PERFORMANCE Pay Perils

HEADNOTE

Managers who've done it say it's surprisingly hard to link performance and salaries.

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For years, federal managers

have taken flack for poor leadership and people skills. But now, with laws granting broad new powers to managers at the Homeland Security and the Defense departments, Congress and the Bush administration have put their faith back in bosses. Managers are getting real control over hiring, disciplining and firing employees. At the core of the changes is pay for performance-the belief that federal employees, like their private sector counterparts, should be rewarded, or not, based on how well they do their jobs. And the link between salaries and performance is the manager's evaluation of how well each employee is doing.

The notion mat employees will perform better knowing that managers will decide their fate will have profound effects on workplace relationships and on the implied contract between civil servants and government. But most of all, it will place a heavy burden on managers. Bosses will have to get tough. No more giving everyone on the staff better-than-average ratings, no more ignoring people who don't pull their weight. This time there will be no excuses: If staff performance is off, managers will have no one to blame but themselves.