Poor teamwork. Miserable balance of work and your life. Little success with strategic management. Doesn't sound like the best place to work, does it?
But those are some of the findings of life within the ranks of the National Park Service, according to this year's Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.
The rankings are compiled by the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation through surveys of more than 263,000 government workers.
Agencies and subcomponents are ranked according to a Best Places to Work index score, which measures overall employee satisfaction, an important part of employee engagement and, ultimately, a driver of organizational performance. The Best Places to Work score is calculated both for the organization as a whole and also for specific demographic groups.
While this year's rankings show a slight improvement for the Park Service over recent years' surveys, they also reflect that the agency is far from being considered a good employer.
Overall, the Park Service ranked 139th out of 224 agencies. Its combined score of 63.7, compiled from surveys that looked at such things as management, empowerment, diversity, pay, training, and "family friendly culture," was up from 59.8 last year, 58.2 in 2007, and 62.5 in 2005.
In 2003 the Park Service's score was 64.1.
The latest survey found that teamwork in the Park Service is about the worst in any federal agency, with the Park Service's score ranking it 206 out of the 223 ranked. Even worse is the agency's work/life balance quotient, which placed the Park Service 220 out of the 223. Also poor was the perception of the agency's "strategic management," which earned the Park Service a ranking of 203 out of the 223.
The Park Service's best score, 97 out of 223, came in the category of "employee skills/mission match."
A request for a reaction from Park Service Director Jon Jarvis was not immediately granted. However, last September, the day after he was confirmed by the Senate as director, Mr. Jarvis dispatched a system-wide memo outlining his priorities, and topping them was a desire to strengthen the workforce.
"I come to Washington, in part, as your representative, your voice, and your advocate. The day-to-day operation of the parks and the work of our community assistance programs is accomplished by the dedicated men and women (including amazing volunteers) of the NPS who empty the trash, enter the payroll, rescue the lost, clear the trails, help communities, sample the air and water, and tell our compelling stories," he wrote. "Your welfare and safety will always be my top priority. To help you succeed, we will provide the funding, training, succession planning, recognition, facilities, and policies you need to get your work done."
The latest rankings would seem to indicate that Mr. Jarvis has a lot of work to accomplish in this arena.
Here's a look at the breakdown:
Best in Class Scores.........................Score.............Rank (out of varied totals)
Employee Skills/Mission Match........................78.9................97 of 223
Strategic Management.................................50.0................203 of 223
Teamwork.............................................59.6................206 of 223
Effective Leadership.................................51.0................183 of 223
Effective Leadership - Empowerment...................45.5................176 of 223
Effective Leadership - Fairness......................48.7................185 of 223
Effective Leadership - Leaders......................43.8................186 of 223
Effective Leadership - Supervisors..................62.2................180 of 223
Performance Based Rewards and Advancement...........43.7................177 of 223
Training and Development............................53.3................198 of 223
Support for Diversity...............................52.5................194 of 223
Pay.................................................62.4................179 of 223
Family Friendly Culture and Benefits................31.0................188 of 223
Work/Life Balance...................................51.4................220 of 223
Scores by Demographic..........................Score...........Rank (out of varied totals)
Female..........................................65.4................119 of 222
Male............................................64.3................161 of 221
40 and over.....................................64.6................146 of 223
Under 40........................................65.5................134 of 204
Asian...........................................68.0................54 of 79
Black or African-American.......................58.6................148 of 193
Hispanic or Latino..............................66.9................69 of 133
Multi-racial....................................60.3................24 of 42
White...........................................65.8................149 of 222
American Indian or Native American..............61.1................10 of 17
Comments
I am not surprised by this article. I have worked for the Park Service for 5 seasons, and it has been one bad work experience after another. The amazing amount of inefficiency and waste of tax payer money is astounding. It's not just in the Ranger Division- but in all divisions. I have seen workers sit around for hours and sometimes it’s because they actually have nothing to do- but they still get paid well to do it. The most toxic work environment in the Park Service is the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. There is vicious backbiting among the employees, and the management is some of the worst in the whole NPS. The turnover rate for "parkies" (not locals) is about every few months. That’s about as long as people can stand it before they need to move on. The management are really the ones to blame- they are very unsupportive of the employees, whether it’s with work issues or trying to get time off for family issues. It seems the worst of the rank and file are the ones that float to the top and find themselves in management positions, and they are not qualified or compassionate enough to deal with the people who work under them. A big problem with the NPS is how they treat their seasonal workers. The seasonal workers are the backbone of the NPS and they are treated like second class citizens at best. No wonder parks can’t get their employees to come back for two years in a row.
I'm saddened by the comments above.
We get these jobs by our own choosing, and most often because we have an intense (and yes, sometimes unhealthy) dedication to proecting lands, species, sites, events, whatever. And that means that our separation of work and life can be tenuous. I recently attended a supervisory training where the course instructor shared an interesting story (and no, I don't remember the source that he quoted): When personality traits of NPS employees were evaluated, they most strongly resembled those in what other line of work? You guessed it.... the clergy.
Frankly, even if it means flying out for groceries once a month I wouldn't have it any other way. If you don't like it and haven't been able to make successful inroads with anybody to instigate change, that's awful. But it certainly isn't representative of many of our experiences.
I wouldn't have it any other way either and the rural lifestyle in the wilderness is one of the things I absolutely, positively love about my job. But that isn't the part people are complaining about if you look at the statistics.
Compared to corporate culture and other federal agencies this one continues to put very little investment in their managers and supervisors to set them up for success. There are the minimum mandates and window- dressing leadership programs that reach out to something south of 1% of the total supervisory workforce. Some online training available. Meh.
The categories in the survey are all mostly above 50%. If I may be excused for trampling all over valid statistical analysis for a moment to make a loose correlation here, that means that we are doing more good and bad and more people are happy or not. But I'm sorry, if we can't do better than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?!?
Given that commentary from the field is starting to build on this posting, I would be curious to learn from NPS'ers willing to comment on this article about specific root causes to some of the ongoing problems and proposed solutions.
I wonder how much of the negative rankings posted above stem from seasonal employees who work essentially without benefits or hiring preferences for conversion to permanent employment status? Or, are these negative rankings composed entirely from individuals who are career Fedearal employees?
I'm very interested in knowing what it's going to take to put the NPS back on top of the list of the best places to work in the Federal Government.
In resonse to pkrnger-seasonal employees were excluded from the survey-full time permanent employees only-
One of the huge problems is workload-I'm middle management-I work 60+ hours a week during the summer, don't get OT or comp time for it, plus I commute over 100 total miles a day-Because of veterans preference i can't hire the most qualified applicants for seasonal jobs, especially front line supervisors-When I tell HR that the people on top of the list are not qualified for the job I'm told "train them" that means I get to do their job too-meanwhile highly qualified applicants with years of experience can't get the positions.
A couple of suggestions-Build more park housing! Allow bigger bonuses for excellent employees; Train people! Travel ceilings kill the ability to send anyone to training, OJT can only go so far, especially when I don't have time to do the training. We don get paid in sunsets-I rarely hear a complaint about salary-the complaints are about lack of permanent work, inability to advance and a serious lack of enough people to get the job done.
I have no complaint about my salary. It is too low for my debt, but that's my own doing (darn student loans!). Right now the park I work at is one of my favorites, but it does have some problems as would any job. I'd say the main issue here is lack of communication. It is difficult for departments to get together and talk about what's going on. Luckily we have monthly staff meetings that take care of some of that, but the rest of the time I'm a little confused about what's going on. The other day I got stuck on a backcountry road because no one told me that the road was actually gone. That would have been very helpful to know!
In the past, I've had a hard time at jobs because of the supervisors. I couldn't figure out how some of them made it when I acted much more professionally. I had one supervisor who would tell one ranger what another had said about him/her and it led to some major fights between staff. I also had another position where my lead ranger was constantly late, did poor scheduling, and often dissapeared for some 'quality time' with her boyfriend in the historic house while on the clock. I often found myself covering for her and when I complained about it to my supervisor I was accused of not being a team player. I also loath the lack of OT. I am still owed 10 hours worth of pay for forced OT and I doubt I'll ever see it.
On the whole, I love the NPS and would never work for anyone else. The problems I have had stem from individuals and not the agency itself.
Get OVER it, people! Who ever joined the NPS for salary? Who ever joined for individual recognition?
My experience in many sites is huge individual discretion to get the job done that you see needs doing. If you are sitting around, it is because you lack imagination or dedication. Who would want a supervisor trying to structure your day and how you go about it. My experience in the NPS is being judged by results.
One of the great things about the NPS is decentralization. You have the chance to make a difference where you are. If you cannot make a difference, before you start ranting, look in the mirror for the cause.
NPS is one of the only places in the US Government that permits highly individual people who really learn from their experience. The ones who emerge from this freedom are the people with character.
Rangers don't whine.
Almost forty years ago, I had the honor of being selected as an intake ranger and participated in about four years of intensive training across the country. Over that period, my classes participated in several evaluations of the NPS. Each time, supervision and management/leadership were identified as areas in need of significant improvement. The Service appears to have made little improvement over this period. There were some promising moments, for example, the mid-90s prospect of a $40 million training budget and the attempt at empowering "the field." Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of Horace Albright's parting directive to keep the NPS special and never let it become just another government agency. After a decade of multi-culti and PC-driven personnel management, the Service found itself embedded with far to many ego driven managers, many quite willing to sacrifice the mission and scores of dedicated career employees in order tor reach their power positions. Thankfully, that period seems to have peaked and we are returning to what appears to be the norm of mediocre/average supervision and management. Given the economic reality the agency faces, I doubt if much will change as we approach our centennial. Perhaps the NPS can make do with average supervision, but I doubt it can be effective with average leadership. One is either a leader or a follower, not much room in the middle for average leadership. And leadership skills can be taught as our military officer development programs have taught us over the past generation. I suggest that this could be an effective model for NPS leader development. I sincerely wish the organization well as I move into retirement. In all, it was a calling for me, I loved the mission and the resources and would do it all over again despite the rough spots.