Poor leadership and cronyism = dead end job - Recensione dipendente - TSO (Transportation Security Officer) presso TSA (Transportation Security Administration)

The TSA is one of the lowest paid agencies in DHS. They are not covered by the GS scale so your pay is stagnant. The only way to get any sort of raise to is win a competition to become employee of the quarter. You need to win employee if the quarter twice and then compete again with other winners for a chance to earn a 5% pay increase. Who wins is entirely dependent on your supervisor who nominates you and then a board made up of managers. Since there is no actual data metric to determine which officer is "best" it basically comes down to who is most friendly with the supervisors and managers. Cronyism runs rampant throughout the agency. The only people who rise through the ranks are the friends of the supervisors and managers. There is very little chance for promotions, unless you are the type of person who like to schmooze their way to the top. The managers are borderline sociopaths. They constantly concoct ways to make your lives miserable, by making up inane rules and policy decisions that have no bearing on the operation or security. They treat you as a body, a faceless, Number to fit in an algorithm. They have no compassion, or empathy for their officers. I sometimes wonder if they are even human.