Ask the Lawyer received the following question (paraphrased for easier reading and clarity) from a reader on a legal matter that might be of interest to the entire audience. Q: If an employee is under investigation by a supervisor and the supervisor has a personal grudge against the employee, is that something that an Inspector General (IG) can investigate? Does backdating a performance report constitute falsifying government documents? A: It depends on the nature of the personal grudge. Among other things, IGs are authorized to investigate allegations of violation of law, rules, or regulations; mismanagement; gross waste of funds; abuse…
Browsing: performance
A perplexing challenge for a federal manager is figuring out whether a problem employee should be handled through the performance or misconduct adverse action systems. Each system has different standards and requirements. To some managers this looks like a legal trap: Make a misstep and the problem employee is empowered, and the manager is paralyzed in dealing with that employee in the future. This is really not true. Congress has given federal managers both tools, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that managers are free to use either system. Both tools work, but one may…