The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2014

12 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL able or fair personnel policy, is truly deplorable. Perhaps AFSA could use Juliet Wurr’s compelling story to kick off an effort to bring HR out of the dark ages. Edward L. Peck Ambassador, retired Chevy Chase, Md. Metrics Can Help In his November feature article, “The Tyr- anny of Numbers,” Ambassador Charles Ray calls an overreliance on numbers naïve and disparages the view that “what gets measured gets done.” Amb. Ray is correct that developing smart metrics is hard. But we should not succumb to the belief that diplomacy is too difficult to measure. There’s no doubt that leaders must be able to manage a host of intangibles and that the State Department must frequently respond to unforeseen events. Those situations require flexibility and adaptability. And it is precisely because we deal with so much uncertainty that a sound strategic plan with smart metrics is so important. In times of crisis, it can tell us where we have capacity to surge and help us prioritize. Over the long run, strategic plans and indicators give leaders visibil- ity on how their organizations stack up against stated goals. In my own experience working on the department’s Economic Statecraft “stretch targets” established by Deputy Secretary Thomas Nides, I saw firsthand how metrics gave senior leadership insight into the breadth of the work eco- nomic officers carry out and its impact on the U.S. economy. The measurements weren’t perfect, but they improved over time. We revised some queries to make themmore precise, and dropped some categories that didn’t reveal much. Although we started off measuring they will have no long- term support if they lose their medical clearance, forcing them to leave the Service, due to a disabling illness that they would not have contracted in health- ier parts of the world. Richard G. Brown FSO, retired San Miguel, Mexico Bring State Out of the Dark Ages Juliet Wurr’s Speaking Out column was painful enough to read for its own sake. But for me it also revives memories of the equally unacceptable and inexcus- able mistreatment of a Foreign Service colleague in the late 1950s. I find it extraordinarily difficult to accept that the problem has not been addressed by AFSA—and resolved—many years ago. Playing in the garden with his daugh- ter during troubled times in Cyprus, an FSO opened the gate when the bell rang, and was shot four times. Rushed to a Navy hospital in Greece, he was slowly recovering, on sick leave, until that ran out. Then he used annual leave, until that ran out, and then was placed on leave without pay! A newly minted junior officer, I met him after he was brought back to Wash- ington, where an official car and driver took him to and from the State Depart- ment for a few hours a day so he could be paid. He told me he had patiently accepted the situation—until he learned that a Navy pilot who had broken his leg while skiing, and was not required to use any of his leave, would receive 30 days of convalescent leave when he was discharged. The fact that similar outrages continue today, in gross violation of any reason- A Disgraceful Situation I was disgusted and infuriated to read about the Department of State’s limp response to the distressing situation of FSO Juliet Wurr, which she describes in her Speaking Out column in your November issue (“Keeping Faith with State’s Wounded Warriors”). During my own Foreign Service career(s) at the Department of State and U.S. Information Agency (1961-1999), I was aware of cases in which compas- sionate arrangements were made and extraordinary assistance provided to Foreign Service personnel who had experienced severe health problems in the course of their overseas assignments. In some cases, those illnesses may not have been due to health threats specific to the posts where those individuals had served, yet the department found ways to help the afflicted officers contend with the implications of their permanently damaged health. Ms. Wurr is clearly a dedicated officer, who has put her own safety and health on the line in a series of extreme hard- ship posts. So it is outrageous that State cannot find a way to support her case more forcefully against the ignorant responses of the parochial bureaucrats in the Department of Labor. It is also scandalous that, in a period when FSOs are increasingly being pres- sured—and not subtly—to prove their merit by opting for extreme hardship posts, the department has apparently not found it necessary to brief them on the need to purchase personal disability insurance. State praises and sometimes even promotes officers like Ms. Wurr, confer- ring special awards on them for their service to our country. But it also sends them overseas without any warning that LETTERS