A new report from the Government Accountability Office discusses ways that federal agencies can more effectively address employee misconduct.
GAO said that an average of less than 1 percent (17,000) of the federal government’s 2.1 million employees are formally disciplined for misconduct annually. While this is a very small number, GAO notes that even a few cases of employee misconduct can have significant impacts on workplace morale and impede an agency’s efforts to achieve its mission.
Based on data from the Office of Personnel Management, federal agencies made 10,249 suspensions, 7,411 removals, and 114 demotions for misconduct in 2016. However, GAO said that because of weaknesses in OPM’s data on employee misconduct, which is provided by the agencies, OPM is unable to accurately target supervisory training to address misconduct, and decision-makers do not know the full extent or nature of this misconduct.
Examples of Misconduct
Examples of employee misconduct can include:
- time and attendance infractions
- intoxication
- workplace violence
- physical aggression toward an employee
- improper use of a government-issued credit card
- misuse of government equipment (such as viewing pornography or gambling)
- use of public position for private gain
- behavior that affects national security
Challenges in Addressing Employee Misconduct
The GAO report went into a very lengthy explanation of the process agencies and supervisors have to go through to address federal employee misconduct issues under US Code. This graphic from the GAO report illustrates the process:
A copy of the full report is included below.
