Federal workers in many agencies are more likely to lose their lives from natural causes than they are to lose their jobs, according to a USA Today report.
From the paper:
Death — rather than poor performance, misconduct or layoffs — is the primary threat to job security at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Management and Budget and a dozen other federal operations.
The federal government fired just 0.55% of its workforce in the budget year that ended September 30th. That’s compared to about 3% of the private sector workforce that got canned during the same time period.
Many within the federal government say they take great pride in the statistic. “We’ve never focused on firing people, and we don’t intend to start now” HUD spokesman Jerry Brown told USA Today. “We’re more focused on hiring the right people.”
Some academics, though, say the low turnover rate should be nothing to brag about. “Rather than indicating something positive, rates below 1% in the firing and layoff components would indicate a serious management problem,” San Francisco State University management professor John Sullivan said.
