The Foreign Service Journal, January 2007

Half of those taking the survey (52 percent) concurred that “The front office manages the post’s oper- ations in a way that brings out the best in all employees (including Foreign Service Nationals) and shows it values our input.” Even higher percentages praised the FSN staff as competent and helpful (52 percent agreed strongly, while 29 percent agreed somewhat); felt that “Post security procedures are sufficient to cope with local threats but still allow us to make contacts and do our jobs” (76 percent total); and agreed that “The man- agement section meets requests in a timely, responsive manner” (60 percent). Family Issues For most of the questions in this section, the “non- applicable/unable to answer” option garnered the most responses, though a clear majority (59 percent) agreed, somewhat or strongly, with the statement that “Post management is family-friendly (e.g., it grants leave to stay home with a sick child).” Though more than half of the sample had no opin- ion as to the adequacy of local schools, those who felt they were fine (35 percent) considerably out- numbered those who disagreed (8 percent). Similarly, 40 percent agreed somewhat or strongly that “Child care is available and affordable,” with just 7 percent taking issue with that assessment. Family member employment was a similarly divisive issue. Only a quarter of respondents said their spouse or partner was able to find satisfactory employment in the embassy, while 22 percent disagreed somewhat or strongly. The situation in the local economy was even more dire: 24 percent reported that their spouse/part- C O V E R S T O R Y J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29 The response rates track closely with each foreign affairs agency’s share of the Foreign Service population.