552 ROSA: REORGANIZED CIVIL SERVICE 



another as to whether the ratings were just. It seems probable that 

 this provision would give rise to misunderstandings, heart-burn- 

 ings, and ill feelings, without doing any good. It would seem 

 to meet all requirements of the case if the record is always open 

 to the Civil Service Commission and any employee can learn 

 his rating if he desires it. It will be time enough to enter com- 

 plaint if employees are dissatisfied with the promotions, or with 

 the explanation or lack of explanation if promotions are not 

 made. EflEiciency ratings are not ends in themselves, but means 

 to an end. They are to assure systematic consideration of each 

 employee with respect to his work and his usefulness, and to 

 be a shorthand record of the judgment reached. The judgment 

 will appear publicly from time to time when promotions are made. 

 If the ratings are made pubUc before the promotion period, there 

 would be efforts made by some to get their ratings raised in order 

 to increase the chances of promotion. This would throw an 

 intolerable burden on personnel officers. If several hundred 

 thousand efficiency ratings of government employees were regu- 

 larly transmitted to the Civil Service Commission, a very large 

 number of clerks would be required to handle and file and study 

 them; and if administrative officers were to be overruled by 

 clerks on the evidence of such records, without personal con- 

 tact with such officers and without personal knowledge of the 

 employees, no end of trouble would be caused. It seems far 

 better not to transmit the efficiency records to the Commission 

 but to have them accessible to the representatives of the Com- 

 mission at all times, and made use of whenever complaints are 

 made and the Commission has any doubts about the merits of 

 a proposed promotion. They would also be examined for the 

 purpose of testing the completeness of the records of a given 

 unit of the service, and to see whether the ratings were in accord- 

 ance with the general system. In forming such a judgment it 

 would be necessary to confer with personnel officers and be able 

 to get full information about the men and women and their work. 

 It is therefore suggested that Section 8 (c) be omitted and that 

 the second sentence of Section 8 (6) be changed to read as follows : 

 "Such current ratings shall be open to examination by the repre- 



