Nuclear Watchdog Agency Among 'Best' Federal Government Jobs

At first blush, working for an agency that keeps tabs on critical safety issues at nuclear power plants staffed by the likes of Homer Simpson might not seem like the ideal job.

OK, Homer is a fictional, animated character, cast in the Simpsons as a lazy, incompetent worker at a nuclear plant. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which has the heart-stopping responsibility of policing the nation's nuclear facilities, tops a new survey of "best places" to work in the federal government. The fifth such list compiled since 2003 is the first report card on working conditions under the Obama administration, according to The Washington Post.
At the bottom, only 57.1 percent of employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development -- HUD -- and the same percentage at the National Archives and Records Administration were satisfied with their jobs. Those two agencies tied for 31st in the rankings.

What makes government workers happy? Effective leadership from senior management, seems to be the answer. That's where the NRC scored high, with 72 percent of its people crediting their bosses for strong leadership. Second on the most desirable list was the Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, followed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Smithsonian and NASA.

The Office of Management and Budget and the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency faulted in the past for weak oversight of the financial industry, were downgraded by federal employees in the survey by the Partnership for Public Service and the American University's School of Public Affairs. OMB, which prepares the president's budget and also institutes management reforms, slipped from third among small agencies to 25th.

The SEC, which has endured restructuring and a turnover in top management, dropped from 11th in a previous survey to 24th in employee satisfaction among large agencies.

"We would have liked to see different numbers. But we've been through a lot in the last 18 months," the SEC's chief human capital officer, Jeffrey Risinger, told the Post. "When you go through those kinds of efforts, communication is challenging. There are times when you don't have clear answers to communicate."

Overall, it appears the federal government is a pretty decent place to work. Employee satisfaction was up for more than two-thirds in the polling of 263,000 federal workers. Nearly 79 percent said they were at least "satisfied" with their jobs.

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