Holding employees accountable is a critical role of any supervisor. The primary objective of accountability through discipline is to correct an employee’s work-related conduct or performance while maintaining high productivity, discipline, integrity, and morale among all employees. Although actions are taken every day to correct conduct and performance issues, specific information is not shared with coworkers in order to protect the employee’s privacy.
In fiscal year 2020, management took nearly 250 actions in an effort to hold civilian employees, including supervisors, accountable and to correct behavior. Actions ranged from informal measures, such as counseling or issuing of direct orders, to more serious cases resulting in suspensions or removal from Federal service.
Approximately 10% of the disciplinary actions involved employees with a record of previous misconduct. This statistic, and the results shown in the chart to the right, is expected when the principles of progressive discipline are applied and employees correct their behavior (i.e., informal actions such as counseling, admonishment, leave restriction greatly outnumber serious actions such as suspensions and removals). However, there were five cases in which employees were removed from service after a first offense due to the severity of the misconduct.
Nearly one-third of all actions taken against civilians were for attendance related offenses. Other general trends included failure to follow orders or instructions, disrespectful conduct, and unacceptable performance. Less often, cases involved government credit card misuse, negligence, alcohol/drug related offenses, loss of security clearance, dishonesty, or discriminatory behavior.
It is Coast Guard policy to maintain standards of conduct and efficiency that promote its best interests and mission accomplishment. When acceptable standards of conduct and efficiency are not maintained, it is the responsibility of Coast Guard managers and supervisors to address the matter by holding employees, including supervisors, accountable through taking prompt and justifiable corrective action.
Questions regarding this notice may be directed to your servicing Labor and Employee Relations Specialist. Additional Civilian Human Resources information may be found on the CG-12 website.