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| Naval officers to bid for service buyouts |
| 2006-06-18 |
| The Navy wants to know from its officers how much money would make it worth their while to leave the service. Under a new program, eligible officers would bid on how much money they feel they are entitled to separate voluntarily, said Jeri Busch, military compensation chief of staff for the Chief of Naval Personnel. Officers must have between six and 12 years of experience and be in specialties that are overmanned or have skill-sets that are no longer needed, officials said. Maximum award levels will vary depending on specialty, but the average payout is expected to be between $55,000 and $60,000, Busch said. The Navy hopes to entice between 200 and 300 officers to leave the service through the program this fiscal year, Busch said. She said she did not know how many officers are eligible for the program. Exactly who gets the cash and how much they get is determined by a bidding process, Busch said. Under the program, each officer submits a bid of how much they would like to receive that is at or below the maximum amount allowed per community, she said. Each community has a target of how many officers can receive the money, she said. So if one community has a target of 50 and 75 officers apply for the money, only the lowest 50 bids would be accepted, she said. Of those 50 bids, the highest bid would determine the award level for all 50, she said. The program is based on lessons learned in the 1990s that “broad-brushed, blunt instrument” tools were ineffective. “In actuality much of what happened, in the Navy’s experience anyway, during the drawdown is we ended up having the wrong people leave the service, perhaps,” she said. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 Part of the problem is that there are not enough billets for ensigns in the restructured Navy. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-06-18 22:14 |
| #3 I suggest there's no "perhaps" about it. It's not a perfect parallel, I'm sure, but the oil industry played the voluntary golden parachute game from the late 80's through the mid-90's, and they're still paying for it. The ones who were the most valuable took the deals and left - they knew they could find excellent employment opportunities. What the oil companies retained was staff that was very heavy with dead wood. Within two years, the brilliant architects of the scheme were starting to call up their previous employees to offer them consulting contracts - at 3-4 times the salary package they had previously paid them. Wouldn't it make more sense to target those who are, by peer review, failing to perform up to standard - and offer them a fair deal? Start there, anyway. |
| Posted by: Slatle Chomotle5631 2006-06-18 21:40 |
| #2 "In actuality much of what happened, in the Navy’s experience anyway, during the drawdown is we ended up having the wrong people leave the service, perhaps,” she said. Meaning they had a lot more junior officers take the buyout than they expected. Frankly, it was a good deal and a good time to leave. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2006-06-18 21:25 |
| #1 A perverse version of Name that Tune. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-06-18 17:54 |