crossposted from unbossed
It's been a rough road for public employees during the Bush years, and certainly federal employees have weathered harsh treatment. Part of it comes from the general disrespect the Republicans have demonstrated toward anything related to government and governance. If it wasn't privatization, it was bad management. If it wasn't bad management, it was dishonest managers and the revolving doors between lobbyists and agency leadership positions, between regulators and the regulated.
Now we have the facts and figures.
Before we get started on the stats, I want to mention that the public sector is the most highly unionized work in this country at all levels - local, state, and federal. Of course, the state and local levels of unionization varies and depends on whether it is legal and the type of law. At the federal level, we have some of the most active unions around, and much of their activism coincides with promoting the public interest.
The Facts and Figures
For some agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, there was appallingly bad leadership that was headline news.
For the National Labor Relations Board,there was a combination of very bad leadership appointed to destroy the law and the agency, thanks to the Bush administration, coupled with unrelenting attacks on the agency, the law it enforces, and its mission by union leaders - the very people who ought to be fighting for the law and the agency.
A new study gives us the figures on how federal employees, agency by agency see their jobs. For most agencies, federal employee satisfaction is on the rise as compared with two years ago. However, for a few, satisfaction has trended down. We'll look at a couple examples, and then you can play with the website. It has some cool interactive features that let you have stats your way.
First, the study - The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government 2009 - on employee satisfaction and commitment in the federal government were produced by the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation (ISPPI).
Here is their snapshot of the results:
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Government Accountability Office ranked first and second in the 2007 rankings. These two agencies have maintained their positions in 2009. Perhaps more noteworthy is the fact that both agencies significantly improved their scores, even though they were already top-ranked. If NRC had simply maintained its 2007 index score, it would have lost the top spot, suggesting that to stand still is to fall back when it comes to employee satisfaction and commitment.
On the other end of the spectrum, the three lowest-ranked agencies in 2007 were the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security and the Small Business Administration. This year, all three are among the top four most improved large agencies, with SBA improving its index score by 30 percent to become this year’s top riser. These agencies still have work to do before they make it to the top 10, but they prove that agencies can overcome challenges to create healthier workplaces. . . . For the fourth time in a row, the primary driver of job satisfaction in the federal space is effective leadership. While this finding is no surprise, the reasons behind it are. In a first, the 2009 Best Places rankings break down which factors shape employees’ views of their leadership. Conventional wisdom holds that the greatest influence on an employee’s satisfaction is his or her immediate supervisor. However, the 2009 Best Places rankings reveal that it is actually the quality of an agency’s senior leadership that has the greatest bearing on employee views.
DHS
Now you might expect that DHS would be in terrible shape, but au contraire. Here are its rankings for Overall Index Scores for Employee Satisfaction and Commitment, which measures the performance of agencies and agency subcomponents related to employee satisfaction and commitment.
It is true that DHS is 28 out of 30 large agencies. Howerver, its overall score is now 56.2 versus its prior score of 49.8, an increase of 12.90 points. That increase puts it at third place in improvement in satisfaction.
NLRB
When you look at small agencies, you will see that NLRB employees' job satisfaction has plummeted in the past two years. It's ranked 26th out of 32 small agencies with satisfaction down by 11.30 points, a decline to 57.3 from 64.6 two years ago.
The real story is told in the agency states. Clicking on each agency gets you detailed data.
In the case of the NLRB, one way to look at the data is based on numbers hired and leaving. For the NLRB there is a revolving door that mostly works in the out mode.
Now this should be very bad news for those affected by the enforcement of the law. Those most likely to leave are the best employees who can get better jobs. If unions have been unhappy with the NLRB's performance, seeing this sort of trend will only make them far less happy. Here are the stats.
Employees joined (2008): 38
Percentage joined (2008): 4.14%
Average joined (2004-2008): 61
Employees left (2008): 127
Percentage left (2008): 6.83%
Average left (2004-2008): 132
Rookie ratio (percentage of workforce with less than three years of service): 5.10%
Unions ought to be very concerned about this trend.
The key source of the unhappiness is in the leadership categories.
Teamwork 67.2
Effective Leadership 47.4
Effective Leadership - Empowerment 40.9
Effective Leadership - Fairness 42.3
Effective Leadership - Leaders 41.9
Effective Leadership - Supervisors 59.9
Now Teamwork may not look so bad, but in fact, it is down 4.30 from two years ago. Effective Leadership is down 8.80. Effective Leadership - Empowerment is down 12.30. Effective Leadership - Fairness is down 7.60.
Effective Leadership - Leaders is down 13.50. But Effective Leadership - Supervisors is only down 4.60.
The stats are consistent with the word on the street, that the leaders put in place by the Bush Administration have treated their staffs with disrespect and treated the law with disrespect. But the direct line supervisors have been viewed far more favorably, although still down from prior years.
And if you go back up to the table, you will see that the top leadership is rated at only 41.9 versus 59.9 for the line supervisors. That is a huge gulf.
So go take a look at your favorite parts of the federal government. There's a lot more data there.
They even include offices such as inspectors general. For example, TIGTA is up, while the overall Treasury IG is down. A lot.
Office of Inspector General (Treasury) -18.30
Office of the Inspector General for Tax Administration (Treasury) 4.10