The National Park Service has a toxic problem that no one wants to talk about, and that’s the problem.
Across the agency there may be hundreds, possibly many hundreds, of employees claiming they’ve endured some form of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. Many tell a compelling story. Others seem less clear-cut. But across the board, proving those cases and achieving a satisfactory outcome for all involved is incredibly difficult.
That’s not to say these claims don’t represent real problems. But the bigger problem is the Park Service continues to fail to get a handle on workplace issues ranging from bullying to discrimination to sexual assault.
Why is that?
Investigations through the years by both the Interior Department and the National Park Service have underscored serious workplace shortcomings, sometimes detailing shocking levels of disfunction, misbehavior, ethical missteps, and even criminal actions.
“Clearly, there has been sexual harassment, intimidation, retaliation within the Service, and that is not in keeping of the traditions of the fine Service itself," then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters in 2017 in the wake of a high-profile scandal at Grand Canyon National Park.
Zinke was not the first or last to promise reform. He vowed to take "real action" and stated that zero tolerance would no longer be "an empty phrase." And yet, neither the Park Service nor its parent Cabinet department appears to have rooted out the drivers and alleged bad actors that perpetuate the issues.
In recent months the Traveler has heard from employees — female and male — who have said they were reprimanded, discriminated against, passed over for promotions, or placed on years of administrative leave when they raised concerns about how superiors were handling policy matters or even when they complained about their own workplace conditions or experiences. Those discussions have included allegations of sexual assault and harassment, race and gender discrimination, mental abuse, and bullying.
A Park Service employee who asked not to be identified because she doesn’t want to endure further ostracism in her park said that she has “reported, and other women have reported, the mismanagement, almost like deliberate sabotage, to harm and push out people who come forward and tell the truth about things, bad behaviors by other employees who are protected. And then the efforts that go to ruin those people that would come forward and tell the truth, and then those who support them also being retaliated against.”
At the same time, an overarching dilemma is that the Park Service has an approach to dealing with allegations that can penalize superiors before any wrongs are proven, two senior Park Service veterans independently told the Traveler.
“The barrier to claiming harassment is really low. [Equal Employment Opportunity claims] aren’t much higher,” said Bob Krumenaker, who recently retired after 40 years with the Park Service, most recently as Big Bend National Park’s superintendent.
“Anybody that doesn’t like something in how they are supervised can start the system rolling. … I’m not saying there isn’t harassment out there. What I’m saying is that we’ve gotten bogged down in the ‘he said-she said’ disagreements and can’t root out the true problems as readily as we should be able to.”
The other long-tenured, still-working Park Service employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid publicly criticizing the agency’s process, said bluntly, “There is no repercussion for employees filing false claims against supervisors. They can pull the pin on the grenade and sit back and watch and laugh.”
How Bad Are Things?
Park Service data indicate a large majority of complaints are not upheld. According to the agency’s 2023 Work Environment Risk Report, harassment allegations in recent years have ranged from 292 in 2019 to 206 in 2022. Of the 2019 cases, 41 concluded with findings of harassment, and of the 2022 cases just 18 were found to have merit.
What those numbers don’t indicate is how many employees didn’t bring complaints because they felt the system was rigged against them, because they worried about retaliation, or because of the personal stress of enduring a possibly years-long ordeal. The Traveler has learned in employee interviews across the country about a big obstacle that often stymies investigations and prevents many problems from even getting reported: a culture of fear.
And while the agency has a policy to take “immediate and appropriate corrective action, including appropriate disciplinary action, to eliminate harassing conduct regardless of whether the conduct rises to the level of a violation of law,” the ever-present challenge in such cases is determining whether there really is harassment in play or whether there’s a disgruntled employee.
While then-Park Service Director P. Dan Smith in 2018 issued Director’s Order 16e and its accompanying Reference Manual to, in theory, rapidly address allegations of harassment, the process has turned into something of a Gordian Knot for both park managers and employees. Managers can be unfairly accused before the facts are unearthed, while employees can face a seemingly endless process to prove their cases.
Nothing prohibits an employee from filing repeatedly, either, even when their claims are not upheld. Does this mean that harassment isn’t being addressed? Or does it mean that unhappy employees can use the system to get back at managers they don’t like? Maybe both.
Again, the process might be complicit, with employees who file complaints facing a procedural gauntlet that could literally drag out for years.
If the employee isn’t satisfied with the investigation triggered by a 16e complaint, they can then file an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint. The 16e process starts out informally where the Park Service tries to resolve the issue without excessive complication. The process — which does not “replace, substitute, or otherwise satisfy the separate obligations of an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint, negotiated or administrative grievance, or other complaint process” — involves several layers of paperwork as well as several “anti-harassment points of contact,” which are managers designated at parks and regional offices to report and investigate the complaints.
Complaints can move between those points of contact, who themselves can be the subject of complaints, something that further can complicate the process. And it’s up to those points of contact to say whether they have any conflicts of interest in the matter.
But the employee also can pursue a formal complaint, in which case the agency usually hires a contract investigator. While there often are attempts to mediate a settlement, ultimately the Park Service decides. If the employee doesn’t agree with that outcome, they can appeal to Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which works to protect workers against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices, or file a lawsuit. However, the MSPB’s backlog is so long it can take years to get a resolution.
The Fear Factor
The fear factor was a repeated theme in employee conversations with the Traveler about reluctance to speak out or file harassment complaints.
Workers portrayed an environment that does not welcome dissent, challenge, or complaints. Compounding that is a reluctance by employees and those who could confirm allegations to come forward. The Traveler, which has no way to assess the legitmacy of the complaints, is withholding names and not revealing telling details of the incidents because of the retaliation anxiety employees voiced.
These employees describe their fears of reprisal and related stress that some tie to mental breakdowns. In addition, some allege that senior managers either overlooked or manipulated investigations into their cases. Female employees were told bringing complaints would derail their careers.
But undercutting efforts in recent years to get to the root of the problem, the Traveler was told, is that investigators struggled to get employees to go on the record, even as managers were minimizing the problems or even blocked research into them.
A planned investigation into whether the Park Service might have a higher suicide rate than the general population was derailed by stonewalling.
“I thought that I couldn't make better headway on investigating the suicide rate than on the sexual harassment, because I already knew that they were burying that. … I found the same thing was true about suicide,” the Traveler was told by the individual who investigated the problems but didn’t want to discuss them on the record because it might invite criticism and personal attacks.
Maschelle Zia said she was fired from her job as deputy chief of facilities at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area while on extended sick leave stemming from on-the-job harassment. Since then, she has been leading a one-woman campaign to urge top Interior Department officials to do something, and has recently voiced a series of provocative accusations regarding employee cases and the Park Service managers she maintains are responsible.
In March 2023 she met with Shannon Estenoz, the assistant Interior Department secretary who oversees the Park Service, and Park Service Director Chuck Sams to discuss what she sees as harassment problems that are not being addressed.
Top Interior Department officials, while declining to discuss specific claims or the outcome of her meeting with Sams and Estenoz, say the allegations Zia raised are not being overlooked or minimalized.
“The allegations raised in these videos were initially brought to Interior Department leadership in January 2023. Since then, department and National Park Service leadership have made themselves available and engaged with the speaker in the video, survivors, family members and others involved in these claims, though those discussions are mischaracterized in the videos,” an Interior spokesperson told the Traveler in an email. “The department has thoroughly reviewed and will continue to thoroughly review any claim against current employees and take any appropriate action. Our commitment to the safety of our employees and the public is unwavering.”
What Is Being Done?
Paul Berkowitz spent more than three decades with the Park Service, retiring as a supervisory special agent after investigating a wide range of cases, from racism to criminal behavior. He blamed the ongoing workplace issues on the agency’s culture.
“You have an underlying cultural problem in the agency of allegiance to the agency at the expense of integrity,” Berkowitz said. “But it's structural, the decentralized nature of the organization, that everything is kind of compartmentalized. …They're terrible at taking a historical perspective. You can look back at all of these, these incidents going back and back and back and back. Every time it happens, they react as if this is a new and anomalous incident.”
A current Park Service ranger of more than two decades who went through a years-long ordeal trying to seek justice after saying they were sexually assaulted on the job said the problems exist because in some parks there’s no real oversight and individuals can control the dialogue.
“They want to keep their positions of power and control over the Park Service,” they said. “And there isn't really oversight, even when the OIG [Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General] gets called in. They did do well with some of the Grand Canyon stuff, but many times those OIG agents are working directly with the same managers who then kind of influence their investigations or their opinions of what's going on. Narratives will be written like, ‘Oh, these people are unreliable, they're just a whiner or they didn't get the job they wanted’ or something else to kind of muddy the waters.”
The sordid story that in 2016 floated up from the grottos and beaches along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon was not the first — or the last — in the Park Service involving alleged sexual harassment and discrimination and misogynistic behavior.
- A 2017 employee survey conducted by the Park Service found that 40 percent of the Park Service workforce had been the victim of sexual harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.
- The Voices Tour, a series of web-meetings and live interviews with more than 1,200 Park Service employees to uncover the extent of harassment and discrimination across the agency that was facilitated by NPS employees from throughout the park system, was launched late in 2017 and carried over into 2018. The resulting report found employees feared retribution if they spoke out and doubted the sessions would lead to meaningful change. One Voices Tour facilitator also told the Traveler that the survey data had been manipulated (ironically) to make the harassment problem seem even worse than it actually is.”
- A handful of months after Secretary Zinke said he intended to “root out this virus,” another DOI Office of Inspector General investigation found that Grand Canyon continued to be plagued by harassment issues.
The Grand Canyon episode took a letter to then-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to gain the Park Service’s attention despite years of sexual harassment complaints. That letter, sent by 13 current and former Grand Canyon employees, charged that events within the park’s River District "demonstrated evidence of 'discrimination, retaliation, and a sexually hostile work environment.'”
An ensuing investigation by the OIG detailed a tawdry list of inappropriate behavior, from male employees taking photographs up under a female co-worker's dress and groping female workers to female workers dancing provocatively and bringing a drinking straw "shaped like a penis and testicles" to river parties.
The OIG’s report said an internal investigation by Grand Canyon staff was "insufficient and incomplete;" that the park official responsible for possibly being too harsh in disciplining two female employees for their dancing and the straw incident felt pressured by Grand Canyon Superintendent Dave Uberuaga to take action against them; and that male and female employees received unequal discipline.
The investigation also faulted park officials for taking little action despite years of complaints about the misbehavior.
A Catch-22
Reform-minded individuals could find themselves subjected to unfounded claims.
In a bizarre twist that underscored the difficulties of dealing with harassment complaints, Christine Lehnertz, whom former Park Service Director Jarvis had chosen to replace Uberuaga and rid the park of the issues, was removed in the fall of 2018 for several months when a complaint accused her of fostering a hostile work environment, bullying and retaliation against senior staff, “particularly male leaders,” and wasting nearly $200,000. OIG investigators ultimately deemed the complaint unfounded, and Lehnertz was allowed to return to Grand Canyon as superintendent.
But the affair convinced her to “resign my position as superintendent of one of the most inspirational places on earth in order to also pursue matters of significant importance to me, including women's empowerment, social justice, and supporting families living with the challenges of Alzheimer's.”
Those who made the complaints against Lehnertz, who has not responded to a request to discuss the matter, remained on staff after her departure, the Traveler has been told.
The 2022 Federal Viewpoint Survey of Park Service employees noted that nearly half of those who completed the survey doubted that 'senior leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity' while half expressed 'a high of respect' for senior leaders.
For his part, Sams has initiated the RISE vision, the acronym reflecting Respectful, Inclusive, Safe, and Engaged, to improve employee culture and work environment. The director has declined requests to address his efforts with the Traveler.
The overriding problem in the Park Service, according to Jeff Ruch, who for more than two decades has closely followed the National Park Service from his roles at the nonprofit watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, is a lack of repercussions for those who abuse employees.
“There has been no effective counteraction. All the things that Park Service and Interior have done have been sort of symbolic,” he said.
The Park Service’s decentralized management nature also can leave employees without a lifeline, said Ruch.
“It's a very sort of chain-of-command-oriented sort of place. … So these complaints for the most part just go unanswered. And speaking from years of doing this, individual employees trying to bring complaints against a national agency like that is just a really hard road to hoe,” he said. “Many of them never make it to the finish line because they're usually kicked out on some sort of pretense or harassed to the point where they just resigned.”
Heidi Hall, a Special Agent (Federal Criminal Investigator) with more than 21 years of law enforcement experience with the Park Service who retired last year when she reached the mandatory retirement age for law enforcement personnel, still is pursuing lawsuits over complaints of gender and age discrimination against the agency.
Hall, who maintains she was passed over for promotions that were given to less experienced male colleagues, has also filed five EEO complaints over her treatment.
“I think that I probably would have been fine if I had just stayed a regular Special Agent and just put my head down and just done my job, all the way to the end of my career,” she said. “But because I dared to apply for a supervisory job, then suddenly I became a target for all these males, male law enforcement agents in the Park Service who do not want a female in there. Most of them really didn't seem to like female law enforcement at all.”
Change, she said, might require a class action lawsuit such as one brought against the U.S. Forest Service in 1998 by two female employees who charged the agency with gender discrimination.
“They went through a class action and years and years of litigation,” the retired special agent said. “And there was a consent decree issued when they realized there was a pattern and practice happening in the Forest Service. … Something big like that needs to happen with the Park Service, where somebody with oversight can finally say, ‘This will stop and we are going to hold you accountable if you don't make it stop.’”
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Comments
“The barrier to claiming harassment is really low. [Equal Employment Opportunity claims] aren’t much higher,” said Bob Krumenaker, who recently retired after 40 years with the Park Service, most recently as Big Bend National Park’s superintendent.
“Anybody that doesn’t like something in how they are supervised can start the system rolling. … I’m not saying there isn’t harassment out there. What I’m saying is that we’ve gotten bogged down in the ‘he said-she said’ disagreements and can’t root out the true problems as readily as we should be able to.”
This is absolute nonsense. Not surprising someone of his rank would make such an obnoxious and downright false claim. The problem with the park service is the cream not the milk. And its the very top that needs to be looked at as the problem
Krumenaker isn't wrong, but he only talks about one side. EVERY employee on either side of a complaint deserves a fair, objective inquiry with a rational response from the agency. I believe the problem is that many NPS leaders choose who they want to believe in order to accomplish what they want, and retaliate against whomever they decide is a problem. I learned the hard way, that when you are accused, if the superintendent wants you gone (for speaking out about important resource issues) they will use any and all petty complaints, even false ones, to retaliate. The worst part is you don't get to defend yourself or even attempt to make your case before they put you on indefinite admin leave. Your career is over before you go through any fair process. And even when they can't justify any adverse action, you don't get an apology or restoration of reputation. They delay, delay, delay, until you accept a less than desireable settlement or just decide to retire and get on with your life. Meanwhile, the superintendent, despite being widely understood to be incompetent, is moved on to other parks to trample on other "problematic" people on behalf of petty bureaucrats higher in the chain. Just listen to the NPT podcast or google Padre Island sea turtles. A superintendent who has faced IG investigations, a referral to the professional ethics board, caused an employee to attempt suicide, and retaliated against another without cause, is now in Texas, once again doing the bidding of his superiors against a respected, dedicated professional resource manaager.
It's too bad people like Krumenaker don't speak out when they're still in the agency and in a position to effect change, and hedge their bets when they retire.
Nope. Not nonsense. It was so common that is was openly discussed on a regular basis, in the workplace. I know several employees that frequently filed complaints on supervisors and coworkers when they had applied for something and didn't get it. And every time, the agency would suspend the person they complained about for months during the investigation, gave that complainer what she requested, the concluded no wrong doing occured. VERY COMMON!
Wow.
Kurt, that's quite an expose'. I applaud you and NPT for bringing the issue into the light.
Good work.
When you are dealing with people you will have some bad actors in the mix. It should come as no surprise that there are people doing bad things. However, most NPS employees do a good job, and from my experience they are the best in the U.S. Government. I think one problem is the fact that permanent jobs are few, and getting fewer every year, causing panic among current employees. Another problem that I notice is that senior NPS managers are agressively pushing affirmative action on employees, hiring everyone except young white males. This will cause a human panic from many people. Also Federal employees cannot be fired due to civil service protections in place. So the federal workplace is a tough environment for everyone, both men and women. Ironically, most new superintendencies go to women these days, so they have real power and influence on discrimination claims. But in the end people need to work together better.t
The complaint processes have indeed been weaponized. After a park ranger buddy of mine verbally questioned the appropriateness of a park employee working directly underneath his husband, that employee accused my buddy of bullying and workplace violence for shooting a rubber band at him. My buddy spent 15 months on restricted administrative duty doing almost nothing while he was investigated.
Who would complain if some female staff brought a penis shaped straw to a campout? People need to chill out. Being a victim has become cool. I have no doubt that 40% in a survey think they have been harrassed. They have been taught that microaggressions, systemic racism and the patriarchy are holding them back and that their feelings are the most important things in world.
I have worked for 6 federal agencies including the NPS at 3 units. It looked and felt the same as any other workplace. Is it really a conspiracy throughout a 20,000 person decentralized nationwide agency to harrass everyone, or is this a consequence of the mind-virus of progressive people who work at the NPS to see an 'oppressor' everywhere they look?
Loui - its a mind-virus of progressive people" everywhere. The woke have so diluted the meanings of racism, harassment, mysogyny. ...... that they really have no meaning anymore. When the boy cries wolf too often, people don't come to help when there is real danger.
This article is 100% true. Systemic and horrible. Thank you for reporting in this.
This reminds me of a pack of wolves establishing leadership determining who will breed with whom and wear a pack will live. Clearly, we humans who have evolved from such basic survival behavior continue to build that into our institutions. White males can be very frustrated observing they don't get opportunities that they think should be there for them because females and people of color are getting those opportunities. A fair way to reconcile the decades of females and people of color not getting any opportunities is difficult and painful For those who grew up in a system with an expectation that they would get the opportunity not the others.
If there had been justice in the last 200 years, this perception of unfairness would not even occur.
Having a seasonal worker in the national parks in my older years, I did observe a clear preference for males and I had a perception of age discrimination. It's not anything that I could prove but it's what I experienced. The hierarchy structure, the lack of full-time positions do create a sense of defensiveness for those in leadership and full-time positions.
If any system takes years to solve a problem, it's clearly broken. It's no different than police departments investigating their own problems, investigations need to be from the outside to be fair.
I was just part of a rataliation case against NPS. It took more than 2 years to go through arbirtation. Even once the arbitrator made the decision, it took NPS leadership an aditional six months to come to settlement terms. Although legally its been aknowledged that there was wrongdoing on the part of NPS leadership, I feel that there has been no positive momentum overall. And although it has been legally deemed they were in the wrong with profound effects, they still tried to bargain their way out of it. I'm very happy to have found a job with USFWS now that so far has a presented a much better workplace.
Hello, my name is Shannon L. Reed. I was sexual harassed and assaulted multiple times at the NPS and FS. When I reported what happened to me I was fired. It was not a he-said, she-said situation. I had 9 boxes of evidence. I wasted 5 years and a lot of money going to EEOC and MSPB. The system is broken. I spoke out. I was interviewed by PBS and Dateline. I even went to Congress, but nothing changed. The system is broken. I went years without a job, living off my retirement. I returned to work, but it hasn't been easy. I have basically, started over. My advise to anyone being sexually harassed, sexually assaulted or raped - Leave. Do not waste your time or money on a broken system. You don't owe them anything. My advise to the NPS and FS, stop complaining about not having enough employees and fix the problem.
Thank you for doing this article. As a woman with 21 years of service at a small Historic Site. The site is non bargaining unit. No Union. The management is the ones that have made the calls ever since I have been there. All 21 years. What others and myself have gone through when it comes to filing a complaint against management. Management gangs up and protects the management level person. They come up with some very fancy replies. In the end it is the employee (Most times a field lower grade) gets repremended. Then retaliation occrs. There is no humann resource. You are told Knock it off, Get Over It Or Elese!!!! As for this past February Stand down. At our site manage was good for 2 days following and it is horrible once again. (I have been threateed with my positio if I don't do work suddenly assigned to me. With no notice. Only to come to find out my Chief was suppose to have done it. Seek help as the work is way above your grade. NOT NEVER AGAIN WILL I. I went through help. And still doing my Chief's work.)
There seems to be two groups here- those who actually got discriminated against and or harrased or worse. And those who feel they are overcoming some sort of percieved wrong by greenlighting discrimination on a systemic basis against white men. Thats odd considering white men are about the only group who does not get preferential hiring points toward and potential federal job.
I was physically threatened along with attempted intimidation. Had I not been a physical threat myself there is likely a chance I would have been assaulted by my boss... For filing an injury report. Worth noting- I had to file the report through my boss- the one who was threatning me. And he sent in the wrong form and purposfully messed up my case. I appealed and lost.
Meanwhile I accroud thousands in bills from an MRI the govt decided to not pay for even though It was done while on duty as a result of a workplace injury incurred onsite.
by the time I got the late bills forwarded to my address- I was forced to pay. THOUSANDS
How did I get preferential treatment as a whilte male again?
Don't you love when the old white guys that are part of the problem deny, from their personal experience, misogyny and racism are issues for staff?
For more detail on NPS bad actors and their protectors, the massive cover-up machine, and horrific harm to individuals, see these short YouTube videos. https://www.youtube.com/@NPS-BLM-USFS_HelpEmployees
I worked for the NPS for 35+ years in positions from a seasonal GS 03 park aid to a GS 13 superintendent in three NPS units, and a deputy superintendent in one unit with 6 NPS sites. Of my many supervisors at my work 13 locations, I had a couple of weak supervisors but none that rose to the level of BAD supervisor. Perhaps I was lucky compared to others.
When I was an EEO counselor in the mid 1980s we were told about “frequent flyers” or those who repeatedly filed EEO claims that were often false claims. I also dealt with some real EEO claims as counselor.
Many NPS employees know of at least one case where someone was transferred to another park or reassigned to a non-supervisory position such as management assistant, or safety officer or placed in an advisory job with no real responsibilities. Others were offered cash settlement agreements to resign or retire. I know of one employee who was the only person in a RIF (reduction in force) action.
After being retired for the past 13 years it is disheartening to read that after much being said about reform there seems to be little evidence of actual reform and efforts to hold employees, their supervisors and managers accountable. The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service can do better and must do better.
Failure of leadership! It always comes down to leadership, or lack thereof. NPS culture is indeed the overriding problem. The NPS leadership culture is compliance to authority, in a self-serving way. The culture is reinforced by a diffused leadership / oversight model where an inordinate amount of autonomous discretion is vested in the “Superintendent’s Club.” These leaders are not identified, developed and selected due to any systematic process which reinforces a culture of ethical and / or sound leadership or a commitment and demonstrated ability to influence the members of the organization to accomplish the mission of the organization. Instead, leaders are chosen through prior relationships and a proven track record of supporting their immediate supervision. Thus, good people are often put in situations of supporting bad acts and actors for the benefit of remaining close to power or for self-serving career opportunities. The culture turns the values of the organization upside down. The people end up serving their leaders; rather than Leaders Serving Their People! This culture will only change with a commitment to civil service reform. A conscious effort to create a culture which values leadership and all the values which underlie it as a primary value of the organization. Otherwise, this article will repeat itself, as it already has so many times.
Well stated.
I was harassed for years by a supervisor who consistently sabotaged my career development and would take punitive actions regularly but received minimal consequences after I filed complaints which were validated.
My wife worked at a nearby historic site with a superintendent who yelled at subordinates in front of visitors, sabotaged the staffing of the park, and created and atmosphere of fear and bullying leading several employees to express thoughts of self-harm. Multiple EEO complaints were filed from across the breadth of staffing - the result was the superintendent was promoted to another DOI agency.
After watching 8 years of legitimate EEO complaints result in either inaction or promotion of the offender I am convinced of the NPS' inability to provide a good work environment.
White males can be very frustrated observing they don't get opportunities that they think should be there for them because females and people of color are getting those opportunities.
This is nothing short of sexist and racist. There are plenty of bad actors of all sexes and colors.
Come on, let's be better. It's 2024. Let's stop painting with a such a broad brush--it's bound to be inaccurate.
“It’s bound to be inaccurate” doesn't provide much credence. Nor does being anonymous.
So-called "employee protection" systems easily throw out false claims from vengeful employees going after supervisors. Its their first step. It's the real claims, should you be forced to file one to say keep your job while facing obvious retaliation, that we discuss here. The ones that grind you down and destroy your life for years. Obviously, you've never been harmed at at the job you love or had to seek protection. Probably because you are a white male. Guessing. No one wants to use these systems because they know the bias toward the agency and know their chances of success are slim. But they drag themselves through it looking for someone with integrity to save them, to right a terrible wrong. To insinuate most cases are unfounded you slap in the face superintendents, chief rangers, fire chiefs and all other victims of some pretty horrific experiences - with documentation and witnesses to back it up.
It is not a good look to speak on things you haven't experienced such as being female, Native American, disabled, etc.
Maschelle- it sounds like you are angry you were wronged by the NPS. I was too for a long time. It sucks working hard for a job you love only to find protections lacking.
However- I can tell you from my experience- its not about race or gender. I knew of a girl being forced out of the NPS for the same reason as I- being injured. She too was treated poorly. I knew of another guy who was hispanic that fell off a bridge got injured and was not hired back for being "unreliable." Another co worker- an orphan- was being used for a dollar a day as a volunteer. I tried to get him on as an emergency hire after a pot bust got another guy fired buy apparently upper mgmt refused. Poor guy worked for nothing like a slave. Pretty bad of the NPS considering he was black. Another volunteer who was white was treated the same- $1 a day. He never got a job either.
The daughter of an NPS official did get workmans comp for a non injury one year though. Just because. And since she filed on her last day she got paid for weeks without having to work.
Chris, your comment is spot on. Power abuse doesn't only happen to females and minorities. It's rampant throughout NPS and its history. I know plenty of white men who've been deeply injured by a supervisor that NPS protected. If folks have done their research though, the decades of EEO, OIG, and even the NPS' own studies they bury, report that women in particular have endured the most harm. Minorities are next. Employee surveys report it. To deny misogyny and racism have caused injury to a percentage of park service employees that is too high is blind to the truth. It's a waste of time. Energy should be put toward bringing integrity to the Service that all loyal to it believe it deserves. My group advocates for now over 100 employees who share experiences with bad actors, serious harm and NPS cover-up. The agency keeps bad actors to protect their reputation. EEO and OIG are paid by NPS/DOI so it's easy to keep things quiet. If all deny wrongdoing occurs, the agency name stays clean for the public. Instead of providing protection for the harmed employee (typically honest, hardworking, seeking integrity)... the staff member is terminated because final decision making is left to the agency.
What you have left after decades of what author and former NPS supervisory special agent Paul Berkowitz calls "noble cause corruption," is an organization run by unethical insecure leaders, bereft of more and more quality personnel who've left one of the worst agencies to work for in federal employee surveys.
The problem must be fixed from the top and Chuck Sams and DOI are protecting bad actors just the same, all while saying their number one prio is to fix these problems. They still refuse to deal with bad actors. The victims of abuse are good people with exceptional careers and loyalty to the NPS. It is crushing when they are railroaded out of their beloved agency. Yes, I am mad my career was ruined at its peak and that my fiance's is being ruined now. I am also mad for those other 100 people who've been terribly wronged. We are the ones with the integrity.
The regional offices need to hold superintendents accountable. Why is it ok for a superintendent to come into a park with staff that have worked in that area for years and suddenly everyone starts applying out or quitting. That is not a good thing typically. Why can't region see it? There is an obvious pattern that happens when these horrible unethical outright fraudsters start gutting parks. How come a superintendent can get away with so much unethical behavior even when it's reported to their boss. Their is absolutely no accountability for any of these superintendent. It's the worst system I've ever worked in. The Pacific West region is the worst region and they have promotes some of the worst humans on earth to SES positions.
I just went through the EEO complaint process that went to mediation. The settlement authority involved was biased but I couldn't say anything because I didn't want to negatiy affect my outcome. The settlement authority had no idea what reasonable accommodations meant and what a an employer is required to give a disable employee. He was the deputy sup too. This is the disconnect with NPS. They go through an online training about discrimination but don't actually learn anything.
We agreed on a settlement, the offer was drafted and signed by both parties but was removed because "someone in management forgot to approve it".. Now I feel even more discriminated against.
100% spot-on. The National Park Service has failed its experienced and dedicated employees for decades to protect the cult of the NPS and upper management. I left NPS after 20 years of dedicated service after being physically threatened and witnessing year upon year of bullying and harassment by serial abusers, fiscal corruption, nepotism/cronyism, and gross incompetence of park management. I was involved in having a serial abuser removed from our park after 10+ years of harassment and abuse of mostly young, female seasonals who were terrified to report anything. The abuser was best friends with our supervisor who covered up and protected them. The supervisor accused me of lying to the regional office even though years of seasonal staff were documented victims of this monster. Yes…I was then retaliated against by said supervisor for blowing the whistle. After the abuser was finally terminated from our park and escorted out of the office by commissioned law enforcement rangers, they were given a grade increase and moved to the regional office where we were forced to work with them again. The serial abuser that we just spent 2+ years getting rid of was assigned to our park as a regional contact. After being out of federal service for almost 10 years it’s painfully obvious that this isn’t normal…it’s highly abnormal bordering on psychotic. I used to give NPS the benefit of the doubt and hoped that things would improve, but based on the comments in this thread I believe that improvement isn’t possible within the good-old-boy/girl culture of the agency.
I applaud Kurt for reporting on the betrayers of public trust, and Maschelle for working to defend dedicated employees that have been victimized by these betrayers/bad actors. I worked Incredibly hard for decades to support the NPS and make the agency proud of my work, and the NPS highly valued me and the program they assigned me to lead. I proved myself as in my field and was recognized for my achievements. Imagine the torture I suffered when my beloved agency used the only Technical Assistance Request for help I ever submitted, to try to oust me and acquire the funding and resources the NPS requested I obtain, that I brought in through decades of incredibly hard work. As I have struggled to keep my job and continue our work, I have been harassed, bullied, retaliated against, demeaned, humiliated, ostracized, smeared, marginalized, and treated with no regard to RISE or policy; program functions and responsibilities the NPS assured me and I earned have taken away and obstacles were intentionally placed in front of me to prevent me from achieving and accomplishing as I have done with support from the NPS for decades. The critical work I lead, that I brought in all the funding for, is being decimated, as people are told the opposite. My Superintendent has gotten away with psychological torture since 2000, and ruined the proud story of inspiration and dedication I work had. The truth is buried as he maintains full control of the narrative with positional authority, free help of the solicitor, and his close connections to his supervisor who usually decides the response to inquiries and complaints. I believed someone would save us so that we can continue our work highly valued by the American public, and so I can finish important work interrupted by this coup that I have been prevented from finishing. We are powerless, as our agency has turned a blind eye to our tremendous suffering in a tortuous work environment. We just want to do the work the American public is depending on, and trying to preserve program funding and components we worked day and night for decades to put in place for this work. Others who want to divy up our resources to fund their work should have to build their programs too, so we can all preserve and protect for future generations, fulfill our obligations to the American public, and uphold the honor of this agency.