The MSPB has said that “despite a lack of quorum for over 21 months” in its governing board, the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey indicates that the morale of employees is holding up, as indicated by their willingness to put in extra work to get the job done and their belief in the importance of the work that they do. However, those results also show that employees believe that communication is suffering.
The MSPB situation is being watched for the impact of a lengthy period of uncertainty in an agency’s leadership–only one of the three seats on the governing board has been filled since January 2017. It’s by far the longest lack of a quorum there, leaving the board unable to issue decisions on appeals of rulings by its hearing officers on disciplinary and other matters. That has resulted in a backlog of more than 1,500 appeals–in some cases employees have appealed into federal court instead.
The one sitting board member is already on holdover status that can continue no longer than March, and while nominees to fill all three seats have had a confirmation hearing, the Senate has not held even a committee vote. If they aren’t confirmed by year’s end–and there have been indications that they won’t be–the nominations will have to be withdrawn and the process will have to start from the beginning in the new Congress convening next year.
For the meantime, an MSPB analysis of its survey results says, that along with willingness to work and a view of the importance of their work, employees were most positive regarding knowing how their work relates to the agency’s goals and priorities, looking for ways to do their job better, and the quality of work done by their work unit. Those are all typical of government-wide responses, as are several issues with the highest negatives–rewards for creativity, whether senior leaders generate high levels of motivation and commitment, whether poor performers are dealt with, whether managers promote communication among different work units, and the opportunity to get a better job in the agency.
The largest increases over 2017 involved whether workloads are reasonable and senior leadership support for work/life programs. The largest decreases were on questions about managers promoting communication among work units and satisfaction with information received about what is going on in the agency.
