FDA Commissioner Issues Laminated Values Card to Address Low Morale at FDA
FDA Week
May 30, 2008
FDA's commissioner has come up with a partial solution to claims of low morale among agency employees: a laminated card describing six FDA values. FDA has printed 12,000 cards, enough to cover its roughly 10,000 employees plus new hires, at a cost of $3,500, an agency spokesperson said.
Employees soon will receive a small, laminated card that describes the six values: accountability, diversity, equity, excellence, integrity and transparency. The cards are small enough to hang next to FDA employee badges or be placed in wallets, Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach writes to employees in an e-mail.
"Sharing these values and wearing the card as a daily reminder are among my most treasured aspects of being Commissioner, because I know the values are derived from the richness of our past but, what is even more critical, they are our compass to navigate what is proving to be a transformational period of time at FDA," the all-hands e-mail states.
The six core FDA values were identified by agency employees last year in a series of discussions with FDA leaders. "They define us as people who have chosen to join with each other in a common endeavor that we believe so strongly in that no sacrifice or effort seems too great," von Eschenbach writes in the e-mail.
"Agency culture trumps strategy. FDA has worked hard over the past couple years to develop a new strategy, but it is the values and culture of FDA that are the secret of its success," von Eschenbach writes.
Many outside the agency, mostly consumer groups and Democratic lawmakers, have long complained of low morale among FDA employees. Von Eschenbach caught a glimpse of the downtrodden mood during a March visit to FDA's Atlanta district.
During the visit, von Eschenbach was unable to elicit the lively question and answer session he had expected. Afterward, he wrote in an e-mail to employees that, rather than boredom or apathy, the real reason his audience seemed detached might be that they didn't trust those running the agency.
FDA has been atrophying for some years, though there has been a considerable effort to prop the agency back up. Some blame FDA's treatment of whistleblowers as part of the problem. Still others believe that FDA's efforts to close many of its laboratories also have damaged employee trust. That effort has supposedly been abandoned, though it remains uncertain how FDA plans to reorganize its Office of Regulatory Affairs.
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