Federal Managers Told Government Will Back Them in Workforce Disputes

As the Trump Administration tries to remake the federal workforce into one that is “high-performing and merit based,” the administration tells federal supervisors that they will have their back if subordinates try to sue them over a firing or a poor-performance review. 

In a recent memo to the Chief Human Capital Officers Council (CHCOC), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) notes that federal managers have an “extremely limited scope of personal liability” as they manage employees and take action against job performance. 

The memo stresses that managers are acting under the authority of the agency they work for, and that performance actions are taken by the “agency employer, not the manager or supervisor in their individual capacity.”

The memo also states that “If an employee challenges a performance-based action, it is the United States or the agency who is held responsible for the action, not the supervisor. In the unusual event that a manager or supervisor is sued personally for actions within the scope of their employment, the Department of Justice typically provides representation.”

In addition, federal managers are reminded they can obtain liability insurance with an option to expense half of the premium to the agency. 

Former federal HR leader Ron Sanders told GovExec that while he applauds the additional support for federal managers to take on poor performers, he believes it’s aimed at the wrong group of federal workers.

“In my experience in government and talking to a lot of executives and senior managers after I’ve retired, it’s typically not them who are afraid to take a performance-based action, but rather once they do and an employee goes off and gets a union rep or a lawyer, it’s typically agency lawyers that run scared,” said Sanders. “It’s not the manager who has the lax backbone, it’s typically agency lawyers. The fact that [OPM Director Scott] Kupor is sending a memo to the CHCO Council is a good thing, but it’s the wrong audience.”

Remaking Performance Management

This comes as the administration has tried to reform the performance management process.

In June it released a set of new evaluation rules meant to “normalize” the federal ratings system and “reflect individual contributions to organizational results and outcomes.”

Those include rigorously defining what is required to achieve performance at various rating levels and ensuring that a disproportionate number of employees are not rated at the highest performance levels.