The Washington times., 1931-07-25
OMAN REPORT HITS RATING SYSTEM OF FEDERAL CLERK
SURVEY BOOKED
FOR CONGRESS
|NFALL
average Rating" Provision
Elimination Is Demanded;
Methods in Vogue Barred

Elimination Is Demanded;
Methods in Vogue Barred
The present rating system for
Government employees comes in
for a general indictment in the
report by DR.. Herman Feldman
following his survey Of employ
ment methods Of the Govern
ment, and filed with the director
Of the Personnel Classification
Board.
The director will submit this
report to Congress in December.
and since in general it expresses
the bill of the National Fedora
ton of Federal Employees, its
present distribution is attracting
much interest.
Hits average Rating"
Elimination of the average
rating" provision of the present
system of promotion and grading,
is one of the chief objectives Of
organized Federal employees. and
one of the main planks Of the
platform to be clarified and
pushed at the Seattle convention
in September.
The present rating plan, briefly
outlined, is as follows:
An annual rating is required
at least once a year for every
departmental employee up to and
include grade IL Of the Cleri-
cal, Administrative and Fiscal
services, and grade S Of the Pro-
fessiOnal and Scientific services,
and all Subprofessional and Gus
tOdial services.
ReCheck Is Made
First marks on an employees
rating sheet are made in pencil
by the rating officer in closest
actual supervision of the worker.
A second group Of checks, in
red ink, are made by reviewing
officer who is a division executive
not closely in touch with the
employee, so he can make such
corrections as may be necessary
to secure reasonable uniformity
in the element markings for the
entire group for which he is
responsible"
Boards Of review later revise
this rating sheet. in blue pencil.
revising the other markings en-
tirely as they may consider
proper"
In the Department Of Agricul-
ture. there have been as many as
19 reviewing boards for the vari.
Gus services and subsections.
AS a final step, the central
board of review correlates the
various markings and brings them
"into harmony" with themselves
and with other employee-rating
sheets in the same section.
Objectionable System
It is this general principle of
uniformity, or average gradings,
that individual employees who
feel they have special ability and
efficiency wish eliminated.
The Feldman report points out
several difficulties.
One, it says, is the faultinesS of
human judgment in rating intan-
gible personal qualities;
The possibility Of hidden bias,
prejudice, OF favOritism; the diff.
ficulty of comparing a certain
grade of performance Of individ-
uals in different settings and
jobs;
Temperamental differences
which lead some supervisors to
grade some employees high, others
low;
And the matter of recalling &C
curately the quality of an en-
plOyee'S work during the preced-
ing year, without considering out
standing examples of particularly
brilliant work the employee may
have demonstrated.
Faces the Convention
But though these qualities will
affect any grading syste m
evolved, the main contention of
the Federal employees is that in
dividual talents and abilities as
shown should be recognized by
higher gradings, promotions and
pay, regardless of what the "aver-
age" qualifications for that work
may be.
It will be threshed out thor
oughly in the Seattle convention,
and promises to be one of the
most warmly discussed topics
when Congress reassembleS.
1Ynden RpcOHerinn