The big story on the news today is the congressional hearings on the misbehavior of some Secret Service agents. I guess agents attending parties paid for by drug cartels that included prostitutes is considered misbehavior. Just misbehavior, not cause for dismissal.
What the hearing determined was the maximum punishment given to these agents was from one to ten days unpaid leave! Then all was forgiven and back to work. The representative of the Secret Service testifying made it clear that their hands were somewhat tied by the rules that cover most government employees.
And there is a need for these rules. It keeps a new Republican President from firing every Democratic employee when they take office and replacing them. But these rules that keep employees from being unfairly punished are being used to protect poorly performing employees who participate in very risky activities. I don’t think that was the original intent.
Let’s compare this to another government agency. In this agency, if a supervisor tells an employee to sweep off the loading dock or clean out the grease trap in the kitchen and the employee rolls their eyes at the supervisor, the employee could face judicial punishment.
Don’t believe me? That silently rolling your eyes could cause you to be confined or lose pay or both. Then you need to check out the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 91 – Insubordinate Conduct Toward Warrant Officer, Noncommissioned Officer or Petty Officer:
Any warrant officer or enlisted member who –
(1) strikes or assaults a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer, while that officer is in the execution of his office;
(2) willfully disobeys the lawful order of a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer; or
(3) treats with contempt or is disrespectful in language or deportment toward a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer while that officer is in the execution of his office;
– shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
The key word is in paragraph (3) “deportment”, which means a person’s behavior or manners. If your behavior or manner shows disrespect, you have violated article 91.
So, in the military, you can be confined to your quarters, assigned extra duty, be required to attend remedial training or forfeit a portion of your pay for rolling your eyes at a superior. Compare this to, oh say, the Secret Service where you can drive drunk, crash your car into a crime scene in front of the White House and your punishment is a few days off without pay. Or as mentioned above, attend drug cartel sponsored parties that include hookers.
Is there something wrong here? That you can work for the government, do a half-ass job, engage in embarrassing behavior and still retire with a nice pension!
This kind of attitude permeates too much of the government. “Why should I work hard?” “They can’t fire me.” “I’ll eventually move up because of seniority.”
When work doesn’t get done, more people have to be hired to do it, growing the government and increasing the tax burden. Also, it’s not fair to those of us that couldn’t roll our eyes at our superiors. There were a lot of times I wanted too.