Life is not easy for those that dare challenge the plantation culture of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The reward is a scarlet letter "A" - for Agriculture perhaps? The letter "A" is permanent, a life sentence that permits no redemption or reprieve. And the promise is that your career is kaput, dead-in-the-water, trashed. All you need do to earn the letter is challenge the culture.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C. (PR WEB) -- Life is not easy for those that dare challenge the plantation culture of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The reward - a scarlet letter "A" - for Agriculture perhaps? The letter "A" is permanent, a life sentence that permits no redemption or reprieve. And the promise is that your career is kaput, dead-in-the-water, trashed. All you need do to earn the letter is challenge the culture.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently agreed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture responds poorly to employee civil rights complaints. In a 27-page report issued late February 2003, the commission documented shortcomings such as mangled lines of communication, conflicts of interest, and improper handling. For many employees the poisoned environment is nothing less than hostile, retaliatory and especially suicidal for careers. The tale of two women at the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service at USDA painfully tells a story of agency abuses that destroys dreams and demolishes careers for those outside the favored class.
Penny Kriesch, an attractive African-American female, watched a once promising professional career come to a screeching halt. This after she rebuked sexual advances from her supervisor, who also called her a "kinky-haired bitch." The supervisor, caught stealing her house keys, also implied pedophilic threats towards Kriesch's twelve-year-old daughter. The year was 1990 at the USDA.
Thirteen years later, Ms. Kriesch is still a GS-13 and finds herself the target of indignations, false accusations and continuous workplace abuse. Despite sterling credentials, numerous awards, and outstanding performance; her career is going nowhere. "I've endured subtle and overt harassments for over 10 years," says Kriesch. "And I was the one blacklisted, vilified, alienated from co-workers, and cut out of promotions. This is despite the fact that I continually perform functions of higher graded employees, but without the pay, credit or prestige."
Kriesch was further victimized when her job was abolished - after a manager violated confidentiality and fingered her for filing sexual suit against the agency. Later she was suspended for 3 days for failing to follow e-mail directions even though she didn't have access to a computer. And though she was best qualified for a Chief of Staff position, a promotion, the agency Administrator hired another - one with fewer credentials and less experience but a shorter skirt.
Having filed numerous subsequent EEO complaints, Kriesch contends that the USDA is stonewalling the system. "Why so many complaints?" says Kriesch. "The agency refuses to process my case and those of other African American employees. I was simply told to quit."
Kriesch says there are other stories waiting to be heard. "I have had a mother cry in my arms after she was handcuffed in the office and taken out of the building on false grounds. Rather than being punished, the false accuser was rewarded. I had a young man come to me, fearful of losing his job because of sexual solicitation by a senior official. But when the head of the investigation unit himself is documented as making death threats against employees and nothing is done, there is little recourse but the slow-moving courts."
Oftentimes, small matters say big things about agencies. Kriesch's current supervisor insists she use vacation time for an upcoming meeting with Secretary Venemann of U.S. Department of Agriculture -to discuss civil rights. Like adding salt to a festering wound.
And then there's the case of Karin Leperi, a GM-15 Special Assistant in International Services and a Naval Reserve Officer who was told military duties were not as important as those in Agriculture. Her supervisor tried to fire her on grounds that she displayed "Conduct Unbecoming a Federal Official." While on military assignment in Panama, Lieutenant Commander Leperi received a registered letter from her agency stating she was "AWOL" - Absent Without Leave - and was ordered to report back immediately to her civilian job.
Even though her case was favorably settled days before the federal court trial, Leperi says her career is trashed and she is professionally and socially ostracized from the workplace. "Since I filed a complaint in 1994, I have effectively been PNG'd - declared a "Persona non Grata." That literally means that I don't exist - I don't appear in phone listings, organization charts, nor am I invited to meetings. I am stripped of all supervisory responsibilities.
Leperi adds, "I haven't received a performance appraisal since filing, and now I report to my former position - which ironically, has been upgraded to Senior Executive Service (SES) equivalent even though duties are the same. I am SES certified and can be immediately appointed to my former position; instead I am demoted in stature. The degradation and humiliation is non-stop and relentless. All this because I dared to challenge an archaic culture that devalues women and minorities."
She contends that her only work assignments are self-assigned. "This is a tremendous waste of taxpayer monies and a deplorable waste of experienced skill-sets," says Leperi. "USDA is sending a clear signal to military reservists that service to country will be at the expense of a career at Agriculture."
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For further information, contact plaintiff's attorneys:
Alex Talmadge, Esq., 215.498.3763 (Penny Kriesch)
Robert Seldon, Esq., 202.955.6968 (Karin Leperi)
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