Senior Yosemite National Park Official’s Management Style May Have Contributed to Employees’ Perception of Bias or Harassment

OIG investigated allegations forwarded by the National Park Service (NPS) that a senior official at Yosemite National Park had created a hostile work environment for employees by basing management decisions on bias or favoritism and by harassing or belittling certain employees. During our investigation, 12 unrelated allegations of discrimination, hostile work environment, and other misconduct involving Yosemite and NPS Pacific West Region employees were brought to our attention; we investigated those allegations as well.

 

While we found no evidence to support the allegation that the official based management decisions on bias or favoritism, we determined that his management style may have contributed to what some Yosemite employees perceived as inappropriate behavior. Forty-two of the 71 employees we interviewed about the allegations spoke highly of the official as a manager, but many of the remaining interviewees said that he sometimes communicated poorly; that he could be dismissive, abrupt, or overly critical; and that he would often publicly criticize and undermine employees after he lost confidence in them. Some felt the official’s treatment of them was personal or motivated by factors such as gender bias, while others accepted his behavior and did not believe he was aware of it. 

 

The official, who has retired from NPS, acknowledged that he tended to micromanage certain issues at Yosemite and that he was critical of his employees, but he said that he did not consider his behavior hostile or harassing. He said that his job was very demanding and that he had not intended to appear dismissive. He also said that no employees had ever brought their concerns to his attention. 

 

Of the unrelated allegations we investigated, three resulted in adjudication by NPS or other Government entities, four resulted in a supervisor taking some action to correct the problem, and we forwarded three to the NPS ombudsman for review. In the two remaining cases, the subjects of the allegations no longer worked at the park.

 

We provided our report on this investigation to the Acting NPS Director.