Evening star., 1919-05-04
All Government Workers to
Receive Questionnaires in
Next Two Weeks.
AIM is TO FIND OUT
ACTUAL WORK ONE DOES
Form Printed on Another Page of
The Star-Meetings Held to
Explain Object.

The questionnaire on which the
joint congressional commission will
base a reclassification Of salaries af-
fecting more than 10000 employees
trict of Columbia is ready. 1t will
be handed by an agent of the COM
mission to each government worker
within the next two weeks, but each
employe has a first chance today to
see the form of this QUESTIONABLE on
another page of The Star.
While every question is important.
each being asked for particular and
essential reason. and while the whole
questionnaire represents long and
careful work by the congressional
commission, there is one question
more important to the employe than
all the others. This is question for
the employe-"What work do you ac-
tually perform in your position %;
which is checked up with a similar
question put to the immediate SUI
perior of the employe.
Underlying Principle.
This emphasizes the underlying prin-
ciple of the entire reclassification of
salaries proposed by the commission
the determining of salaries to fit care
fully classified jobs.
The answer to this question is not
what job the government worker was
hired to fill, OF what job the worker
believes himself qualified TO fill. but a
description of the job he actually has
and the work he actually does. The
congressional commission, as basis
for its reclassif1cation, wants to get a
description of each job from the en-
ploye and from the employees i'm
mediate superior.
Two Important Questions.
Next in Importance to this question
are questions "a put to the immediate
superior and question 2s to the en-
ploye, which ask If there is any ma
terial difference between the descrip-
tions of the job as given by the em-
ploye and as given by the immediate
superior. These two questions are
expected to save the commission
months of time in the work of re-
classification. If there is no material
difference the work of sorting the
questionnaires the first time into the
big general divisions of work can be
done much more expeditiously.
These questionnaires, after they are
filled out and returned to the COM
mission, will be sorted over more
than a score of times and eacn given
individual and careful study by the
and by experts. There
will be about 5000 of these ques-
1t has been estimated by
the commission that one minute vast
ed on each QUESTIONABLE would set
the commission back six weeks in
its work. and it is these minutes that
the agreement of the employe and of
his immediate superior as to the de-
scription of the job is expected to
save.
The questionnaires are printed on
good quality Of bristol board, of
thickness that will allow 1t to be used
in a typewriter. but Of sufficient
stability to stand frequent handling
How Distribution Is Made.
There will be no haphazard general
of these Questionnaires
A separate and distinct card will be
made out for each employe. bearing
the individuals name. organization
unit, payroll title, basic salary and
an individual number. So that thGre
will be two checks on fling each
number.
Personal delivery will be made of
zach QUESTIONABLE to each individual.
A date will be set on which the ques-
must be returned.
There is a section of the question
naire that is to be filled out by the
employe. On the reverse side is a
space specially provided for a de-
scriptfon Of the job as asked in ques-
ton 4. When this has been filled in
and signed the QUESTIONABLE is then
taken to the immediate superior of
the employe. who answers four ques-
tons to show whether there is any
variation of his view of the job from
that taken by the employe. There
ia a space on the reverse side for the
superior's description of
the job.
1t is made clear by the members
Of the congressional commission
that there is no purpose to have the
superior officer censor or distort or in
any way check free and full presen-
tation of each individual case. The
purpose of the check is to get the
agreed opinion of both the employe
and the immediate superior on each
position, so as to save as much time
IS possible for the commission. In
my case where there is difference
If opinion the commission will give
hat particular case whatever time
IS necessary to have it fairly and
July presented.