The fallout of the VA scandal, and in particular continued issues with reprisal against employees who made disclosures or cooperated with investigations into disclosures made by others, continues to weigh on employees’ views of working at that department.
VA has released a breakdown of its own results in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey taken in the spring showing, for example, that only 57 percent of its employees believe they can disclose a violation without fear of reprisal, compared with 61 percent government-wide. And only 60 percent agreed that prohibited personnel practices–of which retaliating against a whistleblower is one–are not tolerated, compared with 66 percent.
Similarly, only 48 percent believe that arbitrary actions, personal favoritism at coercion for partisan political reasons are not tolerated there, compared with 51 percent.
Other signs of the state of the VA workplace include notably lower positive responses, compared to government-wide figures, on questions including whether they have a feeling of personal empowerment over the work processes, 40 vs. 45 percent, and their people in their workplace cooperate to get the job done, 67 vs. 73.
Views of senior leaders also were more strongly negative than government-wide. Only 44 percent agree their senior leaders maintain high levels of honesty and integrity, vs. 55 percent, and only 36 percent say their senior leaders generate high levels of motivation and commitment in the workforce, vs. 43 percent.