First, let’s define our turf: the Department of Homeland Security was formed shortly after 9/11, and is comprised of 22 sub agencies. Generally, the most publicly visible example of dysfunctionality has been the Transportation Security Administration, although others have recently had their unwelcome time in the sun, depending on the media story of the day: Secret Service, Coast Guard, Immigration, Customs, and FEMA, among others.
The recent Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey talked to employees inside the agency; it is not a poll of public perceptions, and thus it is a reasonable reflection of employee morale problems that have led to a disturbing and accelerating departure of employees at a rate nearly twice as fast as the overall federal government. Precise numbers have not been made available, but this data is the input to the broader report of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, where DHS and TSA continue to battle furiously for last place.
As one former sub-official observed about upper management throughout the department, “it’s like we’re in a constant mode of on-the-job training: as soon as we get one fully informed and operational, either they figure out it’s not such a good place to be in the first place, and the money is better on the outside, or they get promoted to fill the slot of some other guy who figured it out first. Then, both offices are back to doing OJT”.
Just as one example, the DHS terrorism intelligence department has enjoyed the ministries of six directors in the past seven years; CBP has also had six, four of them as caretakers because they were not confirmed by the Senate. I have lost track of the number of TSA administrators – Six? Seven? Should we rank the interim acting ones according to their length of tenure? Anymore, I’m just using colored Post-it notes on my wall chart to keep up-to-date.
Indeed, it has been privately understood for some time that some officials enter the agency with the express purpose of adding “DHS/TSA Director of XYZ” to their resume for enhancing future industry employment when they move on in the not too distant future.
Here’s some numbers: about 40,000 DHS employees responded to the survey; only 41.6 percent said they were generally satisfied with the department, down from 44.4 percent a year earlier; only 24.9 percent had a positive view of their leaders’ ability, down from 29.9 percent last year, while only 39.1 percent thought their leaders had high standards of honesty and integrity – down from 44.5 percent last year. In other words, it’s getting progressively worse, not better.
But not to worry, friends; DHS has hired a well-known mega- multi-million-dollar consulting firm, Deloitte, to tell them how to make it better. Somehow, that makes me worry even more. An expert is someone called in at the last minute to share the blame.
