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Show SEASONS OF DISCONTENT In the National Park Service, not all employees are created equal. By Cort Felts I work for the government. After eleven years with the National Park Service (NPS), I still enjoy making that statement. It can be a conversation starter or stopper (an integral part of my interpersonal manipulation technique, which many long-term government employees develop over the years, but that’s another story). I work within the Backcountry Trails program in Yellowstone National Park. Most of work and budget money exists to justify their remaining on the job. Confusing and intricate regulations exist that allow for circumventing the 1039 rule but not necessarily to the advantage of the employee. —Quite often, seasonal employees are excluded from applying for permanent jobs that they might even be over-qualified to perform. Only permanents are allowed to apply for certain positions. Seasonals are still confused about how these decisions are reached and what sort of status is required to apply for permanent positions. To the employees left out the time, our Trail Crew is able to avoid the major controversies that afflict the NPS and the federal government. However, growing up within the Greater Yellowstone area, I have of the process, it seems rather whimsical at best, mean-spirited at worst. been exposed to a variety of anti-government sentiment. After listening to a serious round of federal government-bashing in dark bar deep in the American West, someone will eventually ask me: "What do you do for a living?" --In Yellowstone, seasonal employees must sign a statement that declares the employee is merely a seasonal with no career opportunities and states the possibility of lay offs without notice or reason. This generally is not the most effective method for management to put the best morale foot forward. --Many parks, when hiring seasonal law-enforcement rangers engage in a sort of "glut I tell them the truth. "I work for the government." And not once have I ever been confronted with hateful rhetoric, violence, or derision hiring." Managers hire more rangers than they need or can budget for, knowing that many after I announce the identity of my employer. Instead I only have to endure laconic and snide comments... of these new hires won’t qualify for their commissions. Unfortunately, the seasonal ranger hopefuls who are being over-hired don’t realize that many of them never stood a chance of actually landing a job. and ~-Housing i ina aS park like Yellowstone consists of crowded trailers with leaking roofs collapsing floors t plumbing and heating, and rampant domination by mice, QUESTION: "Why do scasonals only have Icft fect?” ANSWER: "Because they have no RIGHTS.” Keith Hoofnagle circa 1980 (LEFT) While the federal government always seems to have moncy for extravagant projects like the Windows trail ‘improvement’ project at Arches National Park (also known as the Golden Staircase to Hell). funding for seasonal employees ranks last on government priority lists. WHY? wood rats, and other rodents. The average taxpayer after reading the above points may wonder, "So what? These seasonals know what they’re getting into." Some first-year seasonal employees might have an idea of what lies ahead for them but the job-awareness process and overall information flow is very supervisor-dependent, with "Well, at least you got a cushy government job" or "[snort]...damn good job security” or "you're set for life...". The political orientation, life outlook, or shades of red on the necks of those folks who inquire into my work world have no impact upon the generalizations and assumptions that these folks make. From right-wing wise-use advocates to tree (or rock) hugging environmentalists, the assumptions about federal some much better than others at "interpersonal communication" skills. Moreover, consider that the National Park Service has roughly 30,000 employees per calendar year; roughly 15,000 are seasonal. (Yellowstone has about.800 federal employees. About 400 employees land management agency employees are identical: those cats in the ugly uniforms got it made. are seasonal.) Actually, only permanent federal employees reside in the vicinity of Easy Street. The rest of the land agency work force is seasonal within one category or another. A seasonal federal employee has no health care program, no retirement benefits, no job security, and strict limitations on time worked per year, as well as limitations on available training and advancement opportunities. In many National Parks, available seasonal housing would not meet the building codes of even the most lax municipality. In other words, the seasonal cats in the ugly uniforms don’t necessarily have it made. Most of us NPS seasonals do think we are lucky--to a degree. We work in the most beautiful places in the country. We willingly make personal sacrifices--separation from family, spouses or gitl/boyfriends and pets (seasonals, in most parks, are not allowed to have pets)--because we love working and living in places like Yellowstone or Canyonlands or Everglades. Some seasonals sacrifice better money and benefits for the actual privilege of working in a National Park. inclusion--concerning worries. management, visitor experience, and resource protection issues. These are the people actually out in the field, doing the work, contacting visitors, and witnessing the results--successful and unsuccessful-of management decisions. The information flow from these field employees back toward the top is limited and usually (I should mention that in many areas, wages for seasonal federal workers are high compared to non-government seasonal jobs in that same vicinity.) Many seasonals are teachers, professors or work in a profession that already affords them benefits and allows them to work a summer season free of job security, health care, or career advancement The ratio, of course, varies from park to park. When visiting a national Park, especially larger parks like Yellowstone, Mr. And Mrs. American Taxpayer’s only contact with a NPS employee will, most likely, be with a seasonal. Consider the ranger at the entrance station, the restroom cleaner, the person working the information desk at the visitor center, the pot-hole filler, the law-enforcement ranger writing the speeding ticket, the EMT performing CPR, the nappy-looking trail crew moving giant rocks; all are likely to be seasonal employees. Does this mean that the employees whom park visitors may depend on at some point during their visit are among the most valued employees in that park? If the employees are seasonal, then it is likely their value is limited to budget spreadsheets. Federal seasonal employees also want and need more of a_ voice-basic non-existent. The seasonal question becomes even more compelling in the light of all the recent rhetoric form the current Congress and Administration about including more Americans in the new economy. The Federal Land Management Agencies together employ tens-of-thousands of seasonal workers who have little or no hope of career advancement Most seasonal federal workers, however, don’t have the luxury of working in a park as second job and serious morale issues do exist. In Yellowstone, during the fall of 1998, a maintenance division review team determined that low morale was the number one complaint of seasonals in the maintenance division. A recent survey mailed to all seasonals in Yellowstone has shown the morale of survey respondents falls dramatically after two or three seasons of work. In other words, first and second year employees feel lucky, happy to be in Yellowstone, and are willing to overlook detrimental aspects of living and working in the park. After the average seasonal _ employee's second season, frustrations with unhealthy and unsafe housing, confusing and inconsistent hiring practices, and lack of career advancement and the subsequent health care insurance and retirement programs can become accute. They reflect only the major issues or enhancement, no affordable health insurance, sometimes squalid living conditions, and training opportunities that are inconsistent or non-existent. These seasonal positions exist only because the management agencies feel no need to stabilize their workforce, thus stabilizing and improving their overall job performance. And where is the "new economy" for these workers? With all the big talk, shouldn’t the federal government set the example for the private sector? For that matter, shouldn't the federal government set the example by providing affordable health care insurance for ALL of its employees? within a pantheon of seasonal-related concerns. During my 15 seasons (winter and summer seasons between two National Parks), experience has demonstrated that the average American taxpayer, regardless of that taxpayer's attitude toward the government, has no idea bes ey, is involved in ee for the: Scan a8 ‘a Seasonal émployee Much has changed since the first National Park Service seasonal employees joined the workforce in the 1920’s and 30’s. The economic base, health care costs, the buying power ofa dollar inreal wages, as wel as the Se nase and experience expected of seasonals eras change n’t seem to-notice. ‘A park superintendent} will | wistfully #reminisce ne his or her Reis! days. (if they ever were seasonal) and will’ Exa of what the public doésn’t Pow { wee oe of Pérsonnel Mahapéient jules (this2ageticy doés,wha its title says it doés—for '”* ‘take’ Urhbtage at'the notion that seasonals’ just might deserve a little more ‘than they receive. "Seasonals seem to think they deserve to be permanent, simply because they’ve been’ ‘ the entire” Maat government) limit a seasonal employéé’s working year in one location working here for however-many years," a park manager told a gathering of Maintenance within one position to six months or 1039 hours, one hour shy of thirteen 80-hour pay employees last year. “Besides, these folks are seasonal; it’s in their position description..." periods. When an employee reaches the 1039-hour mark they MUST be laid off even if the. % \ ’ ® 10 ¥ “7° ark- |