Turnover rates among top officials at the Department of Homeland Security are so high that the agency's ability to stay ahead of emerging terrorist strikes and cyber attacks is at jeopardy, current and former officials told the Washington Post.
"Over the past four years, employees have left the DHS at a rate nearly twice as fast as in the federal government overall," reported the Washington Post, "and the trend is accelerating," according to the newspaper's review of a federal database.
After examining the FedScope database maintained by the Office of Personnel Management, the Washington Post estimates that the number of annual departures of permanent DHS employees increased 31 percent between 2010 and 2013, compared to a 17-percent increase for the overall government.
A dysfunctional work environment along with a general "abysmal" morale and the lure of top-dollar pay at private security companies is largely to blame, according to employees, citing as a glaring example the fact that the department's terrorism intelligence division has seen six directors during the Obama administration alone.
"It's a very dysfunctional environment, the hardest I've ever worked in," a former senior Obama-administration DHS official told the Washington Post. "There were certainly times where you would say, 'I just got the crap kicked out of me, and I'm making way less than I can make in the private sector.'''
Officials say the high turnover rate isn't just affecting employee morale - it's also slowing down the rollout of "key cyber-security initiatives, including a program aimed at blocking malicious software before it can infiltrate civilian government computers," former officials told the Washington Post.
"The high turnover has meant that at times the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center struggles to carry out its mission of analyzing attacks on federal and private computer systems and responding to them," said the Washington Post.
In addition to DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seen six commissioners under President Obama, and the Transportation Security Administration toxic morale is apparently so low that it's causing employees to miss contraband that undercover agency operatives sneak through airport security.
To begin fixing the problem, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson restarted an internal rewards program and is increasing training, according to the Washington Post.
DHS deputy secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the department has retained a consulting firm to brainstorm methods to improve morale, and stressed that he "doesn't believe the high turnover rate has affected their ability to protect the country."
