A September Work Environment Survey at the National Park Service found that 38.7 percent of respondents had experienced some form of harassment in the past year, among which gender harassment was the most prevalent.

This data represents the absolute lowest estimate of employees who believe that they were harassed or assaulted while working for the National Park Service, as approximately half of the employee population did not return usable or any questionnaires.

The National Park Service has faced a number of harassment and management scandals over the past year, including the head of Yosemite National Park stepping down over allegations of creating a hostile work environment.

According to a fiscal 2017 Department of Interior Office of Inspector General semiannual report to Congress, “investigations on sexual harassment at two National Park Service locations ... led to congressional hearings, international media attention, and actions by DOI to combat harassment agencywide.”

Comparisons between the National Park Service and the rest of the federal government are difficult to make, as a 2016 report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Council’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace provides the only recent numbers on reported governmentwide workplace harassment.

The report found that 43 percent of all federal employee complaints filed with the EEOC had to do with harassment. However, numbers of reported harassments and survey results on harassment can vary greatly, as the EEOC report noted that approximately 90 percent of people who experience harassment never file a formal complaint.

However, that same report noted a significant lack of data on the overall rates of workplace harassment, and called for greater research within the federal government.

The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, an agency in the executive branch that serves as the guardian of federal merit systems, last conducted a survey of sexual harassment in the federal workforce on 1994. The topic is listed on the MSPB’s 2015-2018 research agenda, and a May 2017 MSPB Annual Report Results and Plan indicated that the board had successfully administered surveys on “sexual and other workplace harassment” in 2016 with the goal of preparing study reports in 2018. MSPB has released an Issues of Merit document on sexual harassment with data from their 2016 research, but the board currently lacks a quorum and therefore cannot issue formal reports.

The last three surveys conducted by MSPB show a trend of steady and slightly increasing percentages of sexual harassment for both men and women over the course of 14 years. The 2016 data shows a noticeable drop in sexual harassment cases, though women still remain far more likely to experience harassment than men,.

In addition, the EEOC Task Force’s 2016 report called for inclusion of harassment-related questions on the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the 2017 edition of which was released earlier in October. This most recent survey, however, does not include questions specifically addressing harassment or harassment response in the workplace.

The Department of the Interior recently outlined new plans to combat the harassment uncovered in the September Work Environment Survey.

“Harassment has no place in the National Park Service, and our leadership is committed to a new approach to harassment that emphasizes accountability and respect in the workplace,” said NPS acting director Michael T. Reynolds in a press release on the plans. “We believe that a multi-disciplinary approach that includes policy change, consistent discipline, training, and employee empowerment will reduce harassment and respond quickly when it is identified. We are directly engaging with employees at all levels of the organization to ensure that this action plan meets their needs and is effective on the ground.”

To combat harassment within the Department of the Interior, the agency plans to standardize and strengthen national policies on harassment, increase investigation capacity though adding to the Employee Relations and Labor Relations staff, supporting employee voices and expanding training in harassment prevention.

According to the 2016 EEOC report, participation in training activities is an effective way to reduce instances of harassment in the workplace.

“Participation in training was associated with an increased probability, particularly for men, of considering unwanted sexual gestures, remarks, touching, and pressure for dates to be a form of sexual harassment,” the report said. “The training seemed particularly successful in clarifying for men that unwanted sexual behavior from coworkers, and not just from supervisors, can be a form of sexual harassment.”

“This administration is making fundamental changes that create accountability in the system and will deliver timely, appropriate and decisive responses to allegations,” said Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in the press release. “Employees deserve better, and we will ensure that leadership at every level of the National Park Service is held accountable for ensuring that harassment claims are investigated, and appropriate discipline results when the evidence supports it.”

About Jessie Bur

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.

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