissected the OPM standards so they could see that it wasn't me making this up. We cross walked those standards with the new performance management system the org put in place. I also had HR talk about successful characteristics and behaviors of a 14. We discussed various work assignments and talked about the various ways a 14 could approach the assignment and meet expectations and how to exceed the expectation if they chose to do so. And then I secured coaching resources for each 14 to help them with the change. I will say that the issue with my guys is they saw other 14s doing way less and thought that was ok. So when they came to our agency, they thought I and other managers had super high expectations (above and beyond). Yes and no... we really wanted them to succeed regardless if they had a laid back manager or a standards stickler. If you can meet the basic standards for a 14 you will make it under ANY management regime. So we needed to change their frame of reference on what a 14 is. It also probably helped for them to see that other managers and leaders were downgrading staff. So my guys had an open mind about improving.

so no--I don't subscribe to the "there's nothing you can do" attitude. Supervisors need to do their job--be transparent, develop people, set clear expectations and hold them accountable among other things. I've been managing in a union environment for 13 years. Unlike some of my peers, I am not afraid of the union. I will quickly get the union rep, HR and labor relations in a joint meeting and collaborate to resolve the issue. More often than not, it means a lot frustrating work on my part--especially because it seems like I'm always having to correct mistakes from past supervisors. But I believe in doing the right thing. If I didn't want to do this, I would have stayed in a non-supervisory role. [/quote]

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