Less Than One In Four Say Agency Execs Are Honest

Focus groups now underway by the Federal Aviation Administration, seeking comments on employees' views of management, have yielded disturbing -- but not entirely surprising -- results: only 17 percent of respondents said they "trust FAA management."

That's not all, reports The Washington Post. Only 16 percent agreed with the following statement: "FAA executives are honest when communicating with employees."

And that's not even the worst of it. If morale is bleak throughout the FAA as a whole, it's even more dismal in the Air Traffic Organization. Only 9.3 percent of air traffic employees say they trust management in the agency; just eight percent say they believe managers are honest.

Not surprisingly, air traffic controllers -- working under a contract imposed by the FAA last year, after talks between the agency and the union broke down -- make up the largest group of dissenters. A full 11,513 -- of a total of 18,762 participants -- were controllers.

Still... coups have been launched against leaders with more favorable approval ratings. A cross-section of all FAA employees shows a majority distrust their bosses... to the tune of 61 percent who disagreed with the statement the FAA "is committed to employee concerns."

Sixty-eight percent disagree the FAA "takes into account the impact of organizational changes on employees," The Post adds.

Ventris C. Gibson, the FAA assistant administrator in charge of personnel management, admits the numbers put morale at the agency in stark relief.

"We do have some more work to do," she said. "It takes a lot to change and turn an organization and improve it significantly."

Gibson points to improvements the FAA has already implemented... including employee rewards programs, and plans to start a student loan repayment program and offer child-care subsidies for workers at terminal control centers.

"We are actually seeing a lot more improvement in the working environment," Gibson said.

The employee focus groups will be completed in the next few weeks.

FMI: www.faa.gov