Fedweek

Some stepped down to enter Upward Mobility Program. Image: Andriy Blokhin/Shutterstock.com

Some SEC employees took voluntary downgrades in order to get into the agency’s Upward Mobility Program that they considered as holding out better prospects for advancement than does the standard career ladder progression system, an inspector general report has said.

The report arose from a disclosure to the IG regarding that career development program, which “offers a chance to develop and promote” employees below the SK-9 level used in the SEC-specific grading system. The IG confirmed that of the employees selected for the 2020 and 2021 cohorts for that program, about 30 percent had taken voluntary downgrades from the SK-11 level in order to get into it.

All of them were re-promoted to that level shortly after getting into the program, it said, and all then were further promoted, it said.

The IG said that such a sequence “appears to comply” with program rules because those rules do not clearly prevent it. The report recommended that management clarify the policy.

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2023 Federal Employees Handbook