Change often begins with someone deciding to speak up and identify a problem.
But at the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, workers who do are just being punished more harshly, the union representing them says.
Leaders at CYFD have said they abhor what its workforce describes as an ongoing problem of supervisors and managers retaliating against employees over disagreements about case management, office politics, disciplinary issues and other conflicts.
But employees suspected of speaking to The New Mexican in its reporting about workplace culture problems within the troubled child welfare agency’s county offices have become the targets of investigations and further harassment, according to union leaders.
“They were very, very heavy-handed,” said Connie Derr, executive director of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “… They wanted to know who is talking to the media, who’s leaking information.”
The New Mexican published an article March 15 detailing current and former CYFD workers’ accounts of their experiences with toxic work environments at multiple county offices throughout the state. That article, which also described the impact high caseloads have in turnover within the agency’s workforce, cited interviews with employees who asked not to be identified out of concern for retaliation from CYFD.
Three days after the story was published, acting Cabinet Secretary Valerie Sandoval sent a letter to workers in which she said she was “deeply upset by its tone, content and message.”
She added that CYFD “does not condone any personal attacks, mistreatment, or retaliation aimed at CYFD team members.”
“I won’t tolerate any of that ever,” she said, before encouraging employees to call, email or text her if they are experiencing those issues.
In the same letter, Sandoval also appeared to discourage workers from speaking with the media, writing that everyone at the agency is entitled to their privacy and that since CYFD leadership would never share personal information about its staff with the public, all the department’s employees should also refrain from doing so.
In the wake of the article’s publication, Derr said leadership at CYFD’s Los Lunas office quickly started pressing workers in an effort to find out who spoke with The New Mexican and launched investigations into workers suspected of doing so.
Spokesperson Jake Thompson highlighted in an email several efforts to address workplace culture problems and improve morale, leading to the vacancy rate among frontline workers being nearly cut in half. He also flatly denied that any of the agency’s workers were investigated following the article’s publication, writing that the union’s account of CYFD investigating its workers was “inaccurate.”
“No investigations have been launched – or are currently underway — into workers who may have spoken to the New Mexican,” he wrote. “The Human Services Director and a senior CYFD leader attend the department’s weekly Employee Relations Bureau meetings and would be immediately aware of any such investigations. None exist.”
Thompson also rebuked the union’s criticisms that CYFD was sending conflicting messages about the issue of retaliation, writing that agency leaders do “not tolerate any retribution or retaliation against employees, period.”
Derr, however, maintained that workers were investigated both formally and informally following the article.
“They’re not being honest when they say that,” she said of Thompson’s email.
Employment threats
Some employees have described feeling forced to leave their county offices, or CYFD in general, following retaliation after articles were published.
In Los Lunas, workers suspected of speaking out have also been threatened with losing their jobs, Derr said.
One former employee, who asked not to be identified out of concern for his reputation, said his managers worked to derail his upcoming promotion, called his job competency into question and placed him on leave — all part of alleged harassment he said escalated after a report was published examining workplace issues in his office that he was suspected of collaborating on.
The worker said the alleged harassment ultimately drove him to quit his job and leave the state. He now works in child protective services outside New Mexico. He added one of his colleagues also left the county office they both worked at for years amid alleged harassment and now commutes up to four hours every day to work at another CYFD office in a different county.
“They will do whatever they can to retaliate,” the worker said.
CYFD has made significant progress in addressing the problems facing its workforce in recent months, Thompson wrote in the email,
He cited a 16.6% vacancy rate among the agency’s critical, frontline Protective Services workers, a number that is nearly half of what it was in September, when there was a 30.9% vacancy rate among those employees.
Across CYFD, the vacancy rate is 23%, down from 28% in September, Thompson wrote.
Efforts to improve CYFD’s workforce include bringing on 72 case aides to help frontline workers manage their workloads, closing thousands of completed cases, and developing a “buddy” system that pairs new employees with experienced ones to help them acclimate, he wrote.
Leaders have also become more available to workers, with Sandoval visiting a dozen offices in April and making plans to visit the rest this month. The agency has also worked to improve communication and morale by publishing monthly videos that provide updates about the department, organizing quarterly all-staff meetings drawing hundreds of employees statewide, and creating a newsletter, Thompson wrote.
“Over the last seven months, CYFD has launched an unprecedented drive to improve the department’s culture and staff morale,” he wrote. “Secretary Sandoval is personally invested in this work and engaged with staff every day.”
Generally, CYFD workers are not supposed to speak with members of the media about the goings-on within their county offices.
Derr said the union never condones the leaking of specific case information of vulnerable children being looked after by CYFD. However, she argued there is little trust that workers can have fruitful or safe conversations with leaders at the agency and said they should be able to voice their concerns.
“I think they do have a right to have that conversation,” she said.