TSA Struggles To Reduce Persistent Turnover
Feb 25, 2008 | 6:00 pm
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TSA Struggles To Reduce Persistent Turnover
TSA struggles to reduce persistent turnover
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
Gil Harris sees a lot of new security screeners start jobs at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport — and he sees a lot of them quit.
Starting as part-time workers, the Transportation Security Administration screeners hope their jobs quickly become full-time. But in Buffalo, "it takes about a year to end up full-time," says Harris, a TSA instructor at the airport. "A lot of them end up leaving."
A similar scenario is unfolding in airports across the country, as the agency created after 9/11 to protect airplanes from terrorists struggles to keep screeners on the job.
Airport security screeners have some of the worst job turnover of federal workers despite a $100-million effort to improve salaries and work duties, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows.
One in five screeners left between Oct. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2007, federal Office of Personnel Management figures show. The turnover rate was identical the year before. Attrition for the rest of the federal government was 8% in 2006-07.
Full story here.
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
Gil Harris sees a lot of new security screeners start jobs at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport — and he sees a lot of them quit.
Starting as part-time workers, the Transportation Security Administration screeners hope their jobs quickly become full-time. But in Buffalo, "it takes about a year to end up full-time," says Harris, a TSA instructor at the airport. "A lot of them end up leaving."
A similar scenario is unfolding in airports across the country, as the agency created after 9/11 to protect airplanes from terrorists struggles to keep screeners on the job.
Airport security screeners have some of the worst job turnover of federal workers despite a $100-million effort to improve salaries and work duties, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows.
One in five screeners left between Oct. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2007, federal Office of Personnel Management figures show. The turnover rate was identical the year before. Attrition for the rest of the federal government was 8% in 2006-07.
Full story here.
Feb 25, 2008 | 6:23 pm
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That $100 million doesn't do much when you start forcing full-timers to do split-shifts every day. Heck, they even make part-timers do split shifts.
Yeah, an extra few unpaid hours in uniform (new or not). That's how to keep people around.
It's funny how turnover, while admittedly not at the levels of private security firms, is a thorn in the side of the TSA. Supposedly, those "high salaries" were to retain people. The cost of living and the amount of BS in the TSA obviously were not accounted for.
That sound you hear in the background is another $100 million of our money being flushed down the toilet.
Yeah, an extra few unpaid hours in uniform (new or not). That's how to keep people around.
It's funny how turnover, while admittedly not at the levels of private security firms, is a thorn in the side of the TSA. Supposedly, those "high salaries" were to retain people. The cost of living and the amount of BS in the TSA obviously were not accounted for.
That sound you hear in the background is another $100 million of our money being flushed down the toilet.
Feb 25, 2008 | 6:31 pm
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Destroy this disgusting and wasteful agency!!
Destroy this disgusting and wasteful agency!!
Feb 25, 2008 | 9:04 pm
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Feb 25, 2008 | 9:07 pm
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Well, we don't need more FAMs since terrorists are not boarding aircraft. If we have to spend $100 million more I would spend it on agencies upstream of both the TSA and the FAMs
Feb 25, 2008 | 9:14 pm
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Feb 26, 2008 | 10:07 am
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In all reality the $100 million likely isn't from "taxpayer funds", but more borrowed money from Communist China and the great democracy known as Saudi Arabia to fund the US govt and drive the national debt higher and higher...
Feb 26, 2008 | 10:33 am
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Well, not right away.
Feb 26, 2008 | 10:44 am
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Feb 26, 2008 | 10:54 am
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Feb 27, 2008 | 2:44 pm
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Turnover rate could be much higher - article
This is a really telling article about the true turnover rate. Since the TSA refuses to disclose the rate (even to Congress), the author of this article did a little math - gleaned from the TSA blog. She estimates that out of 110,000 screeners hired, 67,000 of them have moved on!
Other interesting stuff from the article:
Other interesting stuff from the article:
In the fall of last year, a man in a dark suit walked into a UPS Store in Las Vegas, Nevada, flashed a badge, identified himself to the store manager as a Special Agent H. Charles Maurer of the Department of Homeland Security and demanded to see private files on an individual who keeps a postal box there. Familiar with state law, the store manager, M. E. Burks, told the man that he’d have to produce a subpoena first.
According to a federal grievance document viewed by this reporter, the federal agent told the store manager, “I don’t need a subpoena, I have this badge. Now, get me the files.” Burks refused to hand anything over and notified the customer in question instead. The customer, as it turned out, was a U.S. Federal Air Marshal named P. Jeffrey Black. Special Agent Maurer was his boss and was conducting an extrajudicial and unauthorized investigation on Black.
...
So, why do so many TSA employees leave their jobs? This reporter asked the TSA. “All the TSA employees I talk to love their job,” agency spokesman Christopher White said in an interview last November, adding, “Employees who complain about TSA should go get a new job.”
And to the tune of 67,000 of them, it’s clear that they have.
According to a federal grievance document viewed by this reporter, the federal agent told the store manager, “I don’t need a subpoena, I have this badge. Now, get me the files.” Burks refused to hand anything over and notified the customer in question instead. The customer, as it turned out, was a U.S. Federal Air Marshal named P. Jeffrey Black. Special Agent Maurer was his boss and was conducting an extrajudicial and unauthorized investigation on Black.
...
So, why do so many TSA employees leave their jobs? This reporter asked the TSA. “All the TSA employees I talk to love their job,” agency spokesman Christopher White said in an interview last November, adding, “Employees who complain about TSA should go get a new job.”
And to the tune of 67,000 of them, it’s clear that they have.
Feb 27, 2008 | 2:47 pm
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Originally Posted by TSA Spokeshole Christopher White
“All the TSA employees I talk to love their job,” agency spokesman Christopher White said in an interview last November, adding, “Employees who complain about TSA should go get a new job.”
This is such typical arrogance by this disgusting, un-American agency.