List of Toxic Federal Agencies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CFPB. Constant political turmoil and terrible work-life balance for many. Everyone has “ideas” and it results in a crazy workload all because there is one person with an idea at the staff-level.

Really? I know several people who work there in legal positions, they seem really love it and talk about the positive culture.

Are they the types that love to work 50-60 hours a week for free? So many people are working a ton of hours and everyone has a pet project to advance. It's like they feel relieved the Trump Admin isn't in charge so they just go all out nuts working with glee. There's also a huge issue with pay equity. The new Director also thinks he is still working at the FTC.

To be fair, I heard legal is better place to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USAID OIG. STAY VERY FAR AWAY FROM THIS ORGANIZATION! The all-caps is VERY INTENTIONAL

PLUS ONE HUNDRED!

[Anonymous]

Ok. I'm very curious. What makes USAID OIG so toxic? Way too many people have listed it. isn't the OIG supposed to model integrity and accountability?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CFPB. Constant political turmoil and terrible work-life balance for many. Everyone has “ideas” and it results in a crazy workload all because there is one person with an idea at the staff-level.

Really? I know several people who work there in legal positions, they seem really love it and talk about the positive culture.

Are they the types that love to work 50-60 hours a week for free? So many people are working a ton of hours and everyone has a pet project to advance. It's like they feel relieved the Trump Admin isn't in charge so they just go all out nuts working with glee. There's also a huge issue with pay equity. The new Director also thinks he is still working at the FTC.

To be fair, I heard legal is better place to be.

I work at CFPB and my experience is nothing like what you describe. Extremely chill job and great culture. The only part of this that rings true is that the Director thinks he’s still at FTC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CFPB. Constant political turmoil and terrible work-life balance for many. Everyone has “ideas” and it results in a crazy workload all because there is one person with an idea at the staff-level.

Really? I know several people who work there in legal positions, they seem really love it and talk about the positive culture.

Are they the types that love to work 50-60 hours a week for free? So many people are working a ton of hours and everyone has a pet project to advance. It's like they feel relieved the Trump Admin isn't in charge so they just go all out nuts working with glee. There's also a huge issue with pay equity. The new Director also thinks he is still working at the FTC.

To be fair, I heard legal is better place to be.

I work at CFPB and my experience is nothing like what you describe. Extremely chill job and great culture. The only part of this that rings true is that the Director thinks he’s still at FTC.

Same poster as above. Your thing about random “ideas” causing a huge workload is so specific I think I can guess what you’re working on. That is definitely not the culture bureau-wide. You should try to detail to a different group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HUD. It's not toxic--just ghetto!

What does this mean, exactly? I work at HUD after a decade at a couple of agencies and it is the best place I’ve worked hands down. Great mission, caring team environment, I have been pleasantly surprised. Of course we have the same bureaucratic hurdles as other agencies but I feel pretty lucky to be at HUD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CFPB. Constant political turmoil and terrible work-life balance for many. Everyone has “ideas” and it results in a crazy workload all because there is one person with an idea at the staff-level.

Really? I know several people who work there in legal positions, they seem really love it and talk about the positive culture.

Are they the types that love to work 50-60 hours a week for free? So many people are working a ton of hours and everyone has a pet project to advance. It's like they feel relieved the Trump Admin isn't in charge so they just go all out nuts working with glee. There's also a huge issue with pay equity. The new Director also thinks he is still working at the FTC.

To be fair, I heard legal is better place to be.

I work at CFPB and my experience is nothing like what you describe. Extremely chill job and great culture. The only part of this that rings true is that the Director thinks he’s still at FTC.

Same poster as above. Your thing about random “ideas” causing a huge workload is so specific I think I can guess what you’re working on. That is definitely not the culture bureau-wide. You should try to detail to a different group.

You give me some hope.

[Anonymous]

CRS

Some sections are better than others and some divisions are better than others - you can have a good experience if you are lucky enough to land in the right place - but overall, it's very poorly managed. Semi-recent congressional hearings turned the spotlight on the toxicity (a little bit) but nothing really changed. The whole agency needs a cultural and management overhaul.

[Anonymous]

DEA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID OIG and State department seem like the winners of the most toxic agencies. They both have been mentioned by several posters!

I work at State on the CS side and quite like it. Some parts of it are better than others. There are some bureaus that can’t keep people because of the toxic culture within.

My spouse is at state and I think would say his office is less toxic than it used to be, but he’s incredibly overworked. He regularly works 10 hour days and with the commute that leaves little time for anything else, like working out. It’s starting to wear on both of us because when our kids participate in evening activities he insists on signing up for say, 630pm swim lessons rather than just working a normal 8hr day on those days (we have a toddler too so I can’t manage everything on top of my own job).

Yes, this. Overwork is very common in some offices and it leads to burnout. But it's not always easy to anticipate work due to crazy world events arising (coups, natural disasters, etc), and the staffing policies are so bureaucratic and inflexible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok. I'm very curious. What makes USAID OIG so toxic? Way too many people have listed it. isn't the OIG supposed to model integrity and accountability?

Excellent question. Not sure if it is toxic, but it certainly could use improvement. One of the issues is the constant revolving door of people coming and going, management changes often, and not always for the better. When new management come in, they want to make the place better immediately so lots of change happens and it is mostly mismanaged and poorly communicated. It would probably be better if the SES used an actual change management model to help this along. First level managers don't have the ability to build highly functioning teams because of the retention issues. Also, GC is so far in the weeds on the day to day work that they basically are the ones giving direction to the operational units, which is odd because in other OIGs, the GC sections are usually there just to ensure the publicly release work product is legally sufficient.

Every year there are about 3 surveys that come out, there is a nearly 80% response rate which typically says that there are problems. The results are communicated to the staff after they have gone through a lot of review by the SES. Unsure if they are sanitized, but the common theme here, year after year, is the SES and 15s need to do better. Problem is the SES and 15s tend to throw blame on the staff and first line supervisors, yet the first line supervisors are receiving highly rated scores. Perhaps that makes it toxic, I don't know.

All I can say is if you want to work in the development community, this is a good place to get that exposure. If you have a huge ego and are always right, you will find that you have good company, much like the culture at State. If you enjoy micromanagement from the highest levels, constantly changing directives, gaslighting around every corner, and a staff that is here one day and gone the next, go to USAJobs and sign up, there are always announcements out there.

[Anonymous]

HUD. It's not toxic--just ghetto!


What does this mean, exactly? I work at HUD after a decade at a couple of agencies and it is the best place I’ve worked hands down. Great mission, caring team environment, I have been pleasantly surprised. Of course we have the same bureaucratic hurdles as other agencies but I feel pretty lucky to be at HUD.

I think it depends. I used to work in HUD OGC. OGC was fairly well run, and I had no major issues with it. However, several of the program offices that my OGC office supported seemed to be a total mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CFPB. Constant political turmoil and terrible work-life balance for many. Everyone has “ideas” and it results in a crazy workload all because there is one person with an idea at the staff-level.

Really? I know several people who work there in legal positions, they seem really love it and talk about the positive culture.

Are they the types that love to work 50-60 hours a week for free? So many people are working a ton of hours and everyone has a pet project to advance. It's like they feel relieved the Trump Admin isn't in charge so they just go all out nuts working with glee. There's also a huge issue with pay equity. The new Director also thinks he is still working at the FTC.

To be fair, I heard legal is better place to be.

I work at CFPB and my experience is nothing like what you describe. Extremely chill job and great culture. The only part of this that rings true is that the Director thinks he’s still at FTC.

Now I'm really curious about this. Is the problem with the Director thinking he's still at the FTC about work load, or the things he thinks the CFPB can work on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. I'm very curious. What makes USAID OIG so toxic? Way too many people have listed it. isn't the OIG supposed to model integrity and accountability?

Excellent question. Not sure if it is toxic, but it certainly could use improvement. One of the issues is the constant revolving door of people coming and going, management changes often, and not always for the better. When new management come in, they want to make the place better immediately so lots of change happens and it is mostly mismanaged and poorly communicated. It would probably be better if the SES used an actual change management model to help this along. First level managers don't have the ability to build highly functioning teams because of the retention issues. Also, GC is so far in the weeds on the day to day work that they basically are the ones giving direction to the operational units, which is odd because in other OIGs, the GC sections are usually there just to ensure the publicly release work product is legally sufficient.

Every year there are about 3 surveys that come out, there is a nearly 80% response rate which typically says that there are problems. The results are communicated to the staff after they have gone through a lot of review by the SES. Unsure if they are sanitized, but the common theme here, year after year, is the SES and 15s need to do better. Problem is the SES and 15s tend to throw blame on the staff and first line supervisors, yet the first line supervisors are receiving highly rated scores. Perhaps that makes it toxic, I don't know.

All I can say is if you want to work in the development community, this is a good place to get that exposure. If you have a huge ego and are always right, you will find that you have good company, much like the culture at State. If you enjoy micromanagement from the highest levels, constantly changing directives, gaslighting around every corner, and a staff that is here one day and gone the next, go to USAJobs and sign up, there are always announcements out there.

Yes. Punching down will make good people want to leave and then the people that become 15s and SES will be the type that will also punch down. Sounds like a bad cycle.

[Anonymous]

Worked at 3 agencies and Peace Corps has been the best. Great people, great mission.