CLERICAL PROMOTIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00156R000600010067-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 29, 2005
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: October 5, 1979
• Content Type: MF

Appr ed For Release 2006/02/01: CIA-RDP 3-00156R000600010067-8
SUBJECT: (Optional)
ROUTING AND RECORD S
Clerical Promotions
FROM:
12.
STAT
ORM 61 O USEE D PREVIOUS
. c. 71
DDA 79-2772/1
Of/A R
5 October 1979
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
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 Approveor Release 2006/02/01 : CIA-RDP83.0 56R0006
5 October 1979
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
FROM:
DDA
SUBJECT: Clerical Promotions
REFERENCE: Memo from
DDA 79-
1. The attached memorandum accurately describes
a serious problem which has been with us for a long time.
Without doubt, the author was qualified for a promotion.
The problem was one of headroom; the DDO has more GS-09
employees than he has GS-09 positions.
2. Unlike the working wives problem, which has
Agency-wide considerations, the issue discussed in
I Imemorandum is essentially a DDO problem.
e other components do not have the Operational Support
Assistants (OSA's) who do everything which has to be
done at the smaller stations, both administrative and
operational. Some of the considerations are:
a. The positions exist only in the field --
there are no comparable jobs at headquarters --
which means that the employees spend practically
all their careers overseas.
b. They are practically all women who
have advanced into the field from secretarial
jobs where they picked up the admin skills.
I have known only one male assigned to one of
these jobs, although there may have been others.
c. The jobs are all similar, and the
employees are rotated, but the grades range
from GS-5 or 6 up to GS-09-
d. While it is possible for a select few
of these emDlovees to move into a professional
job (as recently did), on the whole
they are stuck in jobs with a GS-09 ceiling,
and not everyone can reach that level. Living
overseas has its compensations but not as much as
a few years ago.
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e. About two years ago the MG Career
Service decided to pick up ten of the most
qualified employees who had demonstrated
competence in administration, and provide them
an opportunity to move upward through this
Directorate. You met several of them at the
Support Conference The ten
selected included several USA's. However,
the number which could be-absorbed by the D/A
would be relatively limited, and that is not
the,naswer. In the MG career service we cannot
accept employees who will top-out at GS-11 or 12.
MG applicants should have the potential to go to
GS-14 at least.
3. In the final analysis, there are only two
alternatives. One would be to tell the OSA's that they are
better off now than they were as secretaries, and to stop
complaining. That would not be acceptable. The other
alternative is to provide them with more responsibility,
better training, and increase the grade levels. At the
present time there is no reason why the journeyman (or
journeywoman) level shouldn't be GS-9, particularly when
I see what they can do overseas and compare them to some
of the GS-9's I see in other jobs. They make that
comparison,too. As we begin to lose more positions over-
seas, the emphasis on the use of OSA's is going to increase.
LA Division now has about an equal number of OSA's and
support personnel, and they have made it clear that further
cuts will reduce the number of support personnel but not the
OSA's. In addition to finance, logistics, commo, personnel,
etc., the OSA's can also e as secretaries (in at least
they do the darkroom work, handle
Lne secret writing lab, etc. I believe we could justify an
increase in grade of all of these jobs to GS-09, and it wouldn't
have too much of an impact on the DDO's grade structure.
4. I think the DDA has done a great deal to help solve
the problem. In addition to accepting applications to the
MG career service, we have developed an administrative training
course to improve their skills. If anything remains to be
done, it would be to try to improve their career management
as a separate group in the DDO, get the average grade established
at GS-9, and continue to emphasize the training. But there
are two facts of life. One is that the careers are overseas
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oriented and there is little to offer at Headquarters
except for very few of them and they must understand
that. The second is that, while they are doing a fine
job where they are, not all.of them have the education
and natural talent to become administrative officers
or professionals in some other category. In talking
to Station Chiefs I have always asked about the potential
of the OSA's, and only one station chief has ever suggested
that his OSA had the potential to go to or beyond GS-11.
(She is now an MG.) The solution must eventually be worked
out by Personnel and the DDO, with the area divisions
and DDO/CMO involved. I suggest that you talk to John McMahon
and that you jointly designate the people who are to come up
with the solution.
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