In 2014, an independent federal agency in charge of researching and enforcing civil service laws across government decided it wanted to know more about federal employees’ experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace.
In 2016, that agency—the Merit Systems Protection Board—sent a detailed survey to 114,000 employees across two-dozen agencies to solicit the information.
The response rate was impressive. MSPB received completed surveys from more than 42,000 employees, offering the first such insights into sexual harassment at federal agencies in more than 20 years. The agency took a little more than a year to review the responses and compile a report. By early 2018, it was ready for release.
There was only one problem: the agency was statutorily prohibited from releasing it.
Due to congressional inaction, MSPB had lost the quorum on its central board. It could no longer issue decisions that agencies or employees appealed to that level, nor could it issue its research. The agency put out a brief summary of its findings, but it included few details.
Earlier this year, after five years without one, the Senate finally restored MSPB’s quorum and on Monday, MSPB finally released the report. The data, now six years old, hardly presents a snapshot of employees’ current experiences with sexual harassment. Still, the data is out there, and while many agencies have issued sweeping new sexual harassment policies, they can glean potential lessons. MSPB is back to fully...
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