Made public this week, a 2017-18 report contracted by the National Park Service catalogs widespread sexual harassment and discrimination within the agency. What’s more, new information shows that many park service employees believe the NPS tried to ‘bury’ the report.
Sepler & Associates, a nationwide human resources consultant, compiled the National Park Service Voices report at the NPS’s behest from December 2017 to April 2018. It sourced up to 1,200 employees, comprising 53 in-person interviews, 27 web sessions, and over 200 anonymous submissions to an online portal. According to leaked emails, Sepler & Associates invited every NPS employee to participate.
The agency commissioned the report on the heels of a 2017 survey that showed almost 40% of employees had experienced harassment or discrimination at work within the last 12 months.
In fact, harmful workplace conditions appeared to have pervaded the agency for decades before that. In 1999, the NPS conducted an internal investigation into harassment against women, but the resulting report produced no substantive changes.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) made NPS Voices public on Nov. 15. It not only cites ongoing disenfranchisement within the NPS, but it also sheds light on the fact that many employees believe the agency actively represses those who have been abused.
Employees point to a nonfunctioning system for reporting and investigating complaints, instances of retaliation against those who speak out, and failures by leadership to hold alleged harassers accountable (pages 9-10).
High Country News (HCN) reported that one female employee, who ultimately left the agency after a male coworker sexually assaulted her but avoided punishment, said, “it felt like leaving a cult.”
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NPS Responds as Employees Speak of Being ‘Treated Like Dirt’
“Management allowed the harassing individual in my case to write the summary of the investigation into his own wrongdoing,” one employee said. “Yes, that is correct. The harassing individual was allowed to determine if they were responsible for their own wrongdoing. Further, management refused evidence and witness statements that supported my claims during the investigation. Management also refused to acknowledge there was wrongdoing and claimed that I was the problem for raising the concerns of wrongdoing.”
Failed Attempts at Accountability for Discrimination, Harassment
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‘The People Who Cause the Harm’
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