With little discussion and no vote, the City of Greensboro is beginning a drastic change in the way it compensates employees with the 2021-2022 budget.
According to the preliminary budget presentation on May 11, the city will begin the process of moving employees from a merit system to a step system where every employee on the same step is paid the same salary regardless of performance evaluations.
Councilmember Justin Outling said, “It’s encouraging mediocrity, period.”
He said no evidence has been presented by the Human Resources department that the city was having difficulty attracting and retaining employees, except in public safety. But the police and fire departments are already on a step program, so the change won’t affect them.
When asked if the City Council ever voted to go to the step system, Outling said, “No. We never voted. We never offered that direction.”
He added, “There was never a consensus.”
According to Outling, this was something that Mayor Nancy Vaughan and several councilmembers wanted and they bypassed the rest of the City Council.
Outling said, “What staff did apparently is respond to what the mayor and certain councilmembers want.”
He said, “Outside of election year politics, I don’t know why they would do it.”
Outling said that in his opinion the change to the step system would cause Greensboro to lose the employees with “excellent performance.” He said those employees would be recruited to work somewhere that rewarded employees that do a superior job and that there were several such cities within an easy commute of Greensboro.
He said, “I think we should be encouraging superior performance and paying for superior performance.”
Under the current merit system, a certain percentage is set aside in the budget for raises. That money is divided up and raises are awarded on the basis of an employee’s performance evaluation. A good evaluation should result in a higher raise than an employee with a poor evaluation.
Under the step program all raises regardless of performance will be the same.
Councilmember Sharon Hightower has been pushing for the step system for years, but the City Council has never held a work session or a meeting to look at data and discuss what it would cost, or more importantly if it is the direction the majority of the City Council wants to go.
This is a welfare system!
So. . . . an employee who is late for work more than average, and calls in sick more than usual, and can’t be relied on the work late. . . . .they will become the new city workforce. Those that want to succeed, will leave.
Hightower sees this issue in terms of black and white and will absolutely make this into a racial issue, just wait and see. Why? Her constituents have told her they are being discriminated against and want her to do something about it.
Once again Queen Nancy bows to the bullies! This “step” program does indeed encourage mediocrity, just as Councilman Outling has pointed out.
This is a great way to advance socialism, just what so many Council Members encourage.
Count the jobs lost within the City and County and you’ll understand just how ridiculous such moves are. Cities and counties within the Triad and Triangle will be soliciting our best and brightest and all they have to offer is a pay scale that rewards good work.
What great leadership.
Justin-are you sure you really want to be mayor of that mess?I’m going to add you to my prayer list;when you get elected you are going to need divine help to right the ship.
Justin is such a goon. He thinks Hinson was a great employee. All of Greensboro..the entire town is built on bad performances that are praised. Greensboro loves mediocrity.
This should not shock anyone. Queen Nancy (Vaughan) wanted it so she made it so. Just like her equally evil sister in congress, Queen Nancy (Pelosi).
This is just another way to reward employees that are not capable of doing the job and should be terminated. Typical Democratic thinking that you find in all branches of government. Promote mediocrity and reward substandard performance. Vaughan and Hightower need to go.
So the public sector parasites don’t even have to try any more.
Just sit at your desk long enough, don’t say anything unwoke, and the money keeps coming, and coming, and coming. Then you get to retire on an index linked pension! You know, after you say “I put in my 30 years”….
Hey I started work at 18, “put in my 30 years” and did not get to retire & relax at taxpayer expense at the age of 48.
We know that most of you “Double Dip”, getting hired in yet another public sector “job”. And that’s after decades of enjoying your Cadillac health care (paid by me) and all your other benefits.
Then you wonder why we, who pay for it all and have none of it, resent you.
You are greedy, entitled, self-serving parasites.
^^^ I’d hate to be this guys postal worker.
Why do you think the Postal Service loses billions every year?
It is not a business. It was never meant to be a profitable business. It is a public service. You are an idiot.
So there is no Encouragement for anyone to excel at their position and be acknowledged and thanked and most importantly page for it? No more merit raises? that’s not the way it works in other businesses and the government is a business, A very expensive business and it’s needs to be run as such.
They LEFT wants the step system because too many of their hangers-on are mediocre. You can see them in all govt posts. Go downtown and see for yourself.
Ask Joe Stalin about govt-guaranteed jobs. He knew how to do it.
Greensboro .. the little city that never ceases to amaze me ..
the part that amazes me the most is the ignorance of many of my friends who are clueless to things going in with that mayor and council .. and shame on Greensboro for the outrageous act of allowing Kamala Harris to use the Woolworth counter as a prop but excluding Clarence Henderson .. they’re all about “diversity “ as long as the diversity doesn’t include diversity of thought .. we all know why Mr Henderson wasn’t there . But then again ——
Before everyone gets too keyed up about this, you should know that the step program raises are much lower than a merit raise. In the city of Greensboro, a typical merit raise is between 2 and 3%. A step raise is almost always between 1.9 and 2.1%. While steps are preset to these 2% increments and do de-incentivise hard work, the difference on the merit side between a level 5 employee and a level 3 employee is a fraction if a percentage point.
The city evaluates employees on a 5 point scale, with 5 being the hughest score. Usually a level 3 employee gets about a 2.6% raise, a 4 is 2.8 and a 5 is 3.0%, although it depends on the total pool of money the city has set aside for raises in that particular year. The numbers could be higher or lower depending on the budget.
My larger point is that the city may be hyping the step program as a way to ensure equal raises across the board (which is stupid since work is not performed equally across the agency). What you really need to underdtand is that they are just trying to save money. Average raise payouts will go from 3% to 2% if everyone gets on the step program. They can hype it whatever they want, but they are just sticking it to employees and tricking them into saying thanks.
This was one of the most discouraging things about being a County employee. No matter how good of a performance review you got any pay raise was minuscule and when you got to the top of your pay grade it was almost impossible to go to the next level so you were stuck there for years unless there was room for promotion. Even more frustrating was when they decided to raise the hiring salary so new hires were paid more than people who had been working at the job for more than 8-10 years since salaries on the scale were never adjusted accordingly.
Merit pay is a better way to retain employees, but you can bet that the Council’s benefits and the Administration’s pay won’t be affected by these pay changes.
Just sing kumbaya at lunch every day and give all employees a trophy on Friday. Should be a great weak and no weak was not misspelled
Understood. The Rhino used to be published weakly, so you’re in the right place.
Tom the “weakly” I was referring to was the council’s actions not the Rhino
Concerned that the City’s performance of its core functions will suffer even more. Can the streets get into even worse shape?
I agree on the issue of street repairs, and some need a full pavement, not just patches.
There is a link on WFMY for citizens to share their recommendations on how the City will use their $52 million dollar fun they are to get from our “daddy war bucks” Congress. The vast majority of the choices are centered on “feel-good” projects, and very little on infrastructure. That is one way these “community groups” stand to get the greatest share of our federal dollars. I filled out the form and chose to spend it all on infrastructure, not broadband or public transportation, but on the actual pavement of roads, and not install another “sidewalk” until all roads are paved again.
I agree with Mr. Outling. I am of the opinion we will loose superior performing employees and the quality of work will not remain the same.
When will city council meetings Open up to the public … We need public Live public input to try to stop this nonsense.
Greensboro City Council, I guess must be including themselves in the step plan, because they aren’t even mediocre, & should be ousted…..Justin you are a SAINT
Nancy is such a phony. The best thing Greensboro can do is throw her out. Justin is a far better choice. God knows we need a Republican as mayor. But in liberal woke Greensboro, this will never happen. 4 more years in this wretched town and we are SC bound.
Step systems let supervisors and managers get out of the business of making decisions on the value of the employee’s work vs other employees. What is happening now is the City is being pressured by certain segments of our community that their raises are based on race, and not performance. That’s a sad thing since an employee can appeal a performance evaluation if they want.
My wife used to work for the school system and came in 10-15 minutes early to get things in order for her work. Some of the other staff strolled in late and then they had to fix their coffee, then heat up their breakfast, etc., and then would finally be ready to work about 8:30-9:00. Yet, the supervisors were hesitant to discipline them for fear of retaliation by the employee and their connections with upper management and elected officials on the school board.