[Op-Ed] Firing Poor Performers at Veteran Affairs

Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki resigned last Friday. His department had systematically delayed medical treatment for veterans, and the president lost confidence in his ability to fix the problem. Simply firing Secretary Shinseki, however, won't improve wait times. Career employees know that the Obama administration will be leaving in two years, and they will try to wait out the administration instead of changing the culture of incompetence.

When I was a young Coast Guard lieutenant my captain told me one day that the petty officer I supervised was forging the office director's signature on official documents. I questioned the petty officer about his action, and he told me it was common office practice. I hadn't given him this instruction, but because it was routinely done it was very difficult for me to punish him. The Veteran Affairs (VA) will have the same problem. It will be difficult to fire employees for delaying medical care if it is an accepted practice.

Creating a culture of high performance takes time and requires diligence on the part of supervisors. If an employee is demonstrating poor performance, then the supervisor has to document the performance and counsel the employee on ways to improve. As I discovered at the U.S. Maritime Administration, most supervisors don't document misdeeds. Documentation takes time, and supervisors would rather spend this time working on other matters.

An additional problem is that government supervisors are afraid of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints. If a government employee receives a bad rating on his or her evaluation, then the employee may file an EEOC complaint against the supervisor. This individual may claim race, gender or age discrimination. The claim will be without merit, but the supervisor will have to spend countless hours defending his or her actions.

The most frustrating part of EEOC complaints for supervisors is the fact that the department in which they work controls their defense. Departmental lawyers, without supervisor input, can decide to settle the case instead of defending against it. Knowing this and the time commitment involved in counseling poor performers, most supervisors will take extraordinary steps not to antagonize those who should have been kicked out long ago.

Cleaning up the VA will take time, and that is not something that Obama administration has in abundance. An evaluation cycle in the government is one year. The person who signs the beginning of the evaluation is supposed to be the same one who signs it at the end of the year. Obama political appointees, however, will be leaving in the next year to eighteen months. Therefore, it will be very difficult to fire senior career VA executives because the political appointees won't be there to fire them. These same VA executives won't fire those underneath them because they will be afraid of EEOC complaints.

A Three-Step Proposal

The deplorable cycle of incompetence can be stopped if VA deputy secretary Gibson takes the following three steps. First, within the next 30 days he should identify the timing of all personnel evaluations. He should then close all of them out and have everyone sign new evaluations. These new evaluations should contain clear milestones, and the evaluation cycle should end on July 1, 2015.

Over the next year, VA deputy secretary Gibson, working with his lawyers, should meet on a bimonthly basis with senior executives to track the performance of his employees. Tracking this performance will put pressure on employees to perform. It will also put pressure on supervisors to document employee conduct.

Finally, VA deputy secretary Gibson should work with his lawyers to prepare for the lawsuits. Based on my experience in the government, I can confidently state that supervisors, senior career executives, and VA deputy secretary Gibson will be sued for taking action against poorly performing employees. These employees will not want to lose their jobs, and they will sue the department to stop it. VA lawyers must be ready to defend against these complaints instead of settling them.

The VA has long been an example of mismanaged government. With the proper steps, however, it can shed this status and attain a new one – one of good governance. This status, however, will only change if the new VA leadership holds everyone strictly accountable. I, like most vets, hope this will happen sooner rather than later.
 
K. Denise Rucker Krepp is former U.S. Maritime Administration chief counsel and a former Coast Guard officer.