GovernmentExecutive.com

The 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey: kinda good news, or very bad news? You be the judge. There's an interesting dynamic at work here: OPM and the Bush administration, which usually don't like to trumpet the unhappiness of federal employees, clearly want this survey spun as "Workers hate appraisal system," to bolster the case for the performance-based pay proposals they're pushing. Ordinarily, labor unions would be happy to oblige this line of thinking, because they traditionally haven't held the appraisal system in the highest regard. But because the unions aren't interested in furthering the administration's larger cause, they're now taking great pains to say the system's not the problem.