Posted on Nov 22, 2015
We get frustrated by the government's inaction on discipline, do you know how the "Douglas Factors" impact disciplinary action?
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The Merit Systems Protection Board in its landmark decision, Douglas vs. Veterans Administration, 5 M.S.P.R. 280 (1981), established criteria that supervisors must consider in determining an appropriate penalty to impose for an act of employee misconduct.
The Douglas Factors
The following relevant factors must be considered in determining the severity of the discipline:
(1) The nature and seriousness of the offense, and its relation to the employee’s duties, position, and responsibilities, including whether the offense was intentional or technical or inadvertent, or was committed maliciously or for gain, or was frequently repeated;
(2) the employee’s job level and type of employment, including supervisory or fiduciary role, contacts with the public, and prominence of the position;
(3) the employee’s past disciplinary record;
(4) the employee’s past work record, including length of service, performance on the job, ability to get along with fellow workers, and dependability;
(5) the effect of the offense upon the employee’s ability to perform at a satisfactory level and its effect upon supervisors’ confidence in the employee’s work ability to perform assigned duties;
(6) consistency of the penalty with those imposed upon other employees for the same or similar offenses;
(7) consistency of the penalty with any applicable agency table of penalties;
(8) the notoriety of the offense or its impact upon the reputation of the agency;
(9) the clarity with which the employee was on notice of any rules that were violated in committing the offense, or had been warned about the conduct in question;
(10) the potential for the employee’s rehabilitation;
(11) mitigating circumstances surrounding the offense such as unusual job tensions, personality problems, mental impairment, harassment, or bad faith, malice or provocation on the part of others involved in the matter; and
(12) the adequacy and effectiveness of alternative sanctions to deter such conduct in the future by the employee or others.
THIS IS NOT AN ALL INCLUSIVE LIST!!!!!!!
The Douglas Factors
The following relevant factors must be considered in determining the severity of the discipline:
(1) The nature and seriousness of the offense, and its relation to the employee’s duties, position, and responsibilities, including whether the offense was intentional or technical or inadvertent, or was committed maliciously or for gain, or was frequently repeated;
(2) the employee’s job level and type of employment, including supervisory or fiduciary role, contacts with the public, and prominence of the position;
(3) the employee’s past disciplinary record;
(4) the employee’s past work record, including length of service, performance on the job, ability to get along with fellow workers, and dependability;
(5) the effect of the offense upon the employee’s ability to perform at a satisfactory level and its effect upon supervisors’ confidence in the employee’s work ability to perform assigned duties;
(6) consistency of the penalty with those imposed upon other employees for the same or similar offenses;
(7) consistency of the penalty with any applicable agency table of penalties;
(8) the notoriety of the offense or its impact upon the reputation of the agency;
(9) the clarity with which the employee was on notice of any rules that were violated in committing the offense, or had been warned about the conduct in question;
(10) the potential for the employee’s rehabilitation;
(11) mitigating circumstances surrounding the offense such as unusual job tensions, personality problems, mental impairment, harassment, or bad faith, malice or provocation on the part of others involved in the matter; and
(12) the adequacy and effectiveness of alternative sanctions to deter such conduct in the future by the employee or others.
THIS IS NOT AN ALL INCLUSIVE LIST!!!!!!!
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Discipline
Employment
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 2
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I was a union rep when I was in Customs. If I learned anything its that management has its special people and management has a different accountability system from the grunts. One officer got fired for falling asleep. One supervisor had multiple dwi's, sex on duty, late for work 90%, left work early to go to a baseball game and finally after 15 years she was reduced 1 GS level, but kept her pay amount(ish). We need discipline, we all know that. But in the VA, the violators are more and more being found in management and high levels of management GS 14, 15, SES. You want discipline? Fire everyone in IG.
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Sgt Spencer Sikder
It's been many years since this data, but for example at VA, the high incidents, like 85% of sexual harassment cases wasn't attributed to the lower echelon staff but the senior managers. In law enforcement there was a philosophy once someone puts on the badge and begins to think "they ARE" the law, that they had what was referred to as Wyatt Earp syndrome. Not sure what to call these senior managers' thought process, "Kim Jong Un" syndrome???
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Along with the factors, OPM also has a matrix which correlates punishment to the action. They range from counseling, written warning, reprimand, suspension, termination, etc. against the act, severity, repeat offense, etc. Most things worked out OK when it came to periodic disciplinary actions. It's always better to do a misconduct action vs. performance as the latter is mushier, requiring more documentation tonnage. BTW the odd thing is punishments associated with misuse of the GTCC for inadvertent use tends to be rather harsh. On the other end, the front office refused to confirm a termination determination for one of my employees who went on a personal spending spree and then refused to pay the bill.
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Sgt Spencer Sikder
VA has an "guide" matrix as well. And like your experience, many times it was HR who failed to follow through on my proposed action. And then the attorney would indicate that the charge was stale. I proposed the most severe action to enable the reviewing official an opportunity to downgrade the penalty.
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