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Federal
News Radio
Low
morale? You're not alone, new
federal survey shows
By Michael O'Connell
Thursday - 2/28/2013
As
Congress and the White House
duke it out over sequestration and the possibility of agency furloughs,
morale
in the federal workforce is understandably low.
In
January, Federal News Radio
conducted an anonymous online survey on federal morale and leadership.
The
survey asked managers and employees what morale levels were like in
their
offices and what factors had the greatest impact on office morale.
The
response was loud and clear —
the majority of the 2,880 who responded to the survey said their own
morale
level was low, and they rated the morale level in their offices even
lower.
The
top three "morale
killers," according to federal employees, were, in order, pay freezes,
ineffective leadership and fed bashing from Congress and the public.
"I
like my job but hate the
anti-gov worker attitude," one federal employee wrote. "We work hard.
Very few slackers here."
Another
employee agreed. "The
public does not perceive my job or my contributions as valuable.
Congress views
us as expendable."
While
federal managers picked the
same three morale killers, they ranked them in a slightly different
order,
naming ineffective leadership as the worst offender, followed by pay
freezes
and fed bashing.
"Listening
to employees who
are discouraged because they are bringing home less money is very
disturbing
and affects the morale of the entire workforce," wrote one federal
manager. "If my morale is low then it will reflect on the employees, so
as
managers we have to try to boost morale."
Another
federal manager said work
was no longer as enjoyable due to low office morale.
"Now
I keep wondering if I
will be furloughed tomorrow or be able to meet my house payment," he
wrote. "For some reason, the public seems to think all feds get paid
like
the ones in D.C. Some of us make from $26,000 to $60,000 a year. This
is going
in reverse with the increase in insurance, taxes and whatever Congress
thinks
we owe the world."
Breaking
down the numbers
The
survey asked federal employees
to rank their morale level, on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being
extremely
high and 1 being extremely low. Of those who responded, 47.8 percent
said their
own morale was at a 3 or below…
Read
the rest of the article, with charts, at
Federal News Radio
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