In a stunning move that cuts through decades of bureaucratic inertia and the pervasive "woke" ideology, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has announced a seismic shift: federal promotions will now be based squarely on merit, not how long an employee has warmed a chair.
OPM Director Scott Kupor, daring to introduce common sense into the heart of Washington, declared this week that the era of promoting based on race, gender, or simply logging time in a cubicle is over. This is a direct repudiation of the Biden administration's disastrous agenda, which shamefully prioritized identity politics and "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI) mandates over actual competence and performance.
Federal employees should be rewarded for what they can do, not for how long they’ve been on the job." Today, we @USOPM eliminated the historically anti-merit principle of gating promotions for top performing employees based upon their time in seat. No longer - merit prevails over tenure!
In a detailed Substack article, Kupor laid bare the absurdities of the old "time-in-grade" rule, a relic from the 1950s that actively stifled talent and crippled government efficiency.
Imagine you’re smart and just starting your career at a federal agency. In six months, you master the work. You breeze through tasks your coworkers avoid, delivering results your supervisor calls the best she’s seen in years. She wants to promote you. But even though you’re outperforming a regulation written in the 1950s stops cold your promotion opportunity. Why? Because you haven’t sat in your chair long enough.
That was the time-in-grade rule. For roughly 80 years, it required most federal employees to wait 52 weeks at each grade before they could even be considered for the next one. Not 52 weeks of results. Just 52 weeks on the calendar. Whether you mastered the job in six weeks, six months, or six years, the clock was the clock.
That’s all changing.
The official details, published in the Federal Register, confirm the long-overdue overhaul:
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is adopting, substantially as proposed, its proposed rule eliminating the Time-in-Grade (TIG) restriction on advancement to competitive service positions in the General Schedule (GS). Under the prior regulations, a candidate generally could not be advanced to a covered position at GS-6 or above without completing 52 weeks in a position no more than one grade lower—or two grades lower for certain positions in two-grade-interval lines of work. This final rule removes that requirement. Employees remain subject to all applicable occupational qualification standards and any additional job-related qualification requirements established by their employing agency.
Imagine that: rewarding American achievement and merit in the federal government. It's a concept so foreign to the modern progressive agenda, one almost wonders how it slipped through.
For a deeper look into this victory for common sense, here's more from Director Kupor:
This decisive action by OPM is more than just a procedural change; it's a powerful statement against the insidious "woke" agenda that has sought to degrade our institutions by replacing competence with demographic quotas. It signals a return to the foundational American values of hard work, individual achievement, and genuine qualification, ensuring that our federal government can once again attract and reward the very best, not just those who check the right boxes or serve their time. This is how we rebuild trust and restore excellence in Washington, putting America First by putting merit first.
