Throwback Thursday: Duplicate Job Satisfaction Surveys Sent to Employees
In 1981, two federal agencies sent employees duplicate surveys, asking if they like their jobs, costing $126,729 — $415,056 in 2022 dollars — a repetitious waste of money that earned them a Golden Fleece Award.
Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, gave awards to wasteful and nonsensical spending, eventually handing out 168 Golden Fleece Awards between 1975 and 1988.
The Office of Personnel Management and the Merit Systems Protection Board spent the funds on near identical surveys within two days of each other to almost 20,000 high-level federal employees, Proxmire’s office said when giving the award.
“The thought of one agency spending taxpayer money to find out if public employees who earn an average of $41,000 a year like their jobs is bad enough,” Proxmire said. “To have two agencies sending out surveys on that topic is utterly ridiculous.”
OPM sent its 225-question survey to 13,282 employees, while the Merit Systems Protection Board sent one 83-question survey to 5,000 employees and a similar 88-question survey to 1,500 people.
“This is the classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing,” the senator said. “This only deserves the back of the hand from taxpayers.”
All the surveys asked employees how they likes their jobs and working conditions, how they feel about the pay and performance evaluation process.
The Merit Systems Protection Board said the survey results would be used to see if any federal agencies aren’t complying with merit pay rules.
OPM – who sent its survey for the second year in a row – said it planned to send similar surveys for at least four more years.
“One of the startling discoveries made in last year’s survey was, in the words of one OPM executive, ‘those with higher pay are happier with their jobs.’ We need to spend money to learn that?” Proxmire asked.
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