Who you know, not what you know
Much of the discontent among staff is down to perceived favoritism, a chronic bugbear of many EU institutions. More than three quarters of survey participants said it’s knowing the right people that gets you ahead at the ECB, while only a third said that career progress is driven by performance.
Importantly, the share of those who don’t believe the ECB promotes the most competent people has surged in the last decade, rising from 39 percent to 72 percent.
IPSO conducted its survey between Feb. 26 and March 14 as a status report following up on a survey conducted by the ECB 10 years ago.
“Overall, the situation has substantially deteriorated on all fronts,” IPSO said, pointing to higher stress levels due to workload alongside the lack of transparency over hiring and promotions.
Doing a disservice
Following the 2015 survey, the ECB created the role of Chief Services Officer in 2016 as an interface between staff and the Executive Board, with the twin goals of easing workload for the Board and improving staff relations. However, IPSO said its survey showed that that had backfired badly. Over two-thirds of respondents said they had low or no trust in the current CSO, Myriam Moufakkir, while 66 percent said they don’t trust the honesty of the ECB’s communication on HR.
“They wanted to improve staff satisfaction by creating this special role,” said staff committee chair and IPSO board member Carlos Bowles. “What happened instead is that they cut off our access to the Board and the Board’s access to staff.”