The Foreign Service Journal, March 2007

cent) and a desire for more family-friendly policies (44 percent). This shows the increased importance that current officers give to a satisfying personal life. Therewas alsogoodnews to report. Relationships betweenFSOs and Foreign ServiceNationals were overwhelmingly good (32 per- cent) to excellent (64 percent). This confirms our appreciation of oneofUSAID’smost valuable resources, ouroverseasFSNcolleagues. On the other hand, agencymorale overall is suffering, withnear- ly half (48 percent) of the officers indicating that it is low to poor. Onlyoneperson thought itwas excellent, andonly12percent judged it to be good. This is something that our administrator must pay special attention to given all the stresses that employees are experi- encing as the reorganization proceeds. Not everyone is happy about the significant changes currently underway. Many respondents were critical of the “stealthmerger” apparently taking place between USAID and State. The most sur- prising responsewas that 67 percent of the respondents believe that overall conditions of work areworsening! This shouldbe cause for concern, especially because the administrator has repeatedly affirmed invideoandprintmessages thatmost people are “onboard” with his changes to the agency. The USAID administrator’s job rating was mostly fair (48 per- cent) and poor (24 percent) with less than one-third (28 percent) judginghimhigher. Only one-fifthof the staff (21percent) believed that the administrator was doing a good job in securing resources for the agency and its people, although another 45 percent felt his efforts were fair and 33 percent thought they were poor. Here’s a sampling of quotes from some of our members: • “AFSA should be monitoring and ensuring that the integra- tion of USAID into State is done in a fair and equitable manner.” • “The FSLimitedprogramandhow it allows non-FSOs to leap- frog over FSOs who are working their way up [is unfair]”. • “We now have an administrator who works for State, not USAID.” • “[We need] equal benefits for members of household.” • “AFSA should be in the lead fighting for a humane materni- ty/paternity policy. The workforce has changed in its gender com- position and the workplace has not kept up— shame on us.” • “I amveryconcernedthat theSeniorManagementGroupassign- ment process is flawed. There areno establishedcriteria, which leads to poor selection and a lack of transparency.” Wewant tobe responsive to theneeds andpriorities of themem- bership. About 77 percent of youwere satisfiedwithAFSA’s efforts. However, we are still concerned that 23 percent are not. Most offi- cers (76 percent) want us to be more vocal and assertive and see AFSAas both a labor union andprofessional association. Amajor- ity (58 percent) believe that AFSA as a whole should pay more attention to USAID-specific issues. We are listen- ing to you andwill increase our efforts to bemore respon- sive. Thank you for your honest input. Wewelcome addi- tional comments by e-mail or via our Web log ( www. afsa.org/usaid , click on blog link). MA R CH 2 0 0 7 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 79 A F S A N E W S Proposed conversion of the Lafayette Federal Credit Union Please indicate your level of concern over the following additional issues that AFSA has addressed during the past year. Very concerned Somewhat concerned Slightly concerned Unconcerned N/A 30 38 2 21 Low promotion numbers Effectiveness and fairness of the AEF form Fairness in the assignment system Family-friendliness within the Foreign Service Freedom to express dissent 34 38 1 44 38 5 43 30 22 18 26 19 8 35 35 30 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 9 2 17 9 12 7 19 1 1 7 At the present time, do you believe that the overall conditions of work for the professional Foreign Service are improving, worsening, or remaining the same? Improving Worsening Remaining the same 27 68 6 Service in hardship posts should result in “extra credit” during performance and promotion panels. Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 28 40 8 25 How would you rate the agency’s efforts to facilitate employment for Eligible Family Members overseas? Excellent Good Fair Poor 34 39 23 4 How would you judge current agency morale? Excellent Good Fair Low Poor 17 31 39 12