State, DHS, VA, HUD, Education and Justice had high rates for partisan coercion or discrimination. Image: AVAVA/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek Staff“Prohibited personnel practices,” or PPPs, are much more common in some agencies than in others, MSPB has said in a report on a survey it conducted in 2021, with 36 percent of DHS and State Department employees saying they had experienced or seen at least one of those practices over the previous two years.
Those rates were above the government-wide average of 29.3 percent, as were the 33 percent at VA, 32 at Army and 31 at Justice. Interior, HHS and Air Force were just about on the average at 70-71. The agencies with the lowest reported rates were GSA, 16 percent, and NASA, Commerce and SEC, 19 percent each.
The report also highlighted State, DHS, VA, HUD, Education and Justice as having notably high rates of political coercion or discrimination based on political affiliation. “Some of these agency missions may be perceived as more “political” in nature, blurring the line between differences of opinion on work-related matters and political affiliation identities,” it said, although such practices should not be considered “somehow inevitable” for that reason.
Other patterns emerging in the report included that rates of experiencing or observing a PPP: were higher in larger agencies vs. smaller ones; were lower for employees under age 30, although relatively even for other age groups; were lower for supervisors, managers and executives; varied by occupation, with medical and investigatory occupations the highest and the accounting/budgeting and legal the lowest; were slightly higher among women vs. men; and generally decreased as salary level increased.
Regarding the last of those patterns, the MSPB said: “There could be many reasons why those with lower salaries would be more likely to perceive PPPs in the workplace, and we cannot definitively establish what is responsible for the outcome. What we do know is that those with the least organizational power to defend themselves (as reflected by salary) report that they see it the most.”
Shutdown Meter Ticking Up a Bit
Judge Backs Suit against Firings of Probationers, but Won’t Order Reinstatements
Focus Turns to Senate on Effort to Block Trump Order against Unions
TSP Adds Detail to Upcoming Roth Conversion Feature
White House to Issue Rules on RIF, Disciplinary Policy Changes
Hill Dems Question OPM on PSHB Program After IG Slams Readiness
See also,
How Do Age and Years of Service Impact My Federal Retirement
The Best Ages for Federal Employees to Retire
