Has the National Park Service sufficiently tackled harassment across the agency?/Rebecca Latson file

While a watchdog organization claimed Monday that the National Park Service "buried" a report on how pervasive harassment of all kinds is across the agency, the agency claimed the Covid-19 pandemic slowed its distribution.

The National Park Service Voices Report, launched in late 2017 with interviews with Park Service employees to uncover the extent of harassment across the agency, was completed two years later. Then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called for the investigation after a survey showing that nearly 40 percent of the National Park Service workforce had been the victim of sexual harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.

Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, chief spokesperson for the Park Service, told the Traveler in an email Monday that the pandemic slowed service-wide distribution of the findings.

“The National Park Service executive leadership is passionately committed to eradicating harassment in the workplace, and in creating a workplace that is welcoming, safe, inviting, and productive," she said. "This is an ongoing effort and remains a top priority. We are proud of the progress we’ve made, particularly in implementing systems that are designed for greater accountability, but there is still more work to be done."

The report, she continued, began to be distributed to internal "leadership teams, including the Safety Leadership Council, and (the NPS) was preparing to distribute it to the full workforce when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. We recognize our delay in sharing the report could have the unintentional consequence of impacting our efforts to build confidence and trust with employees."

At Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, officials claimed the report was intentionally "buried" to the detriment of the Park Service's workforce.

"The Park Service has turned a deaf ear to a cry for help from its own workforce,” said Rocky Mountain PEER Director Chandra Rosenthal. “It is unlikely that the deep internal dysfunction the report described has improved but may have gotten worse.”

A crisis of sexual harassment in the agency came to national attention in 2015 when an investigation by the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General discovered that for roughly 15 years life deep in the Inner Gorge of Grand Canyon National Park at times reflected rowdy, sexually charged scenes from a frat party for some National Park Service employees, with male employees pawing and propositioning female workers, some of who at times exhibited their own risqué behavior.

While then-Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said he expected complaints of harassment to be investigated, and disciplinary action to be taken, there were instances where some individuals were simply transferred to other positions. Those instances were raised with Zink in October 2017 when he met with Grand Canyon employees.

"What we heard was a lot of frustration from the employees is that there just was no action being taken," the secretary told reporters at the time. "Individuals were being transferred, nothing was documented in their records, they could be promoted and then come back. The bottom line is we need to take action on harassment, intimidation, and that is clearly what we intend to do.”

A month later an outside consultant, Fran Sepler, president of Sepler and Associates, was retained by the Park Service to work with its office of Relevancy, Diversity, and Inclusion on the Voices Report, which evolved from face-to-face and web sessions, along with more than 200 anonymous submissions. Overall, the authors of the report met with or had correspondence from 1,249 Park Service employees.

A key point made in the report was that "[P]erhaps the strongest message that emerged from the Voices Tour was that participants need to see a response to what they have shared. We heard voices from people wearing thin from being asked to perform at a high level in the face of inadequate resources, competing demands, and in some cases, work environments rendered extremely stressful due to interperson behavior."

"For those struggling the most, help cannot come fast enough," the authors continued. "The visibility of the Voices Tour led many to express hope that change would come, and some to express cynicism that NPS is even capable of making chage. Participants want to know they have been heard and that their participation has contributed to specific, observable change in their workplaces. If parks do not see tangible action coming from the findings of the Tour, we are concerned that the Tour will have raised and then dashed the hopes of those in need of help and change.”

Another takeaway from the sessions was that the employees who came forward wanted to "continue to have open forums for checking in on the workplace environment in the park and allow for continued feedback and open interest in working to improve the interpersonal environment."

Authors of the report also stated that "[E]ven those who found the experience valuable expressed concern about whether any real action would come out of all the effort. Many expressed a sense of futility in participating as 'NPS keeps bringing people down here to get our opinion and nothing happens.' They say they have 'been through enough surveys and trainings' and now want to see tangible actions."

In response to the report, Anzelmo-Sarles said that one of "the most important things we can do is be transparent about what is occurring within the workforce and help break down barriers that dissuade or prevent people from coming forward when they are subject to or witness inappropriate behavior. We continue to encourage people to talk openly and honestly about workplace concerns and NPS leadership remains committed to being open and transparent with employees about these issues.”

The report is another chapter that Charles F. Sams, if he is confirmed as the next Park Service director, will have to address in an effort to boost employe morale, which he has said is his top priority.

PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, in a letter to Sams, told him that "the challenge of raising those dashed hopes will fall to you. It is not to late to answer the alarm sounded in the NPS Voices 2018 report."

"However," Whitehouse continued, "changing the dynamics pervasive within the NPS will take more than words; it will require removing senior leaders who perpetuate this toxic culture. Moreover, we understand that many of the senior leaders who shelved the NPS voices effort are still in positions of responsibility."

According to Anzelmo-Sarles, though, the report has moved the Park Service to take a number of initiatives:

Anti-Harassment

• Launched the Harassing Conduct Tracking System in 2018. Of the 179 cases investigated in Fiscal Year 2021, 23 were closed with findings of harassment. Corrective actions included terminations, suspensions, training and counseling.
• We have reprioritized funding to provide resources for a 30% increase in the number of Employee and Labor Relations Specialists.
• We’ve established a national anti-harassment response coordinator position and stood up an anti-harassment group within the Employee and Labor Relations Division to address harassment complaints and provide training to improve working conditions. 

Workplace Culture and Diversity

• Stood up the Diversity Recruitment Advisory Council (DRAC) in Summer 2021 to explore ways to advance diversity recruitment for the NPS. Co-chaired by two senior executives, the DRAC is comprised of a cross-section of employees representing human resources, superintendents, program managers, associate regional directors, field staff, and EEO representatives and is staffed by the Office of Relevancy, Diversity and Inclusion. The council will present its recommendations to leadership for addressing persistent systemic challenges to diversity recruitment before the end of the year.
• NPS engaged consultants in Oct 2021 to help create our first-ever national Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy. The consultants are currently engaged in review of past NPS efforts, including the NPS Voices Tour Report, and will work with NPS leadership to begin employee and stakeholder outreach in the coming months.
• Also, in October 2021, NPS senior leadership and regional directors began working with a leading outside consultant to create, what will become, an action plan for Activating a Positive Culture and Improving Work Environment. This team is early in the process and we anticipate sharing more details with the NPS workforce in the near future.

The Park Service also has incorporated "anti-harassment training for new employee orientation, the NPS Fundamentals employee training program, and New Superintendents Academy," she said