Take This Department and Shove It!

The worst job in Washington

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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

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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