MORE FREAKIN' SURVEYS! By now we presume that all of you know that National NTEU has finally caught up with Chapter #53 and boycotted the IRS' Survey Feedback farce this year. Even though it wasn't for the reason we would have wanted, we welcome them aboard the wagon, however belatedly. With a management like this, the union has far better things to do with its time than play games with these IRS phonies. To our great surprise however, we found that others are out there doing surveys as well. One, by the Partnership for Public Service, calls itself "The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government." We will accept these people as altruistic do-gooders and then, upon seeing the results that they posted, wonder if they know what they are doing. Employee satisfaction and commitment are two of the necessary ingredients in developing high performing organizations and attracting the workers our government needs to meet the key public challenges ahead. The Best Places to Work rankings are a key step in recognizing the importance of employee satisfaction and ensuring that it is a top priority of government managers and leaders. www.bestplacestowork.org/bptw.html In the box, above, is a quote from their web site. No one could argue with their premise....except perhaps IRS management, which seems to go out of its way to annoy the living hell out of everyone. Perhaps that explains why the Department of The Treasury, in general, and the I.R.S., in particular, did so poorly on this Survey. To digress for a moment, perhaps it shows what happens when management is not given control of the process so that it can falsify the results and get rid of questions which cause them embarrassment. We are not at all convinced that IRS management has any desire to see a "high performing organization." In fact, every decision they make seems to be heading in the opposite direction. This survey makes a distinction between federal agencies and "sub-components." In that sense, they rate 30 so-called agencies and the Department of the Treasury comes out 23'd of 30 with a score of only 57.4. At least they beat out the Department of Homeland Security (29th) and the Small Business Administration (dead last.). For those who care about such things but can't be bothered to go look it up, the top three agencies were the Office of Management and Budget, the National Science Foundation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - and let us all hope that there is no award presentation involving George Bush so we don't have to hear him stumble over the word "nu-qu-lar," again. The Internal Revenue Service is listed as a "sub-component" of the Treasury Department and here the methodology gets a little weaker. Perhaps the Partnership for Public Service was getting a little embarrassed about the trend that their results were showing in what is supposed to be, after all, an exercise in Happy Times and conning people to come work for the government. The Sub-components begin with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service at #1 and work their way down to #143 the US Army Installation Management Agency. Where is the IRS, you ask? Well. It's not in the first 143, that much we can tell you. Recall what we said about some apparent flaws in the method? It seems that The Army guys came in with a score of 60.1. In the first listing, when there were tie scores, the scores were given and an accurate count maintained. Thus, if there was a tie for #47, each agency involved in the tie was listed as #47 and then they would skip over #48 and pick up with #49. However, when we get to the dregs of the list, they stopped doing that. The rest of the list is merely listed as "below 143'd" and their scores were listed as "below 60." And THAT is where the IRS is listed. Along with all the other last-place finishers in alphabetical order. Why are we not surprised? Never ones to be stopped by minor difficulties we went through the list by hand and counted up the sub-components who tied for last place. There are 75 of them. What that means is that in the grand scheme of things the IRS' "actual score" (which was too low to be displayed) could have ranked it 144th or it could have ranked it 218th on the list or any point in between. One can imagine the IRS issuing a celebratory memo about how well things are going. Knowing that the IRS likes to avoid bad news and in keeping with the purpose of the Survey, we though we'd offer them a few recruiting slogans for the IRS web site. IRS - No Worse Than 75 Others. The Top 143 Don't Want You? - Come See Us IRS - Not Part of the Top 66% |
All federal workers are supposed to be trained in something called the No Fear Act, an acronym derived from the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002. Among other things this law is supposed to "identify the rights and protections provided by federal discrimination and whistleblower laws." This was originally signed by President Bush in 2002 and the fact that it has taken 3 years to get going speaks volumes about its real importance to this administration. Deputy OPM Director, Dan Blair, said "if we expect government operations and performance to improve we must maintain a fair and efficient process for employees to express their concerns and ensure that employees feel comfortable raising critical issues without fear of inappropriate reaction." Hold that thought while we give you a dose of cold hard reality. We'd like to introduce you to Bunnatine Greenhouse and Lawrence Greenfield. They thought whistleblowers were protected too. Mr. Greenfield was the head of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Department of Justice. Greenfield's agency produced a report on traffic stops and racial profiling. Without getting too deeply into the subject, which anyone can research on the web, Greenfield declined to remove certain references to how police treated certain ethnic groups during traffic stops in a press release and now finds himself being forced to leave the agency after 23 years of service with high marks as a statistician and supervisor. Ms. Greenhouse was a top procurement official responsible for making sure that the Army Corps of Engineers complied with contracting rules. In Oct., 2004, she protested the awarding of a 5-year $7 billion contract to a Halliburton subsidiary charging that Pentagon officials showed improper favoritism when awarding military contracts. Various spokesmen denied that there were any political considerations in the contract and that "career procurement officials" award contracts not political appointees. Nonetheless, when Ms. Greenhouse declined to approve the contract her "superiors" signed off on it anyway. By August of 2005, the NY TIMES was reporting that Greenhouse, a 20-year veteran of the military procurement process, was being demoted for "poor performance." It seems to us that she was performing far too well for the powers-that-be, and the taxpayers are still getting soaked for that contract. This reminds us of Revenue Agent Jennifer Long who testified openly before the Senate Finance Committee in 1997 about abuses of taxpayers in the old Houston District. Suddenly, after years of fully satisfactory performance appraisals, the very next appraisal after her testimony claimed she was a 'poor performer.' Ask yourself what kind of arrogance does it take to try to pull such a scam? Four U.S. Senators thanked Long for her courage and publically vowed to protect her from IRS reprisals and still they tried it. Former Congressman Bill Archer Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and surely no friend of federal workers, called the IRS' attempt "completely and inexcusably wrong." That attempt was thwarted by political pressure although we were not at all surprised to learn that the manager who wrote the appraisal, Karie L. Gulley, is now listed in the Discover Directory as a GS-14 in SBSE in Houston. The IRS knows what to do with whistleblowers and it rewards the managers who follow orders! The cautionary tale is that you cannot rely on any promises given by the government no matter what silly "training" they give you. If you think that IRS managers are any less arrogant than those in Defense or Justice then you are in for a deep shock. They are as bad as any others but they are not stupid enough to write that you are being demoted because you were a whistleblower. No. As Ms. Greenhouse and Ms. Long found out you will suddenly become a "poor performer." So, if an IRS manager tells you to put your trust in the No Fear Act . . . Be Afraid - Be Very Afraid. |
The Brooklyn Dodger |
Vol. 22, No. 3 IRS ! The Incredible Shrinking Agency Oct 20, 2005 |
Fear No Evil? |
The Brooklyn Dodger |
Published by NTEU Chapter 53 George Greenberg President Bob Schillaci Editor 107 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. 1180 Veterans Highway Garden City, NY 11530 Hauppauge, NY 11788 516 683-5679 631-851-4965 |
EMPLOYEE WISECRACKS |
Bushwhacked...Junior |
EDITORIALS |
All federal workers are supposed to be trained in something called the No Fear Act, an acronym derived from the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002. Among other things this law is supposed to "identify the rights and protections provided by federal discrimination and whistleblower laws." This was originally signed by President Bush in 2002 and the fact that it has taken 3 years to get going speaks volumes about its real importance to this administration. Deputy OPM Director, Dan Blair, said "if we expect government operations and performance to improve we must maintain a fair and efficient process for employees to express their concerns and ensure that employees feel comfortable raising critical issues without fear of inappropriate reaction." Hold that thought while we give you a dose of cold hard reality. We'd like to introduce you to Bunnatine Greenhouse and Lawrence Greenfield. They thought whistleblowers were protected too. Mr. Greenfield was the head of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Department of Justice. Greenfield's agency produced a report on traffic stops and racial profiling. Without getting too deeply into the subject, which anyone can research on the web, Greenfield declined to remove certain references to how police treated certain ethnic groups during traffic stops in a press release and now finds himself being forced to leave the agency after 23 years of service with high marks as a statistician and supervisor. Ms. Greenhouse was a top procurement official responsible for making sure that the Army Corps of Engineers complied with contracting rules. In Oct., 2004, she protested the awarding of a 5-year $7 billion contract to a Halliburton subsidiary charging that Pentagon officials showed improper favoritism when awarding military contracts. Various spokesmen denied that there were any political considerations in the contract and that "career procurement officials" award contracts not political appointees. Nonetheless, when Ms. Greenhouse declined to approve the contract her "superiors" signed off on it anyway. By August of 2005, the NY TIMES was reporting that Greenhouse, a 20-year veteran of the military procurement process, was being demoted for "poor performance." It seems to us that she was performing far too well for the powers-that-be, and the taxpayers are still getting soaked for that contract. This reminds us of Revenue Agent Jennifer Long who testified openly before the Senate Finance Committee in 1997 about abuses of taxpayers in the old Houston District. Suddenly, after years of fully satisfactory performance appraisals, the very next appraisal after her testimony claimed she was a 'poor performer.' Ask yourself what kind of arrogance does it take to try to pull such a scam? Four U.S. Senators thanked Long for her courage and publically vowed to protect her from IRS reprisals and still they tried it. Former Congressman Bill Archer Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and surely no friend of federal workers, called the IRS' attempt "completely and inexcusably wrong." That attempt was thwarted by political pressure although we were not at all surprised to learn that the manager who wrote the appraisal, Karie L. Gulley, is now listed in the Discover Directory as a GS-14 in SBSE in Houston. The IRS knows what to do with whistleblowers and it rewards the managers who follow orders! The cautionary tale is that you cannot rely on any promises given by the government no matter what silly "training" they give you. If you think that IRS managers are any less arrogant than those in Defense or Justice then you are in for a deep shock. They are as bad as any others but they are not stupid enough to write that you are being demoted because you were a whistleblower. No. As Ms. Greenhouse and Ms. Long found out you will suddenly become a "poor performer." So, if an IRS manager tells you to put your trust in the No Fear Act . . . Be Afraid - Be Very Afraid. |
Commenting on an MSPB study, which reported that only 36 percent of federal employees thought their supervisors would fairly and effectively set employee pay if pay-banding were implemented, one member quipped: At least that means that 64% are paying attention. On the subject of the Area SB/SE All Managers meeting in upstate New York, an employee said: It's not exactly what you would call a gathering of the Harvard "Dean's list." |
GUEST QUOTATIONS |
CNN Commentator Paul Begala was the Key Note Speaker at the 50th NTEU Convention held last August in San Diego, California. Speaking of his former Crossfire colleague, Robert Novak, Mr. Begala said: Bob has one of the finest minds of the 12th Century. He also made this observation about domestic politics: Democrats can't run a campaign and Republicans can't run a country. |
MORE FREAKIN' SURVEYS! By now we presume that all of you know that National NTEU has finally caught up with Chapter #53 and boycotted the IRS' Survey Feedback farce this year. Even though it wasn't for the reason we would have wanted, we welcome them aboard the wagon, however belatedly. With a management like this, the union has far better things to do with its time than play games with these IRS phonies. To our great surprise however, we found that others are out there doing surveys as well. One, by the Partnership for Public Service, calls itself "The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government." We will accept these people as altruistic do-gooders and then, upon seeing the results that they posted, wonder if they know what they are doing. Employee satisfaction and commitment are two of the necessary ingredients in developing high performing organizations and attracting the workers our government needs to meet the key public challenges ahead. The Best Places to Work rankings are a key step in recognizing the importance of employee satisfaction and ensuring that it is a top priority of government managers and leaders. www.bestplacestowork.org/bptw.html In the box, above, is a quote from their web site. No one could argue with their premise....except perhaps IRS management, which seems to go out of its way to annoy the living hell out of everyone. Perhaps that explains why the Department of The Treasury, in general, and the I.R.S., in particular, did so poorly on this Survey. To digress for a moment, perhaps it shows what happens when management is not given control of the process so that it can falsify the results and get rid of questions which cause them embarrassment. We are not at all convinced that IRS management has any desire to see a "high performing organization." In fact, every decision they make seems to be heading in the opposite direction. This survey makes a distinction between federal agencies and "sub-components." In that sense, they rate 30 so-called agencies and the Department of the Treasury comes out 23'd of 30 with a score of only 57.4. At least they beat out the Department of Homeland Security (29th) and the Small Business Administration (dead last.). For those who care about such things but can't be bothered to go look it up, the top three agencies were the Office of Management and Budget, the National Science Foundation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - and let us all hope that there is no award presentation involving George Bush so we don't have to hear him stumble over the word "nu-qu-lar," again. The Internal Revenue Service is listed as a "sub-component" of the Treasury Department and here the methodology gets a little weaker. Perhaps the Partnership for Public Service was getting a little embarrassed about the trend that their results were showing in what is supposed to be, after all, an exercise in Happy Times and conning people to come work for the government. The Sub-components begin with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service at #1 and work their way down to #143 the US Army Installation Management Agency. Where is the IRS, you ask? Well. It's not in the first 143, that much we can tell you. Recall what we said about some apparent flaws in the method? It seems that The Army guys came in with a score of 60.1. In the first listing, when there were tie scores, the scores were given and an accurate count maintained. Thus, if there was a tie for #47, each agency involved in the tie was listed as #47 and then they would skip over #48 and pick up with #49. However, when we get to the dregs of the list, they stopped doing that. The rest of the list is merely listed as "below 143'd" and their scores were listed as "below 60." And THAT is where the IRS is listed. Along with all the other last-place finishers in alphabetical order. Why are we not surprised? Never ones to be stopped by minor difficulties we went through the list by hand and counted up the sub-components who tied for last place. There are 75 of them. What that means is that in the grand scheme of things the IRS' "actual score" (which was too low to be displayed) could have ranked it 144th or it could have ranked it 218th on the list or any point in between. One can imagine the IRS issuing a celebratory memo about how well things are going. Knowing that the IRS likes to avoid bad news and in keeping with the purpose of the Survey, we though we'd offer them a few recruiting slogans for the IRS web site. IRS - No Worse Than 75 Others. The Top 143 Don't Want You? - Come See Us IRS - Not Part of the Top 66% |
CHAPTER 53 ELECTION RESULTS For Chapter President: George Greenberg 118 Laura Vallely 69 For Executive Vice President: Mike O'Grady Uncontested For Treasurer: Patrick Bryant 75 Robert Wolfson 106 For Secretary: Phyllis Maggio 91 Cassie Manzella 94 For Exam Trustee Garden City: Alan Cohen Uncontested For Collection Trustee Garden City: Frank Gagliardi 98 Mike Gillespie 77 For Trustee At Large Garden City: Larry Engle 101 Mary Soler 76 For Exam Trustee Hauppauge: Pat Jary Uncontested For Collection Trustee Hauppauge: Rich Enterlin 97 Edith Nock 72 For Trustee At Large Hauppauge: Steve Colaianni Uncontested On behalf of the board and the members we extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Election Committee, Jack Israel and Mary Smith |
Musings from San Diego |
An Ill Wind |
DAMNED IF YOU DO .. Chapter 53 has just become aware of another of these no win situations brought to you courtesy of local SB/SE Exam Management. In its infinite wisdom, management has ruled that Revenue Agents must make a "touch" on each of their cases once every 45 calendar days. The average SB/SE Revenue Agent in this area carries a caseload of about 25- 30 cases. Subtract the 6 or 7 weekends in a 45 day calendar and you are left about 31 workdays. From these 31 workdays subtract out 1 or 2 more (depending on the 45 calendar day period) for the monthly group meeting and reports day. There are also occasional training classes and/or briefings as well as any leave taken during a given 45 day calendar period which reduces the number of available workdays. On average an SB/SE Revenue Agent is left with less than 30 workdays to make their required touches on an inventory of 25-30 cases. You might then ask "Why not "touch" more than 1 case on a given workday?" The answer, according to Mike Bernstein, is if an SB/SE Revenue Agent did that they would be "Case Hopping". Chapter 53 has never seen a legal definition of the term "Case Hopping" in the contract or in any IRS manual. We recall that the term "Case Hopping" dates back to the days of the old Brooklyn District. It was a concept devised by management to persuade Revenue Agents to charge 8 hours a day on a single case and avoid charging multiple cases in a single workday lest their evaluations suffer. Even back in the days before the Booz-Allen Restructuring/Dismantling of the IRS the evils of "Case Hopping" were preached. Like the Easter Bunny and the Abominable Snowman, the legend of "Case Hopping" has been passed down through the years without any documented proof of validity (though some people at least claim to have seen the Abominable Snowman in Asia, no one has ever seen a reference to case-hopping in the IRM.) Once again employees are stuck in a no win situation. This problem is like one an oar crew may face when half is rowing in one direction, half in the other direction resulting in the vessel going around in a circle and the only advice they get is ROW FASTER. |
National President Colleen Kelley, in her address to the convention, ticked off the list of NTEU's accomplishments in the recent past. Some of these bear mentioning and one requires an in-depth look. NTEU finally resolved the Special Rates case which had been a 20+ year marathon of litigation. Checks totaling in excess of $78 million were sent out to the affected employees . . . or their estates. In spite of steady Bush Administration efforts to the contrary pay parity has been maintained between the civilian and military branches of the government. NTEU has so far been successful in the courts in stopping the worst of the new personnel regulations from going into effect at the Department of Homeland Security. Should the administration succeed at DHS they would look to extend the new rules to end civil service protections throughout the government. If you are wondering what this means to you, go back and reread the story on Page #1. Think about some of the management types we have and ask yourself if you want them writing evaluations on their own whims? We have noted that in her list of national grievances and arbitrations won by NTEU's legal staff that President Kelley has downplayed any so-called "cooperative" or "partnership" efforts with the IRS. It took a while but NTEU is back to acting like a union, which is not surprising as IRS Commissioner Everson wants nothing to do with unions. That brings us to the issue of greatest importance to us: Saving the Taxpayer Assistance Centers. In our last issue Everson had just decided to balance the budget on the backs of some of the least appreciated workers in the IRS. Under Everson's plan the people being RIF-ed might have been better off than those who were to remain and do all the work. One TAC was to remain open in New York City covering all 8 million people. A ludicrous plan on its face. In the past we have heard some of you complain that "NTEU takes credit for the sunrise" and there is some truth to that at times. This instance is not the same as the "pay parity" fight where a handful of Republican congressmen from the Washington DC area are not about to piss off a large number of voters by shafting them out of a pay raise. That's politics and if that means that they have to vote with us on that issue then everyone understands what is going on. With the TACs, NTEU was out there on its own doing the leg work. As NTEU is the exclusive bargaining agent for the IRS there were no other unions with a vested interest to help out. At a time of rampant deficits one might have expected many congressmen to heed Everson's claim that this was a budgetary decision. NTEU managed to get both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to include language that the IRS could not move forward with the plan until TIGTA audited the impact on customer service. On July 27 TIGTA reported that the IRS ability to measure the TACs was so flawed that they could not make sound business decisions. Shortly thereafter, the Commissioner folded like a cheap camera and cancelled the closing. Now we know there are some employees who were looking forward to getting a buy out and who are probably a bit disappointed to have to still be working for such a group of s-o-b's. Well, we're sorry about that but it really is better to leave on your terms and not those of the IRS. |
Like most of you we were stunned by the devastation of the recent storms in the South and relieved that our colleagues in Chapters #6 (New Orleans), #12 (Alabama) and #13 (Mississippi) at least got through it with none of their members being killed. War is less destructive than nature's fury and certainly not as mindless or random in its choice of targets. We daresay that the work of cleaning up and restoring an area this size will last for many years. Let us all hope that we can rise to meet the challenge. |
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