sign actions of "junior examiners" (patent examiners without signatory authority). Upon completion of the "Full Signatory Authority program", an examiner is advanced from GS-13 to GS-14 and is referred to as a "primary examiner". Supervisors at the USPTO are GS-15 employees who are necessarily primary examiners now called Supervisory Patent Examiners (formerly Supervisory Primary Examiners) (SPE, colloquially called "spee"). They apply for positions competitively and receive management training inside the office. They are responsible for an Art Unit of patent examiners, typically 8-15 examiners who examine cases in the same area of technology (e.g. GPS devices and aircraft are handled by different art units). Responsibilities include training new examiners, reviewing and signing office actions of junior examiners and acting as an advocate of the examiners they are responsible for to a variety of parties (e.g. other managers in the office, patent applicants and their attorneys). They are the lowest rung of the USPTO's management chain of command, and the only part of management that is paid as part of the general schedule (GS). Higher paid managers are part of the Senior Executive Service and are technically political appointees. For example, a primary examiner (GS-14) and her SPE (GS-15) are part of the general schedule and cannot be fired as part of an administration change, but the SPE's boss (a "technology center" director paid at SES-1), can be asked to resign by the president, at his pleasure. According to the USPTO, an examiner is measured entirely by his own performance, without regard to the performance of others. The two most important performance statistics are referred to as "production" (the number of applications processed in the allotted time) and "docket management" (compliance with goals for responding to applicant communications within the allotted time). Legal, technical and automation training is provided to examiners at the USPTO. To work as an examiner at the USPTO, a person must be a U.S. citizen and pass a background investigation. Examiners also must have a college degree in engineering or science. The Technology Centers at the USPTO are divided into chemistry (or chemical engineering), electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, so college degrees in these areas are typically preferred. In recent years, however, new technologies have been important areas of innovation, so the USPTO employs people with training in biotechnology, business methods, geology, mathematics, and many other disciplines. Experienced examiners have an option of working primarily from home