While the National Park Service stands atop all federal agencies in terms of favorability rankings, the agency’s employees rank it as one of the worst places to work in the federal government.
In the Best Places To Work In the Federal Government rankings released Monday, the Park Service’s employees ranked it in the bottom 25 percent of 459 agencies, while its parent, the Interior Department, ranked above average.
The Best Places survey is not an outlier in its poor portrayal of the Park Service as a place to work. Last fall Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, citing internal Park Service documents and federal surveys, noted that workforce morale continues to fall, employee flight from the agency is growing, and the agency’s directorate has been failing to reverse those trends. Employee attrition has risen, reaching 28 percent in 2022, up from 17 percent in 2018, said PEER, and Park Service pay levels and housing conditions — a key factor in employee satisfaction levels — depend on congressional appropriations, something out of Park Service Director Chuck Sams’ control.