'Inherited a mess': CSIS employees applaud director's blunt memo on 'systemic' issues at spy agency
OTTAWA — A stark June memo from the director of Canada’s spy agency highlighting culture and morale issues at the service was applauded by employees relieved that management was no longer sugar-coating longstanding workplace issues.
The emails from Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) employees to Director Daniel Rogers reveal some workers were frustrated with years of senior management failing to acknowledge lacklustre employee survey results and serious systemic issues.
National Post obtained a dozen pages of CSIS emails via access to information request. All employee names in the emails except Rogers’ are redacted.
“I cannot recall, in my almost 18 years of service, ever hearing anything of the sort from management, where there is a recognition of an obvious systemic issue within the organization,” one employee wrote to Daniels in June.
“It feels as though the organization is sick and the doctors haven’t been admitting it,” they continued, adding that the memo brought them to tears.
The emails were sent to Rogers in response to an agency-wide memo he sent in June highlighting many of the poor results for CSIS in the sweeping biennial survey that covers workplace morale and satisfaction, trust in leadership and overall effectiveness.
“I’ll be candid about what I’ve seen: the results are disappointing and unacceptable,” Rogers wrote to staff in a blunt memo in which he committed to improving workplace culture and leadership.
“Low morale across our workforce and lack of trust in leadership not only affect our ability to achieve mission success, but weaken trust in our Service by Canadians and our Government at a time when we are needed most,” he added while noting CSIS is not acting at its “full potential”.
Culture change at CSIS — long and often promised but slowly (if ever) delivered — will be management’s “overriding priority” over the next year, the director promised.
That includes tying executives’ bonuses to the implementation of updated corporate commitments that emphasize a healthy, effective and ambitious workplace. Rogers also committed to reviewing how CSIS chooses, evaluates and trains its managers.
The 2024 poll was the latest of a series PSES results that place CSIS near the bottom of the public service.
After Daniels’ memo was posted internally, multiple individuals told the director that they had received exclusively positive reactions from staff.
“In the past when the PSES message had a positive twist, the feedback from employees was that (the executive committee) was tone-deaf,” one person wrote. “Employees seem to like the honesty of this current PSES message. Not trying to sugar coat it or my favourite comment ‘no sunshine pumping there!’.”
“This seems to be the first time that our Executives even acknowledges the bad things as opposed to only focusing on the good,” wrote another employee.
One emailer took a swipe at previous CSIS management, telling Rogers he had “inherited a mess” when he took over the agency in Oct. 2024.
“Messages like that help set the tone that it’s time to clean up our act,” they wrote of the memo.
Others seized the opportunity to tell Rogers about the issues that plague their work at the spy agency.
One individual wrote that their biggest issue was a lack of decision making among managers while suggesting their directorate had too many projects tagged at the top priority level.
“To me it seems that senior management is unable/unwilling to make decisions and just marks everything as priority 1, and then goes with the flow,” they wrote. “Our attention is being too thinly spread out so it seems nothing is progressing, at least from my point of view.”
The employee with nearly 18 years of service told Rogers that “management-level denial” of systemic workplace issues has led to the departure of an “unprecedented number” of seasoned employees over the last eight years.
The 2024 survey suggested only half (51 per cent) of CSIS respondents believe senior managers “lead by example in ethical behaviour” and 57 per cent said that the agency does well at promoting values and ethics in the workplace.
Far fewer respondents (40 per cent) said they have confidence in top management, whereas barely 29 per cent believed senior management makes “effective and timely decisions.”
In a statement, CSIS spokesperson Magali Hébert said the agency has made multiple changes in response to either direct employee feedback or the PSES results.
“Recent examples include a renewed executive talent management framework, revised appointment authorities for executive staffing decisions, and renewal of senior official champions roles in the areas of values and ethics, employee recognition and health, and executive leadership engagement,” Hébert noted.
National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com
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