This week, I’ve been attending a training course on how the Federal government classifies its occupations. Classification is basically the process of determining the occupational series (type of job) and its respective general schedule (pay). There are laws and regulations that the Office of Personnel Management enforces to provide guidance and ensure evenhandedness. Only, as with all rules, they’re subject to interpretation. Actually, subjectivity is the name of the game. In our class of 5 teams, we all read the same position descriptions and legitimately (with reasonings tied to the handbook) classified it 5 different pay levels. Breathe easy – the variations still fall within a reasonable range. For our sample position, one group picked GS-7, and another GS-14. That’s about a $54k difference. Close enough.
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Hilarious! That sounds like a fun class! I know they screwed up when they cla$$ified me!