Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service

Document overview

Summary

Section 1 . Purpose. The American people deserve a Federal workforce that is high-quality, efficient, dedicated to the public interest, and no larger than necessary. Probationary periods (for employees in the competitive service) and trial periods (for employees in the excepted service) have provided a longstanding critical tool to assess the fitness of newly hired Federal employees before finalizing their appointments to Federal service. The Government Accountability Office has documented, however, that agencies have not been using probationary and trial periods as effectively as they could to remove appointees whose continued employment is not in the public interest.…

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