The administration is telling agencies to take a strategic look at their workforce needs. They are saying, do a strategic look. The Clinton administration attempted a similar effort by ordering agencies to eliminate management positions and put supervisors in charge of more employees. Clinton s National Performance Review found that the average federal supervisor oversaw seven employees and ordered agencies to increase the span of control to one manager for every 15 employees. According to Office of Personnel Management statistics on full-time permanent employees, there was still one manager for every seven employees in 2000 and that does not include team leader positions.
Team leaders are employees with limited supervisory responsibilities.
Many agencies turned management positions into team leader positions during the 1990s. Many federal employees complained that team leaders continued to perform most management duties. In some agencies, managers complained that supervisory cuts went too far, leaving them with too many employees to oversee, reducing the quality of their work. But I m not sure it s always in this middle layer where everybody seems to be identifying that it s much needed.