OPM ADDRESSES WHAT IS AND ISN’T STILL NEGOTIABLE ON PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

Now that we are moving to a forced distribution rating environment which will require each manager to brand some employees as the worst in the group even if they are performing successfully, OPM has put out its view of what is and isn’t negotiable.  The folks at Federal Managers Daily Report published a helpful piece on the OPM guidance which you can read by clicking here, but remember this is management’s opinion, not labor’s.  I will try to toss out some ideas of what union’s should demand to bargain over in the next few postings.  But in the meantime, think about demanding a deep data analysis of how these ratings are distributed.  If they are anything like how disciplinary actions are taken, minorities will get hit hard.  Similarly, women will likely get placed in the lower tiers more often than men.  This system is ready made for disparate treatment claims.  For example, what happens when a White male and a female Hispanic employee both get an overall Acceptable ratings, but she gets placed in a lower tier? Or even the other way around? There are no criteria for making the distinctions objective, leaving managers to defend their undocumented opinions in a discrimination hearing. The costs of the EEO investigations alone are going to make this a very expensive change–probably even more than the White House disco is costing America.