NSA Morale

The Washington Post is reporting that poor morale at the NSA is causing a significant talent shortage. A November New York Times article said much the same thing.

The articles point to many factors: the recent reorganization, low pay, and the various leaks. I have been saying for a while that the Shadow Brokers leaks have been much more damaging to the NSA -- both to morale and operating capabilities -- than Edward Snowden. I think it'll take most of a decade for them to recover.

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Posted on January 9, 2018 at 5:58 AM • 17 Comments

Comments

Ben • January 9, 2018 6:30 AM

I feel bad for the people at the NSA, they get a lot of bad press trying to defend their nation.

Yes the NSA as an organization has made questionable decisions but we need their services, now more than ever.

Jack • January 9, 2018 7:06 AM

Low pay is a big issue. The NSA is a typical gov't organization where pay scales are GS levels and seniority is how people get ahead - there's little reason to work hard when it doesn't get you anything. It's typical gov't, geared toward the career minded lifetime employee - it's an employment model of decades past. A GS-11 at Fort Meade earns like $62k/yr. Who wants to work for half or less? A GS-15, step 10 pay is $155,500, again for what it takes to get to that level it's low pay.

Oreoluwa Babarinsa • January 9, 2018 7:45 AM

One somewhat funny corner of this problem is the mismatch between abolitionist federal drug policy and the general substance libertinism of techies in general (source : https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d737mx/the-fbi-cant-find-hackers-that-dont-smoke-pot). I wonder how much this problem goes away with a national change to Marijuana's place on the drug schedule.

This said, on a more serious note, the federal government is in many ways a worse version of the game industry when it comes to attracting new programmers. the Feds can offer more job security (though likely not appreciably more than any competent programmer has in private industry) but also provide worse working conditions and a substantially reduced benefits package. Combine that with work locations less desirable to the median engineer (I personally would take DC over SF, but that's a rare opinion), and you have a labor market shortage. I've personally dissuaded people interested in working in gaming or government work to just stick to mainstream industry for no other reason than the sheer cost to career and personal life.

PeterT • January 9, 2018 7:51 AM

I guess low pay is the reason why much (probably most) of the real work of the NSA is actually done by private contractors, who would obviously lack the standing and prestige of a government body, further lowering he morale and increasing the risk of leakage.

It is not a US specific problem, I live in Europe and I have turned down government job offers before, the low pay and my distrust towards them were my main reasons.

mrpuck • January 9, 2018 8:00 AM

@Jack

Yes high pay and increased benefits are certainly incentives. Look how the tech industry competes for talent. Maybe the NSA should open an office on the Google campus? God knows, they have the budget for it.

Bob • January 9, 2018 8:01 AM

@Ben @Bruce

I want to agree too, I can't, and I sincerely don't understand how can you bruce. To me it looks like you can't have the cake and eat it. Criminals are our enemies, yes, and overpowered government entities too. It's not about choosing the lesser evil, its about balancing power as to not end up with a lesser (or greater) evil. If we need a less powerful, weaker, NSA... can we have the NSA we need without first, at least, making it our enemy? Without attacking it as to make it weaker? That means we don't need the NSA, we need a substitute for the NSA, with the same name or not.

Pete • January 9, 2018 8:04 AM

I have a personal morality issue violating the US Constitution, as I interpret it, regardless of what govt lawyers say is the law.

hmm • January 9, 2018 8:09 AM

"there's little reason to work hard when it doesn't get you anything. "

This attitude probably wouldn't get you so far as an interview at the NSA.

Your disparagement of government service because of seniority is to neglect most fields.

edge • January 9, 2018 8:14 AM

While I do appreciate the importance of the org, no amount of pay could get me to work at the NSA. I would hate to be put in a position where there is a high likelihood I might find out about, or be asked to do, something that I'd find ethically troubling. Yes, that can happen at other companies, but other companies don't/can't crush the lives and families of whistleblowers like the NSA does. No other company can bring the same level of scrutiny on its employees that the US can. And at no other company are the ethical questions at the level of: are we betraying our country and the trust of 100s of millions of people.
That's too heavy.

hmm • January 9, 2018 8:19 AM

@ edge

"but other companies don't/can't crush the lives and families of whistleblowers like the NSA does."

That's because TOP SECRET > NDA agreement. It's a considerable step up.

Swearing an oath with felonies attached and often the UCMJ on top, that's not trivial.

You underestimate the will of corporations to quash whistleblowers also.

hmm • January 9, 2018 8:24 AM

"And at no other company are the ethical questions at the level of: are we betraying our country and the trust of 100s of millions of people."

I guess you're right, big oil, big pharma, big tobacco, big medical scan, big chemical..

They don't have that debate. They just rape and pillage and get the money, any means necessary.

The NSA is actually VERY well constrained by law compared to your average large corporate multinational.

It's weird that folks think they're doing this out of self-interest or for some untoward purpose.
It's more part of Grover Norquist's spiel rather than reality.

0Laf • January 9, 2018 8:27 AM

The UK is similar with government somehow trying to attract top class talent with poor pay.

Google, MS and other big big tech firms are offering big salaries, share options and the opportunity to work in nice places like California.

UK gov offers 10% the salary and the opportunity to not be able to afford to live somewhere like Cheltenham.

The golden perks of public sector which once made up for the poorer pay are being steadily erode by government cuts. I guess it's the same in most countries.

Those well qualified and experienced people that I know are only staying with the public sector either for the flexibility or to finish off their pensions.

I know I'll be off to hunt bigger money as soon as I no longer need that flexibility.

Impossibly Stupid • January 9, 2018 8:29 AM

I think it's shortsighted to look at mainly recent events when there is a big morale problem anywhere. Anything new that's happened is usually just the straw that broke the camel's back; you really have to go back a long time to see when things started to go bad and/or what the biggest causes have been.

For the NSA, it probably goes back to at least 9/11. The intelligence miss it represented could have been corrected, but like most thing post Patriot Act, we got a lot more security theater, at best, than real "defend their nation" solutions. At worst, they've been shown to be actively hostile to the security of American citizens. Leaking those programs is not a cause of morale problems, it is a result of the morale problems that those programs have effected. The idea that we "need their services" only applies to the people who work (or worked) for the NSA that are interested in doing what's right.

The NSA's problem is the same problem faced by so many mismanaged organizations: if the good people are walking out the door (or never wanting to walk in in the first place), you need to have someone start kicking all the bad people out who have made your workplace toxic. If you want the quality people to stay, fire the people that make them want to leave.

hmm • January 9, 2018 8:56 AM

"it probably goes back to at least 9/11. The intelligence miss it represented could have been corrected,"

Allow me to correct your record there.

The NSA gave George W. Bush no fewer than TEN PERSONAL WARNINGS about the 9/11 plot beforehand.
One on his Crawford ranch while clearing brush, he told the agent to "Go home, you covered your ass."

The 9/11 "miss" was certainly not NSA. One might ask why the admin sent people everywhere else instead, like Cheney's personal involvement in NORAD's delay, among many, many other inconsistencies.

And one might also ask who benefited from 9/11. UBL asked that on video in 2001.

The CIA was later found to have deliberately mistranslated that - and many other things.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/04/world/reagan-now-says-manuel-was-mistranslated.html

https://www.sott.net/article/273194-Black-propaganda-Probable-mistranslation-by-former-CIA-agent-of-Iranian-military-commanders-speech-sees-phony-threats-against-America-planted-in-press

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21530470/ns/nbc_nightly_news_with_brian_williams/t/was-bin-ladens-last-video-faked/

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osamatape.html


The NSA did their job despite a US regime that wanted their efforts to fail.
The NSA is a tool. It performed. It was ignored intentionally.

That's what really happened on 9/11. George Bush gave Bibi his endless war, and Bibi gave America the victimstance it needed to go to war for "America's interests" abroad.

Some think this is beyond the pale, I'm an *hole for saying that, but if you look at the history of US deception with intel at critical flashpoints where they WANT to go to war but are constrained by legality, (Pearl Harbor, Tonkin, Korea, Iraq, more) legality goes right out the window with honesty, morality, and the will of the public.

Bob • January 9, 2018 9:06 AM

@Impossibly Stupid

"if the good people are walking out the door (or never wanting to walk in in the first place) (...) fire the people that make them want to leave" I couldn't have said it better. However, this delineates the problem I pointed at in my last post. Firing so many people would mean effectively destroying the NSA and starting anew. More so, if we just fire the bad people, more bad people will just be hired, what we need is fundamental changes in the way the organization is shaped. So we don't need the NSA, what we need is a better alternative. We don't need their services, we need an alternative to their services.

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