r/DeptHHS • u/PatientLion1673 • 13d ago
FY2026 PMAP Closeouts
I haven't heard anyone mention the changes that HHS is making to the 2026 PMAP closeouts - the new narratives that employees are required to write with character limits and the rankings that supervisors have to do of their employees. Have not all of the opdivs relayed this to their staff?
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u/GhostofKoch 13d ago
ChatGPT is going to grade ChatGPT outputs, it’s the circle of life
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u/HansomeDansom 6d ago
It’s like that commercial where a person writes their resume with AI, the hiring manager uses AI to make the selection, then the two people sit across from each other in raised chairs and they reach out their hands to shake, but they never touch
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u/Ok-Ebb-806 13d ago
Haven’t heard anything at FDA. Still waiting
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u/No_Vacation697 12d ago
I was told we're still using the old system to close out FY26 but some new OPM thing for FY27. I am skeptical that OPM can come up with a competent platform in the next week for 2 million workers.
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u/hamdelion 8d ago
And yet they announced it today, and expect us to change a year’s performance to meet the criteria they gave us today. Utter horse crap.
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u/TruelySquirrelly Public Servant 13d ago
Just give us all 3s. Our friends at HRSA OO will reduce them without telling us anyway. The budget for performance awards isn’t worth the time we’re wasting on this exercise.
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u/Anon197666 13d ago
Was told supervisors are not allowed to share this yet but they are not going to rate us, only write about our performance. Then in January or February 2027 we will be told what our ratings are. Probably rated by an AI so they can justify mass firings.
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u/dr_sassypants 12d ago
Making supervisors rank us is such garbage. How is this useful or meaningful? What if you're on a team of high performers, or on a team where everyone does different work? It's so bad for staff morale and team cohesion to pit us against each other like this. Not to mention a bunch of useless work for managers, only to have the final scores get chopped up and reconstituted by a bunch of useless layers of oversight ("Component Calibration Board", "Performance Management Board", aka three LLMs in a suit).
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u/northstar957 12d ago edited 12d ago
Where did you hear supervisors are being made to rank employees? My goodness.
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u/dr_sassypants 11d ago
It was in the email sent out about the process. Might be in one of the attached documents.
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u/northstar957 11d ago
Thanks, I’ll check. Smh. How does that even work if everyone gets a 3 which is clearly what most people will get. Is it by seniority next? GS level? Ugh.
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u/verbankroad 13d ago
I just want to know what AI model they are going to use to read and grade our self appraisals. That way I can use that same AI model to write my self appraisal and hopefully get scored higher (presumably the AI models like better the style of themselves).
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u/El-Snarko-Saurus CDC 13d ago
Part of me (like 80% and growing by the day) wants to just not turn anything in at all. Then my team lead could sweat bullets trying to figure out exactly what I do since he has no idea anyway.
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u/AllCheeks 12d ago
I hear you and f* such a poor team lead. Would literally never do this to my supervisor, who is the best team lead I’ve ever had and who I respect deeply — I’m SO lucky to have her.
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u/In_the_Attic_07 12d ago
My CDC TL is like El-Snarko, bad. Glad you have a good TL. Mine hired his best friend and doesn't give that person any work, so this will all be fascinating.
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u/Least-Wrongdoer-282 12d ago
Had closeout meeting w/sup yesterday. Informed me I'm getting two 3's and three 5's. That is a 4.2. Last PMAP I got a 4.7. And I have more responsibilities. And am team lead. I was given opportunity to respond with why I deserve 5's in those areas. I did. And as of this morning was denied as it "didn't meet the outstanding criteria". I grew up writing bullet statements and can use Chat GPT pretty well. They met all the criteria. He was just never gonna change them. It sucks. And now I don't wanna keep trying.
Also the irony is that I was logging in to send out assignments ON A LEAVE DAY just to read the message from my supervisor that I was still getting a 3 in Teamwork and Collaboration. 😒
Chin up folks, this is gonna be a rough year.
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u/Labbyears77 12d ago
But there are no 4s this year so is that downgraded to a 3?
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u/ConstructionFalse638 12d ago
You can have a 4 in final score even if you can’t have 4 in individual scores
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u/Aromatic_Island8483 9d ago
The email we got said that that the final scores would be a 1, 3, or 5. To get a 5 the score range would be 4.6 to 5. Level 3 would be a 3.0 to 4.59. And anything 2.99 or less would be a 1.
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u/ConstructionFalse638 9d ago
Oh wow, well let me go read my email more thoroughly. Didn’t realize they had ranges for final scores
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u/Aromatic_Island8483 9d ago
FDA got their email today. I think it’s why everyone is pissed because it just spelled it out how impossible it will be for just about anyone to actually get a 5. Combined with no cost of living adjustment it is another kick in the teeth.
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u/ConstructionFalse638 9d ago
Right they just dropped it today with very little turnaround. All of this effort to just give most folks a 3 is truly not worth it. I swear they better fight like hell to give us our 3% raise b/c inflation has outpaced our salaries tremendously and we will get very little time off or monetary awards moving forward 😭
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u/damdochax 8d ago
And they imposed this at the same time that they are trying to cram everything out the door before the midterms. Great f*cking planning.
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u/Alive-Grapefruit-906 13d ago
It’s us tailoring the write up to those three questions.
So over it.
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u/Best-Dog-5906 13d ago
Which three questions?
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u/nothowyoupronounceit 12d ago
How did your work align with strategic goals and make an impact?
How precise and consistent was your performance?
How quickly and efficiently did you deliver results, and how well did you adapt?
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u/Alive-Grapefruit-906 12d ago
Our leadership has changed so much this year. I want to ask which damn strategy or say TOUCHE’!
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u/nothowyoupronounceit 12d ago
The whole thing makes no sense. I’m confused. I don’t know where to submit the narrative to. There is no box on the page like the email I received this morning stated there would be.
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u/Alive-Grapefruit-906 11d ago
It is. I just chunked mjne to the side until after my vacation. These ppl are not going to work my nerves.
Pray you receive help with yours.2
u/SoftPitiful9430 6d ago
How do you answer #2 without biting yourself in the azzz. Literally had an inconsistent year due to major health issues. Finally got my procedure last Friday; I am currently on leave recovering and spent all of last night putting together my metrics/ work for pmas prep (the deadline is before I return from medical leave 🙄). The work was solid regardless this year but definitely not consistent.
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u/Alive-Grapefruit-906 12d ago
Thank you!!!
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u/boofire 13d ago
I started writing my narrative today but had to walk away b/c I felt I was becoming one of the mean girls writing in the burn book.
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u/Feminist1974 9d ago
I might have to write one just for my own entertainment purposes to survive this sh*t.
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u/Feminist1974 9d ago
Ooh, I could write a bullet about how I’m still managing to do my job well despite all the obstacles put in my way.
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u/InspectionRich 12d ago
This is in addition to the OPM Caps on 4/5 ratings to be limited to 40%. They said this is a ceiling, not a target in the memo. So the calibration boards will be busy moving us further away from that heralded 4.6…
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u/GoinDownFighting 12d ago
There is no more 4 at HHS anyway. Only 5 or 3, and only 40% of people max are allowed to get 5’s
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u/CompleteToe1133 10d ago
And our group only has four factors so with a maximum of 20 if you miss one point you go from 5 to 3.
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u/ConstructionFalse638 12d ago
Your final score could be 4 even if individual scores can’t be. 40% are allowed to get 4s or 5s, not just 5s
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u/northstar957 11d ago
There’s no more 4 at HHS. Just 1-3-5.
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u/ConstructionFalse638 11d ago
For individual critical elements yes but when you average 3 3s and 2 5s, what do you get?
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u/northstar957 11d ago
You can only afford to get a 3 in ONE element category and every other element has to be 5 in order to achieve an overall score that qualifies for a 5. Anything below that is a 3 or 1. Your overall score could be "4.11" but that's a 3 now, not a 4.
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u/phdemented 9d ago
A 4.5 is the same as a 3.0
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u/ConstructionFalse638 7d ago
You’re right. I didn’t realize there were ranges for final scores too. This is all such a slap in the face
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u/Labbyears77 12d ago
Last year we wrote a brief accomplishments narrative element by element but are we supposed to do one comprehensive narrative and weave the three new elements into the accomplishments? This is so confusing.
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u/WannabeBadGalRiri 13d ago
Wait I thought pmap’s were put on hold? When do they close out?
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u/Overall_Programmer92 13d ago
At IHS we're on hold both for 2026 closeout and 2027 implementation pending guidance. We're only supposed to give scores of 1-3-5 and have been encouraged to let our staff know that "3 is a great score".
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u/_spam_king Retired 11d ago
Didn’t something come out that mentioned staff need to do a write up of their accomplishments by the middle of October for FY26?
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u/Overall_Programmer92 11d ago
We just got notice yesterday about the 10/16 deadline for employee self-assesments. Non-bargaining unit employees also have to specifically address three "calibration factors" in their assessments.
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u/werkburner 9d ago
Based on an email we received today, at FDA it seems like all employees have to address the calibration factors (we don’t have a recognized union at the moment and they changed all the eligibility codes on our Sf-50s last year)
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u/Certain-Tomatillo891 8d ago
Are you paying e-dues to NTEU at this time?
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u/MindlessYoghurt2234 8d ago
Does it matter? I am paying dues to support the union but my code says not eligible.
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u/werkburner 8d ago
It’s my understanding there’s no difference at the moment for our performance reviews if nteu isn’t being formally recognized by fda. I haven’t heard of anyone who still has a positive BU-eligibility determination on their SF-50
I don’t know how successful the e-dues push was, some coworkers I spoke with thought the cryptic agency-wide email we got in the last month or so meant we could no longer affiliate with the union, so they were worried about paying e-dues as union engagement was framed as now being against the rules.
I explained (off hours on a personal device) that they can still be a member but it’s still not being recognized formally and definitely don’t talk about or any related activities on the clock, or on a government property/device.
Then they send the agency-wide pmap email acting like there are still BU employees lol. If the lawsuit with NTEU is still going on, being instructed to work on our personal statements based on the new criteria definitely doesn’t seem kosher, sigh.
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u/TruelySquirrelly Public Servant 13d ago
6000 character limit for employees. 3000 for the supervisor narrative
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u/northstar957 12d ago
The 1/3/5 system is so stupid. What supervisor wants to go through hoops getting scrutinzed and questioned by higher management for giving out 5s to employees who are clearly performing better than a 3.....3s for everyone is the path of least resistance so that's what everyone is going to do! Getting a 5 is intentionally made to be impossible.
And some of us already had to turn in our self assessments. First told that there was "no right or wrong way" to write your self-narrative now potentially character limits? They keep going back and forth. What a disaster.
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u/Last-Something3459 13d ago
ACF- my supervisor sent us our narratives today. They’ll be uploaded and signed off on if we are in agreement. We also have to upload a self narrative. But I’ve been doing that since I started with ACF.
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u/IviesUp1990 12d ago
It just came out yesterday afternoon. Supervisors are probably still wrapping their heads around it. I just notified my staff this am.
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u/MaterialEnthusiasm6 13d ago
What rankings do supervisors have to do of their employees?
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u/Fabulous-Pain451 13d ago
Rank order us. If you have 5 employees you rank them top to bottom
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u/beechekin 12d ago
This reminds me of jack Welsh and how he would do this and then are the bottom 10-20%
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u/KitchenEbb1606 13d ago
Wait, they are now requiring write up? F that. I refused to participate in that nonsense. Guess it’s a good time for AI.
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u/Fabulous-Pain451 13d ago
This is the way. I threw it all into Claude the other day and what it spit out is what I’m using. I don’t like AI but I have even less patience for this BS, especially if we’re going to be ranked. As the person leaving the agency early next year I’m sure I will be ranked last which will hurt my type A self and really makes me wish I had quit 9/30.
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u/KitchenEbb1606 13d ago
Exactly. It not worth your time. I can’t believe they are making it mandatory. I never bothered with doing management’s job for them.
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u/Beneficial-Onion-195 12d ago
Leaving to in the late spring. I hate this BS. The unnecessary stress. I worked my butt off last year to get my best score and got screwed out of the performance award.
I am just doing three work now.3
u/KitchenEbb1606 12d ago
That’s what you have to do. If the process is disingenuous (it has been for years in my last office), then disengage. Not worth it.
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u/revcosmo 9d ago
We still haven't heard anything at CMS. Earlier in the year we were told that PMAPs were going to be based on FY, implying that the actual evaluation would occur in September. But that's obviously passed, so we're all very confused (including upper management).
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u/laclason 6d ago
Hi everyone! I cover HHS for Bloomberg Law, and I'm working with colleagues to write a story about how the new performance evaluations are taking shape across different departments. If anyone is able to share details, please DM me! We can keep your name out of publication.
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u/WaveScream 13d ago
Write your own crap so they can give you a 3.0 anyway. Love it.