Category Archives: Unacceptable Performance
PROTECT YOUR “SANTOS” RIGHTS Two years ago the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an MSPB decision holding that “an agency must justify institution of a PIP when an employee challenges a PIP-based removal.” In other words, when an agency … Continue reading
REMOVED CBP EMPLOYEE WINS FIVE YEARS OF BACK PAY PLUS This employee worked as an Air Interdiction Agent with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) until the agency removed him for unacceptable performance in June 2019. However, the agency so botched … Continue reading
LOVE THIS PIP PROTECTION IDEA Being put on a PIP is often the beginning of the end for an employee. The manager uses it to focus the crosshairs on their target and all that remains is to pull the trigger. … Continue reading
DEFENDING FEDERAL EMPLOYEES IN PIP CASES From time to time, we scan the blogs of various law firms that specialize in representing federal employees and find very useful information. So, we thought we would start passing on links to these … Continue reading
AGENCY PIP DISCRIMINATORY; EMPLOYEE REINSTATED A deaf/Hard of Hearing employee could read lips in one-on-one conversations, but needed an accommodation to participate in group conversations. Consequently, his performance suffered and the agency put him on a PIP, which ended in … Continue reading
THIS POOR DHS BRANCH CHIEF MSPB just upheld the termination of a DHS Branch Chief for unacceptable performance under circumstances that a bargaining unit employee likely would have won. We say that because the agency did not rely on the … Continue reading
THE LEVEL 2 PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL TRAP The word is quietly passing around among managers urging those agencies that have an appraisal system with a level between Fully Successful and Unacceptable for each element to abolish that rating level. It is … Continue reading
YOUR SANTOS RIGHT GIVEN RETROACTIVE EFFECT You might remember our recent post about a new court decision, known as Santos, holding that when an agency fires someone for unacceptable performance it must now prove that the original PIP it put the employee … Continue reading
WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR NEW SANTOS RIGHT? Almost a year ago the Federal Court of Appeals, in a case known as Santos v. NASA, made it just a little bit harder to fire federal employees for poor performance. … Continue reading
QUESTION: WHEN IS A PIP A ULP? ANSWER: ALMOST ALWAYS The law requires that employee performance standards be written so as “. . . to the maximum extent feasible, permit the accurate evaluation of job performance on the basis of … Continue reading