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Bill Gawley recently retired from the National Park Service after a 31-year career as a biologist at Acadia National Park.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) demand that all federal employees report their weekly accomplishments made me reflect on a snowy February morning before my retirement this past December after a long federal service career at Acadia National Park. I spent the first hour of that day digging government vehicles out of plowed-in spaces at park headquarters. Our road crew was regularly understaffed and underequipped, and their priority was to clear parking lots and roads used by park visitors. To help staff begin their regular duties on time, most park employees from management level on down shared the manual shoveling tasks.
As we got our early-morning physical workout, the building and utilities staff were busy coaxing the temperamental boiler and zone valves back into operation to provide heat for the office building. The funding requests sent to Washington for HVAC replacement had been denied for almost a decade and these band-aid repair attempts were becoming a regular occurrence, and likely still are.
I was a biologist, hired to oversee the study and protection of park air and water resources, so the snow removal was just one of the “other duties as necessary” listed in my job description. My regular weekly efforts primarily involved scientific activities, but my colleagues and I were often required to wear quite a few other hats, including those of administrator, fundraiser, facilitator, accountant, and educator.
That isn’t always a good recipe for organizational efficiency, but it evolved out of necessity and enabled us to get the job done with limited resources. As I ruminated recently about alternate strategies to make federal operations more efficient, I developed my own five bullet point suggestions:
You get what you pay for: A Tesla can’t be built for $500 or a rocket launched for $100,000. Government agencies can’t raise their prices to fund better research and development or cover increased manufacturing costs. They’re dependent on appropriations that are woefully inadequate to support their missions, which sets them up for failure. This must change.
Educate and specialize administrative support teams: Many administrative support branches of agencies are unaware of exactly how their operational branches do their work because they’ve grown out of a generalist government model. Needs for air traffic control are vastly different than those of disaster response, which are different from many other federal programs. Educate, re-tool, and abandon clumsy one-size-fits-all procedures.
Invest in and retain the workforce: There are always instances where short-term, temporary employees are necessary, but this mechanism is often misused. The disruption and expense of rehiring/retraining is an obstacle to both efficiency and productivity, and there should be more focus on attracting and retaining well-qualified employees by offering compensation, training, and opportunities for advancement that are competitive with the private sector.
Acknowledge results and reward efficiency: Contrary to popular myth, many federal agencies (including the National Park Service) do create revenue and all supply essential services to the American public. Help them do better. Keep what’s working, identify and correct the true problems, and provide incentive for improvement. Henry Ford discontinued production of Edsel but didn’t nuke the whole corporation. Then came the Mustang.
Listen: Numerous long-term federal employees have witnessed the inevitable changes in approach and policy that occur with every new political administration. They have valuable experience with what works and what doesn’t. Harness that institutional knowledge through listening tours and other opportunities for input and put it to use.
The responses received from federal workers will likely reflect a wide range of experiences demonstrating the pride, dedication, and resourcefulness of this long-underestimated workforce. I believe that most federal employees share the desire for a more effective organization and would be eager to work tirelessly to that end if they were provided with the resources to do so.
I hope DOGE will begin to treat this sizeable group of talented individuals as allies instead of adversaries.
