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Vol III, No. 35

FOIA Case # 1036

5 September 1995

N M s Employee Publication

FuRLOUGH:

To B EOR

NO T To B E ?(U)

Classified by NSA/CSSM123 - 2Declassify: OADR

(U) Th e word "furlough" has cropped up frequently d ur in g t he past fewweeks, not only in the open press, bu t al so i n many conversations aroundAgency. While NSA has received no official notification from th e Office ofPersonnel Management (OPM) that there will be a furlough on 1 October, inthis article we want t o p rov ide some information about fu rloughs in generaland the potent ia l impact , if any, a furlough would have at our Agency.

(U ) First, for those of y ou who are unsure o f t he exact meaning o f t heword, OPM defines furlough as "the placing of an employee in a temporary

nonduty, nonpay status because of lack of work or funds, or othernondisciplinary reasons." Secondly, OPM categorizes furloughs as either"emergency" or "save money" fu rl ou gh s. I t' s important to understand thedis tinction between the two. An emergency furlough occurs when an agencno longer has necessa ry funds and m us t s hu t down those activities whichnot exempted by Office of Management and Budget standards. A save monefurlough is a planned event designed to absorb reduc tions necessitated bydownsizing, reduced funding, lack of work. or any other event which requi resan a ge nc y t o s av e money.

(U ) The typ e of furlough that we've been hearing about is an emergencyfurlough. I t is n ot in any way associated with a RIF or downsizing efforts.

Congress and the President have not approved one or m or e o f the 13appropriations bills by 1 October, th e beginning of th e new f iscal year,government agencies m ay b e forced to fu rlough employees in positions thataren't considered "essential." Congress can enac t a cont inuing resolut ion tkeep th e government open and has often do ne s o in t he p as t. But if thatmeasure i sn' t adop ted because of political concerns (a s m ay be the case thiyear), employees who are sent home o r a sk ed not to report to work will notpaid. Congress has the au thori ty to retroactively approve payment toemployees for lost workdays af ter a budget agreement is reached, b u t this inot guaranteed. When the last government shutdown occurred in 1990, Nw a s e xe mp t for n at io na l s ec ur it y r ea s on s. F ed er al employees a t other agencw ho w er e affected were paid retroactively.

(U ) What does al l of t hi s m ea n to NSA employees? Although we havereceived official notification of a government wide furlough, al l agencies havbeen advi sed to make contingency plans for a possible fur lough in c as e th ebudge t i sn' t approved in time. The Secretary of Defense and the Director ofCentral Intelligence will review contingency plans in mid-September.Historically, a furlough has never occurred here and we are again vigorouslypursuing an exemption; however, no decision has b ee n m ad e ye t as to ho wwill fare this year.

Printed oRecycledPaper

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"PROMOTABILlTY"

R E V I S I T E D

(U)

(b)(3)-P.L.86-36

(l:>}(3)-P.L, 86-36

(V j A fur lough fac t sheet will be issued shor t ly to answer specificq u es ti o ns w hi ch y o u undoubtedly have. T here will a ls o b e periodic updatesth e work force as events unfold and you will be immediately in fo rmed onceconcrete decision is made regarding th e furlough.

(V j In th e past we've published several ar tic les designed to increase yawareness of th e promotion process and improve your advancement potenti(see Vol. III, #7). At the conc lus ion of th e recen t p romot ion cycle, t he C ha ir sth e Agency GS-14&15 Promotion Review Boards (PRBs) briefed th e Directortheir experiences and percept ions of th e process. Following are so me o f th eke y observations they would like to share with th e work force. While somethemes ar e familiar, t he y s h ou ld s er ve t o clarify or reinforce some aspects oth e process which may not be understood and possibly impact your potentiafor promotion.

Times are tough! (U)(FOUOl A fact abundantly clear to al l in t hi s era of downsizing is tha t

t l 1 ~ r ~ C l . f e f e \ \ T ~ r p r Q I l J . Q t i o n s b e i n g a w ahe eligible candidatef o r p r o m o t i o n t o G r a d e 1 4 , a n d o n l y D f th e eligible candidates forpromotion to G rad e 1 5 were, in fact, promoted. In the opinion of both Boarhowever, m a n y o th er qualified candidates exist and as a result final decisionwere extremely difficult.

Th e process is fair! (U)(FOUO) Th e Agency directs conSiderable attention to selecting member

t o s er ve on th e PRBs in order to ensure good cross representation ofexperience, disciplines, technical and managerial backgrounds, gender anddiversity. Although t he re a re "officially designated" female and minorityrepresentatives on these Boards, each member has an obl igat ion to ensurethat every candidate for promotion i s equa lly conSidered. I t i s a ls o importanto emphasize that each PRB m em be r i s charged to act o n b eh al f of th eDirector, and specifically not as a proponent for candidates from theirrespective Key Components.

(FOUOl The f ir st activity in which th e boards en!!a!!e is a discuss ion ofthecriteriaforpromotion,1

(FOUS) The s ingle driving factor is tha t the process mu s t be eqUitablyapplied to al l eligible candidates. Also, a "zero-based review" must be acomponent of th e process. That is , records of al l eligible candidates must bthoroughly reviewed. Due to the extremely large numbers of eligibleemployees, each board member is assigned a s eg m en t o f t he a lp h ab e t toreview. I t is current policy that al l females and minorities receive a secondreview by another PRB me mb er. T he result of this extensive review is theidentification of a set of nominees , or "add-ons," to be further considered a

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candidates for promotion. Each of th e n o mi ne es i s evaluated against thecriteria and a vote i s t ak en . Th e names of those selected are forwarded totheir respective Key Components or Field Chiefs for appropria te test imony.Concurrently, each Key Component and field s it e submit s a prioritized list oindividuals they are recommending for advancement. In t hi s m an ne r t heBoards arrive at a set of candidates for promotion and conduc t fu rther review

and receive testimony on each. The PRB then votes to derive it s recommendedlist and notifies those who gave testimony of the r es ul ts o f i ts deliberations.Following any reclamas, the recommendations are forwarded through Chief ,and DDS to th e Director for approval.

Everyone must help! (UJ(FOUO) All individuals eligible for promotion are responsible for reviewin

their o wn r ec or ds for completeness and accuracy. Records s ho u ld b e cur ren tand personnel summar ies should accurately describe present jo bresponsibilities and be no more than 9-12 months old. Although e ac h B oa rdmay develop it s own "personality," th e following gUidance for employees andsupervisors should be applicable from B oa rd t o Board:

~ Ensure promotion write-ups and personnel summaries enumeratespecific accomplishments and thei r impac t on mission. Supervisors shouldreview their words carefully, asking themselves "is i t c le ar what this personhas done?" and "is it clear w hy t hi s work wa s important?" Keep in mind thait i s h ig hl y probable tha t any given PRB member will n ot k no w th e individualon a f i rs thand basi s , bu t rather will formulate a perception based on th e textof the wr ite-up and personne l summary.

~ Ensure that recommendat ions are w ri tt en i n a commonly understoodlanguage. The technical community (and it s subgroups, e.g.,cryptomathematicians, computer scientists, electrical engineers, l inguists)often make t he m is ta k e of writing a justification which can o nl y b e understoodby someone else in t he s ub g ro up .

~ Don' t ignore anomalies - explain them! If a person has unusually feprofessional training c ou rs es i n r ec en t years, explain the mitigating factorsand the i mp ac t, i f a ny, on th e candidate 's readiness for promotion. Also focuon any positive anomalies which make th e individual part icularly deserving ofpromotion.

~ Allow sufficient t im e t o generate wri te -ups ! Promotion cycles occurregular intervals so plan accordingly. If th e nominee i s relatively new to theorganizat ion, coordinate NOW w it h p re vi ou s s up er vi so rs . M ai nt ai n adequatecontact wi th subordinates to know exactly what h e /s he h a s done, is and willbe doing.

T he P ro ce ss w o rk s w i th o ut specif ic at tent ion to demographics! (UJ(FOUOl- Stated alternatively, th e PRBs FIRST selected those believed to

the bes t candidates for p ro mo ti on . T he Boards then generated variousstatistical "sani ty checks" on distributions of th e proposed set of promotionsby organization, COSC, age, gender, cultural diversity, education,time-in-grade, management versus technical, etc. To th e pride andsat isfact ion of th e PRBs the process had worked! EE O objectives had beenaccomplished without targeting specific groups for consideration.

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(FOUO) As stated many times, i t is th e employee's responsibility to

e n su r e t ha t his /her promotion file contains timely and pertinentdocumentation. M0 9 maintains the Agency-level GS-14&15 promotion boarfiles in OPS2B. Room 4132. To schedule an appointment call 963-1677s.

Postscript Fi le

The CommunicatorPublisher M09Design E23Printing & Distro Y19

Distribution V

Send cornments'suggestions aswell as Letters to the Editorto:

~ T= ' WP-W' IThe Cdnununicator is availableon theESS (topic #1247)as well as ENUGHTEN(pubsinsa-newsletter newsgmup)

(b )(3)-P. L. 86-36

(U ) 1. Effective 11 September 1995, the OPSI Medical Center willex tend i ts hours of operation. Th e ne w hours from 0700 to 1700 will allowmore customers , par ticula rly shift workers, to be accommodated. Fo r moreinformation, stop by th e OPSI Me d Center, lC059. or call 963-5420s or(301) 688-7263b.

(U ) 2. With th e theme "Ge t a Grip on Your Health," th e Office ofOccupational and Environmental Health Services and the Civilian WelfareFund (CWF) are s po nsor ing the 15th A n nual Health F ai r o n 15, 18-20September from 0730-1030 in the OP S 1 N. Cafeteria Party Rooms. For a $fee individuals can receive a full blood chemiStry with cholesterol, HDL, LDLand triglyceride results. Male participants over th e age of 40 have the optioof paying an additional $16 for a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) screeningearly detection of prostate disease. As usual. t he p rog ram will also offerhealth screenings consisting of blood pressure, glaucoma, v isua l acuity andtuberculosis screening . Computer ized body composit ion analysis will alsoavailable for a $10 fee. Appointments may be m ad e a t al l CWF locations.

(U) As an additional service, the Heal th Fai r will be expanded to includan exposition on 26 and 27 September in th e OP S 1 N. Cafeteria Party Roomfrom 0930 to 1330 hours . The "Expo" will feature medical, psychological,safety, and environmental professionals from various areas of employees er vi ce s. T hi s year's interactive wellness exhibits also include alternativescomplimentary medicine, "Appearances Count," food tasting, and much morFor further information concerning Health Fair and Expo '95, contact the Con (301) 688-7337b.