Individual employees said the freeze lead to excessive workloads and a lack of transparency. Image: 72westy/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe IG at the State Department has said the department is still feeling negative effects from the hiring freeze imposed at the outset of the Trump administration, a freeze that was in general lifted after three months but which State kept in effect for 13 months.
All of the bureaus and embassies the IG contacted for preparing its annual management challenges report said the freeze had a somewhat negative or very negative effect on employee morale and welfare.
Individual employees meanwhile said the freeze “contributed to excessive workloads, and the lack of transparency about the objectives intended to be achieved by the hiring freeze caused some to be concerned about losing their jobs.”
“The hiring freeze particularly affected on-board staffing levels for the department’s eligible family members and civil service employees, which declined by 20.7 percent for the former and by 7.1 percent for the latter from January 2017 to May 2018 when the freeze was lifted,” a report said.
While exceptions were allowed, bureaus and offices consistently described the process of requesting them as “time-consuming, inefficient, and frustrating. Bureaus also reported that they were unable to approve training and other professional development during the hiring freeze because of heavy workloads and department-wide restrictions on detail assignments, which affected their ability to develop their workforces.”
Inadequate and underqualified staffing “contributes to the department’s difficulties managing and overseeing contracts,” another of the major management challenges facing the department, it said. Also on that list were protection of people and facilities overseas, IT security, financial and property management, and internal coordination.
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