GovernmentExecutive.com

Susan Smith of Fedsmith highlights an interesting case decided last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It involves Kent A. Robinson, who served for many years as an attorney in the Small Business Administration's Los Angeles office. SBA officials told him they wanted to promote him to a GS-14 management job and transfer him to the agency's Fresno, Calif., office. Robinson said he wasn't interested, arguing that "he had neither the desire nor the temperament to be a supervisory attorney," according to the appeals court's decision.

Go or you're fired, SBA said. Still, Robinson refused, so the agency started removal proceedings against him. He then retired, but challenged SBA's action before the Merit Systems Protection Board. He lost, both at MSPB and in the appeals court, because it's pretty clear-cut that an agency can fire you if you refuse to accept a reassignment.

The court said SBA had picked Robinson because of his "experience, his potential for leadership, the difficulties the SBA had eliciting a volunteer for the position, and the SBA’s desire to select a candidate for the Fresno position from a district office that already had at least three staff attorneys." All valid reasons, I suppose, but still: If someone insists they're not suited to be a manager, it might be a good idea to take them at their word. Because at the very least, that's likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.