The Social Security Administration, the Bureau of Court Services and Offender Supervision, the Export-Import Bank, and the Bureau of Prisons all have something in common: They are the worst federal jobs in their respective fields. They are the worst places to work in the federal government.
Low employee engagement with an agency can be due to a variety of factors, the most important of which are leadership, functional performance, and work environment. A low score does not necessarily mean that employees dislike the agency or working there.
As an aside, it's possible. Just above the Agency for Court Services and Offender Supervision is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Shocking stories about a sexual harassment environment and a short-tempered but indifferent chairman have engulfed the agency. Even if an obviously toxic leader agrees to step down, employees may be stuck with him for another year, since that won't last until the Senate confirms a replacement. Hardly a way to improve the agency's employee engagement index of 62, down four points from last year.
At the Social Security Administration, a combination of workload, outdated processes and technical debt has led to overworked employees and poor customer service, said Dustin Brown, who joined the agency as its chief operating officer after retiring from the Office of Management and Budget after 23 years there.
In a forthcoming interview, Brown said the 2025 budget request is critical to improving staffing levels and technology support. The department is asking for an 8% increase. Officials want to improve basics like wait times and resolution rates for phone inquiries. Brown said Department Director Martin O'Malley holds “security statistics” meetings two mornings a week to review performance indicators. O'Malley used the technique when he was governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore. Brown said both detailed data and the input of employees on the ground are the basis for decision-making.
Brown said the “commissioner” listed three priorities: reducing phone wait times, speeding up the processing of disability benefit claims and appeals, and fixing the chronic problem of under- or underpayment of benefits.
Brown called O'Malley a hero in the performance management community — a phrase that, coincidentally, came up during an interview with Max Steer, president of the Partnership for Public Service, who said of the Work Environment Score, “This is about higher-performing organizations and better mission achievement.”
Becoming a great place to work requires leadership commitment and the technology and financial resources to meet performance goals. With annual turnover rates exceeding 20% in some offices, there is no time to waste.
As a would-be Social Security pensioner myself, I'll be watching to see how much the leadership combination of O'Malley and Brown will raise these scores.
As I covered in detail last year, the Bureau of Prisons had a rock-bottom Work Environment Index of 35.5 last year. It improved slightly this year, but still only scored 38.1, putting the Bureau back in its unfortunate position as the worst place to work in the federal government. The Bureau needs higher pay, more long-tenure employees, and a major program of improvements to its aging facilities.
One federal observer familiar with the BOP questioned why Director Colette Peters didn't even threaten to resign to insist that the Biden administration pay billions of dollars for delayed renovations. It's hard enough coming to work and interacting closely with unsafe people, but doing it in a leaky, moldy workplace is another story.
Over the past year, the BOP has closed several prisons and relocated some to different security levels, but the underlying staffing and facilities issues have not been addressed.
The great NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was determined to lead NASA to the top of the best places to go, and he still lives in the area, so if Peters called him, I'm sure he'd be happy to discuss strategy over coffee.
Mostly useless facts
by: Michelle Sandiford
In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed George N. Peek to head the First and Second Export-Import Banks.
sauce: EXIM: Export-Import Bank of the United States
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