DHS -- "Something fundamentally wrong"

Ever go to the barber shop, or salon, to get your hair cut, and while you are waiting your turn you notice that the person who is supposed to cut your hair in a few minutes is pissed off about something? Do you stay, or do you go? What do you do?

I had to have a blood test once, and was a bit alarmed by the moodiness displayed by the nurse who was going to be sticking me...I took off and called to reschedule for another day.

And once, upon entering a restaurant, I observed that a loud argument was coming from the kitchen. I went someplace else for dinner that night.

When people you rely on for something as important as a haircut, blood test, or plate of linguini are having a bad day, you are wise to seek another option.

But what if you can't walk out? What if rescheduling is not an option? What if the service is essential -- far more important than your haircut or dining experience?

I read with dismay today that employee morale in the Department of Homeland Security is the lowest of any agency or department of the entire Federal government. The lowest. By far!

You might think morale is a "nice-to-have". It may sound kind of touchy feely. But the reason companies and the US government measure employee satisfaction is that it links up with productivity, innovation, and results. The most successful companies generally have high scores on employee satisfaction surveys.

The scores for DHS are so bad, that it is beyond any doubt a serious threat to the ability of DHS to perform its mission.

Under Bush, we have cronies at the top, and dissatisfied workers below -- a recipe for disaster. We should all be very worried.

From the article in The New York Times:

Experts in human resources said the morale problems indicated in the survey should be of serious concern to the top officials at the department.

"It shows there is something fundamentally wrong at the organization," said Peter Cappelli, professor of management and director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

"If you were on the board of directors of a company and you got results like this," Professor Cappelli said, "you would lean on the managers to fix the problem or get rid of them."

[..] Professor Cappelli... said a poor work environment "rarely drives morale into the floor like this." What usually causes bad morale, he said, are "questions about the overall mission of the organization."

Indeed, fewer than one-quarter of the Homeland Security employees said they knew for sure "how my work relates to the agency's goals and priorities."

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