Tag Archives: Poor Judgment

FSGB: Requests For Discovery Fail For Imposition of “Undue Burden on the Department”

January 4, 2022 By in Consular Work, FSOs, Grievance, Realities of the FS, Supervisors, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

 

Via FSGB Case No. 2021-015/November 22, 2021-Order Motion to Compel
Grievant is an untenured FP‐04 consular coned officer. She has been reviewed for tenure by two Commissioning and Tenure Boards (“CTB”), the second of which recommended her for tenure; that recommendation was suspended while the Department investigated the events giving rise to this grievance.
Her grievance concerns a disciplinary proposal arising from events that took place when she was performing passport and citizenship services at a post abroad in July 2017. The Department has proposed a 4‐day suspension for charges of Misuse of Position, with three specifications, resulting from her action in sending, or attempting to send, a photo of a naked baby contained in a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (“CRBA”) file to her mother and sister, and two specifications of Poor Judgment; one for orally discussing said baby’s genitals with consular staff and a second for asking parents of CRBA applicants for photographs of her with their babies
Grievant admits the facts underlying the proposed discipline, although she alleges that she was harmed by bias and lack of counseling on the part of her supervisor and has expressed remorse for the poor judgment displayed in these instances.
However, she alleges that the penalties are disproportionate and unfairly harsh because they will effectively end her career. She argues that, unlike the individuals in the comparator cases, she is an untenured officer, and that having a suspension letter in her performance file for two years, three years into her limited career appointment, eliminates any chance of a renewed recommendation for tenure despite otherwise exemplary performance and the strong recommendations of her raters and reviewers. She further contends that because she is on a five year Limited Career Appointment as an untenured officer, undue delay in the investigation and disciplinary process, in particular a two-year gap between the completion of the investigation of the complaint by Diplomatic Security and the proposal for discipline, has harmed her by precluding any future board from considering her file absent the suspension letter.
Grievant filed a Motion to Compel on August 16, 2021, seeking full Department response to two requests for production of documents.
[…]
Additional details from ROP:

We set out below the two requests in dispute together with the respective positions of the parties.

a. Discovery Request 3: Without revealing any information protected by the Privacy Act, please provide the following information:

a. In the last ten years, how many untenured career candidates have been proposed for any action between an admonishment and a five day suspension?

b. Of those employees, how many actions were sustained as admonishments, how many as reprimands, and how many as suspensions?

c. Of those that received reprimands and suspensions, how many were deferred and/or denied tenure at least once?

d. Of those that received reprimands or suspensions, how many were actually recommended for tenure with the decision letter in their files?

e. Of those that received reprimands and suspensions, how many failed to achieve tenure?

b. Discovery Request 4: Without revealing any information protected by the Privacy Act, please provide redacted copies of Department proposal letters, decision letters and Douglas factor checklists for those cases of untenured career candidates proposed for disciplinary action up to and including five days’ suspension, within the last ten years referred to in request 3 above.
[…]

This Board has in the past denied requests for discovery that require extensive research and analysis of the files of unrelated individuals in pursuit of a statistical or other correlation.

See FSGB Case No. 2014-026 (Order dated April 26, 2015). Grievant’s argument that the Department, because it reports denial of tenure and disciplinary statistics separately to AFSA, must also keep records of the relationship between disciplinary proposals and tenure, both
statistically and with respect to each individual affected, or alternatively that the information she requests should be readily available, is largely speculative and unsupported by preponderant evidence. We therefore find that, taken together, the resources required to respond to these two requests outweigh the likely materiality of the information produced. Grievant’s Motion to Compel is denied.

 

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This Kind of Language Can Get One Suspended Without Pay in the Foreign Service

January 14, 2016 By in Foreign Service, FSOs, Functional Bureaus, Grievance, Lessons, Realities of the FS, State Department Tags: , , , , , , 4 Comments

Posted: 1:25 am EDT
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In FSGB Nos. 2014-041, the grievant, an FS-02 Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State, appealed the agency-level grievance decision upholding her three-day suspension without pay for improper personal conduct and poor judgment.  While the FSGB reduced the penalty to a Letter of Reprimand, the FSO had to grieved the case before the reduction of penalty:

While grievant was serving as Public Affairs Officer (PAO) at a U.S. Embassy, the Assistant Public Affairs Officer (APAO) filed an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint alleging that grievant made numerous inappropriate and insensitive comments (many of which she overheard) – including several references to the national origin of some local and American employees; that she used harsh and profane language that made others uncomfortable in the workplace; and that she exhibited behavior that lacked professionalism, cultural sensitivity and good judgment. The EEO complaint triggered an Office of Civil Rights (S/OCR) investigation during which about a dozen local and American employees of the embassy were interviewed and signed affidavits. The S/OCR report was forwarded to the Office of Human Resources (HR/ER). The Department proposed to suspend grievant for five days without pay based on charges of improper personal conduct (seven specifications) and poor judgment (four specifications). The Deciding Official did not sustain three of the four poor judgment specifications and mitigated the penalty to three days. Grievant filed an agency-level appeal, which was denied.

Here are the things the FSO said which made the Department charged the employee with improper personal conduct and poor judgment:

Specification 1 – Grievant asked the APAO: “What’s the name of the Chinese guy who came to borrow a recorder, who speaks bad English?”

Specification 2 – After a telephone conference with State Department staff in Washington, grievant said to the APAO: “What the hell is that woman doing in that position! She’s not even a real American!” On the following day, grievant allegedly said again: “but this woman is not a real American!”

Specification 3 – In describing to the APAO an event at a previous post involving a naturalized U.S. citizen, grievant stated: “. . . she has a U.S. passport, but she is not a true American. She was Asian. In fact, I think she was Vietnamese.”

Specification 4 – The APAO overheard grievant say – in responding to a question from an  REDACTED employee of the Embassy about the children born to immigrants to the U.S.: “[T]hose immigrants are coming to the U.S. and having babies. Even though they grow up in the States, they are not culturally American.” Her comment in the workplace where she could be overheard was inappropriate.

Specification 5 – In the presence of an American colleague, the APAO, and other local embassy employees grievant shouted into her cell phone, “You f—ing c–t! You already ate?! You didn’t wait for me!” Her use of profanity was inappropriate.

Specification 6 – An American colleague stated that at a social event hosted by a senior Embassy official he had asked what the hostess meant in saying that as a college student she had been a “little sister” in a fraternity. Grievant explained to him – in earshot of several expatriates — that “it means you don’t have a gag reflex.” The American colleague interpreted this to mean that the “little sister” was obliged to perform oral sex on members of the fraternity. In this situation grievant’s comment was inappropriate.

Specification 7 – An English Language Fellow (ELF) reported that in a conversation with the ELF in an embassy vehicle driven by an  REDACTED employee of the embassy, grievant referred to REDACTED as “stupid” and “slow.”

The FSGB in this case finds that “the Department has not proved seven of eight specifications, included in two charges that were the bases for its decision to suspend Grievant for three days. With respect to the penalty, the Board finds that it has inappropriately applied the charge of Discriminatory Harassment as an aggravating factor with respect to the sole specification that has been sustained. The Department is directed to reduce the penalty to no more than a Letter of Reprimand, and to advise the Board of its actions within 30 days of receipt of this Decision.”

Read in full here (PDF) or read below:

 

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A blog mistake hounds an FSO: Despite a good reputation for work, “there was the blog thing.”

July 31, 2015 By in Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Foreign Service, FS Blogs, FSOs, Grievance, Leadership and Management, Learning, Lessons, Org Life, Realities of the FS, Social Media, Staffing the FS, State Department, Tigers Are Real, U.S. Missions, Visas Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Posted: 3:43 am EDT
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There are over 500 Foreign Service blogs by State Department employees and family members. Long-time readers of this blog may remember the tigers who bite bloggers (see Foreign Service Blogging: Tigers Have Teeth, Rather Sharp … Rawr!!!).

When I wrote that Rawr piece in 2011, I wrote this:

I have not seen or heard of Tigers actually yanking anybody’s clearance due to an offending blog. I am aware of private sessions of discouragements, issues with onward assignments, and of course, threats of various colors and stripes among directed at FS bloggers.  And as far as I know, they have not technically kicked out anyone who blogs either —  unless you call the “push” to retirement a payback kick.

Well, State did yank Peter Van Buren‘s clearance afterwards, but it was for more than just a blog.  Occasionally, I get a request to cite a case where identified individuals got into real trouble due to blogging in the Foreign Service. Except for a small number of cases (PVB, ADA and MLC), I’ve refrained from writing about the blog troubles out of concern that writing about them makes it worse for the individual bloggers. In many cases, the bloggers themselves quietly remove their blogs online without official prompting. Out of the abundance of caution.

A recent FSGB case decided in January 2015 shows a charge of “Poor Judgment” against an FSO based on a post in her personal blog written in October 2008.  That’s right. The blog post was online for barely a day and was taken down in 2008. To be clear, the poor judgment charge related to the blog is just half the charges filed against this employee.  But in January 2013, State proposed a five day suspension for the FSO. Excerpt from the FSGB record of proceeding available online:

The Improper Personal Conduct charges are based on grievant’s personal relationships in the summer of 2008 with two individuals to whom she had previously issued non-immigrant visas, and the Poor Judgment charge is based on a post in her personal Internet blog in October of 2008.
[…]
During a flight to the United States during the spring of 2008, grievant unexpectedly encountered another citizen of Country X (Citizen B) for whom she had issued a visa, fell into conversation with him, and exchanged contact information. Upon her return to Country X, grievant was hospitalized in June 2008. While in the hospital, she received a call from Citizen B, who said he would ask his family members to visit her. They did so. Soon after Citizen B returned to Country X, grievant invited him to lunch. Thereafter, the two conducted an intimate relationship for about three weeks.

Later, Citizen A contacted grievant requesting her assistance in issuing a visa to his new wife. Grievant told him she could not be involved in his wife’s visa application process because she knew him. Consequently, another Consular Officer adjudicated and issued the visa for Citizen A’s new wife. Shortly thereafter, grievant posted on her personal blog (using Citizen A’s initials) a comment saying, in effect, that sharing a bottle of wine with someone could be disastrous, especially when that person shows up at your workplace seeking a visa for his new bride. Within a day of this blog posting, grievant was warned by a colleague to take it down, and grievant did so.
[…]
In a letter issued on January 31, 2013, the Department of State proposed to suspend grievant for five workdays, based on three charges that arose from conduct occurring in 2008. Ultimately, the suspension was reduced to three workdays. Grievant’s appeal raised issues of timeliness as well as challenges to the substance of the charges. Grievant is a class FS- 04 Consular Officer who was serving abroad in 2008. In May 2009, a co-worker at her Embassy complained to the RSO that grievant had become too close to some visa applicants and their attorneys and was maintaining improper personal relationships with them. The Office of the RSO investigated the allegations and eventually referred the matter to the Consular Integrity Division (CID). In its report of October 2009, CID found no wrongdoing and returned the matter to post. Nonetheless, the RSO referred the complaint of the co-worker to DS for investigation, but did not do so until January 2011. DS, for no articulated reason, did not assign the case to a field agent until September 28, 2011. DS then did not complete its investigation and forward the matter to HR until late October or early November 2012.

The Board concluded that there was no fact-based excuse for the delay at the RSO level and that there was no evidence of necessity for the length of time engulfed in the DS investigation. The Board found that the grievant had been harmed by the overall delay, caused by two different bureaucracies in the Department. The Board identified the harm as the statistically diminished promotability of this particular officer, given her combination of time-in-service and time-in- class.

The FSGB explains in the footnotes that 1) “She [grievant] was unmarried and remained unmarried through at least the date of her suspension. We mention her marital status only because in other disciplinary cases, an officer’s married status has been deemed a risk for coercion if someone knowing of the sexual misconduct threatened to reveal it to the officer’s spouse. Here, however, it does not appear that the grievant’s marital status was relevant to the selection of penalty or the choice of the charges. Noting grievant’s marital status may obviate confusion, if anyone examining other grievances or appeals should consider this case for comparison purposes.” 2) “Because of sensitivity surrounding the country in which grievant served her first tour, both parties refer to it as “Country X…”

In its decision last January, the FSGB held (pdf) that “grievant had shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the Department’s delay of over three years in proposing grievant’s suspension was unexcused and unreasonable and that grievant’s promotional opportunities had been harmed as a result of the delay. Grievant is entitled to reversal of the three-day suspension for charges of Improper Personal Conduct and Poor Judgment, as well as removal of the suspension letter from her OPF. Grievant is entitled to promotion to the FS-03 level, as recommended by the 2013 Selection Boards, retroactive to 2013.”

While this case was resolved on the FSO’s favor, I’m taking note of this case here for several reasons:

1) According to the redacted report published online, the misconduct was reported to the agency by one of grievant’s co-workers on May 20, 2009.  An embassy is a fishbowl.  Anyone at post familiar with one’s activities, in real life or online can file an allegation. If you write a blog specific to your post, people at post inevitably will connect you to it. A single blogpost, even if taken down, can reach back and bite. Across many years.  State’s position is that grievant’s argument that the Department had no regulations or guidelines about personal blogs in 2008 “does not make her posting any less wrong.” Interestingly, that official line doesn’t seem to apply when it comes to the former secretary of state’s use of private email.

2)  Even if an allegation is dismissed by the Consular Integrity Division (CID), it does not mean the end of it, as this case clearly shows.  After the case was dismissed by CID, the case was forwarded to Diplomatic Security for another investigation.  “Counting from the date on which the behavior was reported (as specific misconduct) to the agency to the date of proposal of the five-day suspension, the period of delay in dispute is three (3) years and eight months.” While I can understand what might have prompted the initial complaint, I’m curious about the second referral.  I’d be interested to see comparable cases to this. I’m wondering if this case would have been referred to a second investigation if she were a male officer? Absolutely, yes, no? But why a duplicate investigation?

3) When grievant departed Country X for a new post,  her continued blogging activity prompted other Consular (CID) investigations.  Since there are no public records of these incidents until the cases end up in the FSGB, it is impossible to tell how many FS employees have been referred to CID or DS for their blogging activities. Or for that matter, what kind of topics got them in trouble.  I am aware of cases where FS bloggers had difficulties with onward assignment, but those were never officially tied to their blogging activities; that is, there were no paper trail pointing directly at their blogs.  This is the first case where we’re seeing on paper what happens:

Grievant states in the ROP that “while in [REDACTED] she did not receive any of the initial positions she bid on. Eventually, she was told that even though she had a good reputation for her work, “there was the blog thing.” Also, she recalls that a “handshake” offer of a Consular Chief position in [REDACTED] was rescinded. She attributes this to an unnamed official’s claim that “Embassy decided they did not want me after CID told them about my history (presumably the blog, and my time in Country X).”

4) Beyond the consequences of not getting onward assignments, here’s the larger impact:  “In 2015, the first year her file would be reviewed without any discipline letter, grievant would have been in the Foreign Service for nine years and in class FS-04 for seven years. In point of fact, these lengths of time in service and time in class fall far above the average promotion times for officers moving from grade FS-04 to FS-03.[…]  We conclude, under the totality of circumstances, that the untimely suspension prejudiced her chances for promotion to FS-03 in the years 2015-2018.”

5) Beyond the blog thing — the FSO in this grievance case was an untenured officer serving her first tour at a “sensitive” country the FSGB would only refer to as Country X. When the FSO argue that she was never counseled at post regarding these relationships (other half of charges is for Improper Personal Conduct), the State Department contends that “any lack of counseling “does not erase the perception of impropriety [grievant’s] actions could create if made public, nor does it serve as an implicit concession that [grievant’s] actions were somehow appropriate.”   \

Well, okay, but ….. 3 FAM 4100 is the rules for the road when it comes to  employee responsibility and conduct. Which part of the current A100 or leadership and management classes are these FAM sections incorporated?  While I can understand the  department’s contention above, it also does not absolve the agency from its responsibility to provide appropriate counsel and training, most especially for entry level officers. Or is this a gap in the training of new employees?  When a new, inexperienced officer is first posted overseas, who can he/she ask about delicate issues like this? Is there a Dear Abby newbies can write to or call for counsel at the State Department without the question trailing the employee down every corridor?

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