Posted on 04/18/2008 2:22:26 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Department employees mostly are an unhappy lot.
An internal survey of about 141,000 of the department's 208,000 employees found that only 58 percent were satisfied with their jobs, the same as results from a 2006 survey that measured job satisfaction across the government. The department ranked at the bottom in the 2006 poll, which was conducted by the Office of Personnel Management.
While 91 percent of the people who work at the department think the work they do is important, only 54 percent would recommend the department as a good place to work. That number is up from the 51 percent reported in 2006.
The department was formed in 2003 out of 22 disparate agencies. Its mission ranges from immigration enforcement to emergency management and transportation security.
"It's important to recognize that it takes time to turn around a battleship," Elaine Duke, the department's deputy undersecretary for management, wrote on the agency's Web site Thursday night where the survey results were posted.
Duke said some of the department's angst can be attributed to a lack of a central headquarters location. Currently the department is scattered across dozens of places in the Washington region. The department also has undergone several reorganizations since it was created in 2003.
"While these are not excuses for low morale, as a DHS employee I can honestly say I see the challenges firsthand," Duke wrote.
When last year's results were released, the department's highest ranking officials said they would analyze the results and seek advice from agencies where workers are much happier. The most satisfied employees in the 2006 survey worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Last year the department's advisory council recommended that senior leadership pay closer attention to improving morale at the department. One of the recommendations was to stop calling their workers "human capital."
"Given the department's track record, I suppose it's a good thing that things have not gotten worse in the past year," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House committee that oversees the department.
"But just stopping the bleeding cannot be a success story," he added. "The dedicated men and women of the department deserve more."
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On the Net:
Survey: http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership
So, take a number and sit down. At least you’re employed.
That's what I was thinking. I'm sure DHS offers better than average job security and good benefits, too. Don't know about the pay, though.
Was the Post Office included in this poll?
Ditto that!
Maybe a lot them can’t read the fine print re: deductions from their paycheck. Or, maybe they can’t read any print.
Why can’t the unhappy ones go into the private sector?
58 percent were satisfied with their job. 60% job rate satisfaction sounds good to me. To entitle this that most are not happy is totally misrepresenting the facts. Drive by Media once again rides.
What a coincidence, we're not satisfied with their jobs either.
Might also be because most federal employees tend to be dems and we’re in a pubbie administration.
It’s not surprising. They get paid double what their work is worth, because they belong to the Public Employees’ Union. But they work for a sluggish bureaucracy run by nitwits, and they probably know that much of what they are required to do is pointless.
And frankly, I can’t thing of any place I would less like to spend the working day than in an airport alongside one of those horrible baggage xray machines, examining people’s shoes and harrassing grandmothers in wheelchairs.
I guess when your job is to find things wrong with things and people it’ll affect your outlook on things and people.
Good point.
I don’t know one person who has taken a job with Homeland Security that stayed with them. I know 7 people and they all have different jobs.
Beat me to it!
Please get me out of my cushy, over paid with excellent bennies, Gov job that I’m not likely to get fired or layed off from.
Look at their bosses, Bush and Chertoff, that explains a lot of their dissatisfaction.
If you were a Border Patrol Agent thinking your job is to secure our borders and protect America, yet you were continuously and purposely set up for failure by your employer, your outlook would be poor as well.
"Oh, you don't like you're job? We've got a club for that. It's called EVERYBODY and we meet EVERY NIGHT AFTER WORK AT THE BAR"
Frequently the Feds get about 120% of private wages for equivalent positions.
A very close relative works for the DHS, not the slobs at the airport, the ones on the border. They are trying hard. Doing the best that they can, but the leadership just plain sucks. Supervisors who don't lead, countervailing orders, computer systems that aren't integrated, etc, etc, etc.
Having worked at local, state federal and private jobs within my field, I can compare them. If you think the feds are bad, take a look at the sleeping nuclear power plant private guards. The federal bureaucracy is broken, but so are the state and local.
Obviously there are huge problems with those who are paid to work for US. We have to demand more accountability, better leadership and better coordination. It's not going to happen unless and until WE choose to take the problem on and force change upon them.
I only wish these upset employees with low morale would leave,so I and others who have tried with out success to find a career with DHS.
I can’t speak on the working enviroment,however what I’ve read the pay is good.
Not being conservative at all if I were their supervisors I’d tell them -’go stick a sock in it’,their are many people today out of work that would love your job.
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