Morale at BCFP Plummets Under Mulvaney: Report

One of Kathy Kraninger’s first priorities as director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection might need to be focusing on boosting employee morale at the regulator, which plunged during the year that Mick Mulvaney was acting director, according to a published report.

Among the 27 mid-sized federal agencies that were profiled in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report, the BCFP had the largest drop in morale, more than twice as much as any other agency with between 1,000 and 14,999 employees. Morale at the BCFP fell to 51.7 in 2018, from 77.9 in 2017. The 51.7 mark placed the BCFP 26th among the 27 groups in that category, according to the report.

The report ranked morale at 488 different federal agencies, analyzing employee surveys that were filled out and filed with the federal government earlier this year.

The drop in morale coincided with the tenure of Mulvaney as acting director of the agency. During his year running the BCFP, Mulvaney took a very different approach to the agency’s mission than his predecessor, Richard Cordray, who left the agency in November 2017 to run for governor of Ohio. It’s possible that the whipsaw change in leadership styles and agency prerogatives left some employees feeling whiplashed and those who had come on board during Cordray’s tenure looking to be part of his mission did not have the same enthusiasm when he was replaced by Mulvaney.

Kraninger did say earlier this week that she was planning to embark on a listening tour so she could hear from BCFP employees in Washington, D.C., and in field offices around the country.