Harassment and Discrimination in the FEMA Workplace

Civil Rights Violations Were Common in the FEMA Workforce

Estimated percentage of FEMA employees who were categorized as experiencing a sex- or race/ethnicity–based civil rights violation in the past year*

* A respondent was categorized as having experienced a civil rights violation if their survey answers indicated that someone from work had engaged in (1) harassing behavior that offended the respondent and was either persistent or severe or (2) behavior perceived as discriminatory that caused a workplace harm. Survey items were formulated with simple and behaviorally specific language (see Coreen Farris, Carra S. Sims, Terry L. Schell, Miriam Matthews, Sierra Smucker, Samantha Cohen, and Owen Hall, Harassment and Discrimination on the Basis of Gender and Race/Ethnicity in the FEMA Workforce, HSOAC operated by the RAND Corporation, 2020). This classification treats the survey respondents' answers as accurate. An independent investigation of respondents' experiences could reveal that some people had experienced civil rights violations even though they had not been categorized as having done so and that others who had been categorized as experiencing violations had not.

Not All Civil Rights Violations Are Sexual in Nature

Media coverage sometimes creates the impression that harassment is typically sexual in nature—focusing on unwanted propositions or repeated sexual innuendos, for example. This was not true in the FEMA workforce. Instead, violations that were sexist in nature were more common—such as repeated, offensive comments that women should not be in a certain role.

Risk Varies by Office

Rates of civil rights violations varied across offices. For example, women in Mission Support and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) were less likely to be categorized as having experienced gender-based/sexual harassment than women in many other offices. Similarly, the estimated rate of racial/ethnic harassment was lower in Mission Support and the Office of the CFO than in some other offices.

¹Excluding the Office of the CFO, which was large enough to describe separately.

² Excluding the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, which was large enough to describe separately.

Some Employees Mistrust Leadership

Despite the majority of FEMA employees saying that leaders would respond appropriately to harassing behaviors, a fairly substantial proportion perceived leadership behaviors as neutral, at best, and perhaps actively harmful. FEMA employees' perceptions of their direct supervisors' responses to sexual and racial/ethnic harassment were consistently more positive than their perceptions of senior-level FEMA leaders' responses.

For example, 24 percent of women indicated that they were neutral about, disagreed with, or strongly disagreed with a statement that their supervisors would report sexual harassment to the right FEMA authority, while approximately 28 percent of African American respondents had similar opinions about how their supervisors would handle racial/ethnic harassment. Approximately 40 percent of women and 40 percent of African American respondents expressed similar sentiments about senior leaders.

Reporting Decisions Suggest That Barriers Exist

Only one-third to one-half of FEMA employees who had experiences consistent with harassment or discrimination in the preceding year had reported the incident to a supervisor or manager or through another official channel. A similar proportion shared their experiences informally. But one-tenth to one-fifth told no one.

The Top Three Barriers to Reporting

• Employee "did not think anything would be done" about it
• Employee wanted to "forget about it and move on"
• Employee was afraid of being "labeled as a troublemaker"

Many common barriers to reporting could be alleviated by ensuring that leaders at all levels of the agency know what to do with reports and have the tools to take action. Supervisors should also be held accountable for how they handle reports and for managing concerns about retaliation.

Employees Need Leadership Support

For those who reported discrimination, most were either neutral about or dissatisfied with FEMA's response to the complaint. This could be because they perceived that leaders took no action in response to reports of discrimination.

Perceptions of Work Environment Vary

In general, men had more-positive perceptions of the work environment at FEMA than women did. This was true for perceptions of supervisor and FEMA leader response to sexual harassment and of the general work environment climate. In addition, African American employees tended to have less positive perceptions of the climate for racial/ethnic harassment and the general work environment climate than white or Hispanic employees had.

Surveying employees again after time has elapsed will allow FEMA to assess the impact of intervention measures and to monitor progress in reducing prevalence rates and barriers to reporting, improving perceptions of its leadership, and publicly and transparently engaging its workforce.