March/April 2006 Issue

Take This Department and Shove It!

The worst job in Washington

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


It’s hard enough in these days of tropical storms and truck bombs to secure the nation; it doesn’t help if you loathe the job. In a recent study of 29 federal government agencies such as the Office of Management and Budget and the SEC, employees evaluated their satisfaction with work. They measured those basic conditions you long for when you punch the clock: good pay, teamwork, effective bosses. The final rankings revealed that some workers are less than pleased, notably those at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS):

DHS RANKINGS

Employee skills and mission match

29th

Strategic management

29

Teamwork

29

Effective leadership

29

Training and development

26

Support for diversity

29

Pay and benefits

29

Family-friendly culture and benefits

28

Work/life balance

29

The 29 agencies surveyed are made up of 217 smaller groups. A child of DHS, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), is among them. It hit the bottom of the bottom:

TSA RANKINGS

Employee skills and mission match

217th

Strategic management

216

Teamwork

206

Effective leadership

217

Training and development

197

Support for diversity

215

Pay and benefits

217

Family-friendly culture and benefits

217

Work/life balance

217

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate