AFSA USAID Vice President Update: July 10, 2006
Here is your update from USAID Vice President Bill Carter. Please send any comments and questions to wcarter@usaid.gov
We hope everyone had an enjoyable Fourth. It’s All-Star break time and our Bosox are perched above the Bronx Bombers in the AL East. What could be better?
1. Performance Boards: All of the USAID Performance Boards have now finished their work. The line drawing exercise is scheduled for later this week. It is anticipated that Board results will be announced, as they were last year, in mid to late August. Report cards will be mailed in the coming weeks. This week the Tenure Board has convened and begun its deliberations.
2. Frustration:
After sitting through every single Performance Board debrief, I am unhappy to report that many of the same mistakes of previous years were repeated by raters and employees. Yet another repetition of our tiresome litany: poorly crafted Work Objectives; superlative adjectives not backed up with examples; continued hara-kiri in the employee statement section, and so on and so forth. What will it take before it sinks in with some people to follow the extensive available guidance and truly devote enough time and energy to do this right?
3. Speaking of Doing It Right . . .: We are already one-quarter of the way through the current rating period. How many of you have work objectives in place? Or, rather, how many of you have work objectives in place that are not carbon copies or nearly so of the previous year?
4. Read All About It: Our regular round-up of an eclectic set of news items worth perusing.
a) Merger rumors – again
b) OPM pipes in on pay-for-performance
c) Civil service unions come out against pay-for-
performance
d) And so does a federal appeals court
e) Federal retirees and a clear lack of retirement planning.
Don’t let this happen to you
f) Of The Devil Wears Prada variety:
g) For those who might have a touch of arrogance, it’s not
only in developing countries that we need to with graft,
corruption and misuse…
h) Reading into this one what you will…
5. Migration Time Again: It’s summertime, which means a good part of the Foreign Service is on the move yet again. Don’t forget to take AFSA with you when you move. You can update your address online at http://www.afsa.org/comment.cfm or let us know at asigfusson@usaid.gov.
6. The Gang’s All Here: Remember that we here at AFSA/AID welcome visitors to our humble abode at RRB 2.10-C. Come and knock on our door. I am available by phone at 202-712-0677, and by e-mail at wcarter@usaid.gov. Senior labor management advisor Doug Broome is at 202-712-0947 and dbroome@usaid.gov. Our general office number is 202-712-1941, while the AFSA HQ number is 202-338-4045.
