From another reader:

Jonah, I am retired Navy, now Navy civil service. My command has served as a test bed for the reformed personnel suystem for the last 4 years. I have to tell you it is wonderful. There are no automatic raises as before. If you are productive, you actually get more incentives. It rewards the motivated employees and keeps the dead wood where they are. (No it is not perfect, it is still tantamount to an act of Congress to get rid of someone for anything other than conduct). There are people who do not like it and coincidently they are almost an exact match for the ones you would love to see go down the road. Incidently, further to what your prison guard correspondent said, we have achieved some amazing tactical training innovations since 9-11. That has been accomplished by our civil service/contract team and you could watch the results on the news every night (well, Fox News anyhow). Thanks and keep up the great work.