The National Weather Service has recently faced downsizing due to a significantpersonnel shift in the Obama budget. The White House budget removed one employee from each of the 122 weather forecasting offices. Only twenty-four of these employees have been chosen to be reassigned and will soon be moving to a regional office that will serve as a consolidated "help desk".There are 6 regional offices (Kansas City, Mo.; Bohemia, N.Y.; Fort Worth, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Anchorage, Alaska; and Honolulu, Hawaii) and these IT employees will be designated to the their closest regional office. Each of the Regional Offices will gain a total of 4 employees.Our team (EPAC; Erica, Paul, & Antonieo Consulting), has been contracted to come in and assist the efforts of the NWS through this organizational change in order to produce a team building/trust intervention/activity with these individuals in an attempt to motivate the employees by building relationships in order to succeed in the overreaching goal of maintaining the NWS's mission and vision. After carefully interviewing both the leaders and employees we have determined the following:These twenty-four IT employees' have experienced high stress of keeping their jobs and morale is low. Several are still experiencing anxiety over the future move to their regional office and the possibility of taking on a heavier workload, and none of these twenty-four employees have met. Once the team building exercises have been completed at the NWS Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, employee training for new job descriptions will be implemented internally once they have been assigned and successfully relocated to their new locations.
NWS Mission
Provide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy.
NWS Vision
A Weather-Ready Nation: Society is Prepared for and Responds to Weather-Dependent Events
Organization
The headquarters of the National Weather Service is located in Silver Spring, MD with regional headquarters located in Kansas City, Mo.; Bohemia, N.Y.; Fort Worth, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Anchorage, Alaska; and Honolulu, Hawaii. With some 5,000 employees in 122 weather forecast offices, 13 river forecast centers, 9 national centers, and other support offices around the country, NWS provides a national infrastructure to gather and process data worldwide. Each year, NWS collects some 76 billion observations and issues approximately 1.5 million forecasts and 50,000 warnings.