Posted on Nov 26, 2014
LTC Operations Officer (Opso)
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Should civilians in the military PCS like the "green suiters"? There are pros to keeping there for stability within the unit. There are cons to keeping there that they can become set in their ways and become toxic or unwilling to change, hurting the unit.

What are your thoughts for and against?
Posted in these groups: Images PCSMilitary leadership skills civilian employment Civilians
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Responses: 4
LTC Paul Labrador
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Those are very valid pros and cons. In general I think the value of having GS employees serve as our institutional memory keepers overall outweighs those who have poor attitudes. Remember, while it can be difficult in some cases, you can still fire toxic or underperforming GS employees. Nothing states you have to put up with their BS.
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LTC Operations Officer (Opso)
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LTC Paul Labrador I think that issue there is that as you get up in higher positions your GS employees tend to be in the leadership positions so they may be good leaders (or bad) in the military side but not the best GS employees. I have yet to see anyone try to fire themselves.
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LTC Paul Labrador
LTC Paul Labrador
10 y
The vast majority of upper level DoD GS (senior system) are prior service military. I would argue that they are proven performers and more often than not fall under the category of "good" leaders because it becomes much harder to hide poor performance at upper levels of managment. However, lets also remember that everyone has a boss, and invariably, GS employees, even the supervisors, typcially have a military person somewhere in their chain.
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LTC Operations Officer (Opso)
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LTC Paul Labrador that it true. However.....IRS, GSA, Benghazi, VA.....all scandals that were mostly covered up or ignored. Benghazi had paid leave then changed desks and titles. It happens in other parts of the government and we all know it can happen and probably does happen in the DoD somewhere to some extent.
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MSG Wade Huffman
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Edited 10 y ago
One more thing to think about is that mandatory PCSing of civilians would result in a sizable increase in the personnel budget at a time where they are trying to decrease personnel costs (although I can think of a few that would rater quit / retire if forced to PCS, and that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing! LOL!)
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LTC Operations Officer (Opso)
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I would agree with that last part. I think there would be a lot who would quit or try to work the system rather than move. However, a portion of those may be the ones that we would want to get rid of as they are toxic or worse (not showing up at all and using the system to their advantage).
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SPC Lukas Jones
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I believe that they should Sir. However, I would note that looking at USA Jobs, there are positions that do not require or do not authorize relocation for said positions. I think this was done to mitigate moving expenses having to be paid by the military for civilians. Perhaps, like Senators, there should be a re-application process as well as a term limit. Civilians are only given a 2 year contract before they must re-apply for the position along with anyone else who wants to apply and can only serve in that position and role twice before it is required that they transfer to another unit or move to a higher grade position. There is a SGM from one of our down-trace units who works as a civilian with our unit as our finance accounts manager who has been there for 10+ years. He has the power to deny orders or training based on budget, but I often feel that his decisions are also influenced by his personal perceptions of the soldiers involved. I have seen many well-qualified soldiers get passed over for missions or training so that the "new guy" can go instead.
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