Federal Employees' Discipline and Adverse Actions

When an employee has done something or failed to do something which adversely affects his/her work, the ability of others to do their work, or the agency's mission, a supervisor is faced with decisions on how to handle the incident or series of incidents. First, the supervisor must decide whether the incident involves the employee's poor job performance or an act of misconduct or delinquency. Normally, it is one or the other, but in some cases it could be both. Next, the supervisor must decide what type of management action will best deal with the incident(s). There are many possible causes for an employee's performance and/or conduct problem, for example, illness, disability, drug or alcohol abuse, personality conflict, family problems, lack of training, low job morale, etc. If it is misconduct or delinquency, such as tardiness, failure to properly request leave, insubordination, theft, etc., then an option could be to take disciplinary action. If the problem is failure to meet the requirements established on the employee's performance plan, then appropriate action could be taken under the Performance Management Program.