Frequently Asked Questions

Organizational Health is the agency's ability to align around a common vision, execute against that vision effectively, and renew itself through innovation and creative thinking.  Organizational Culture is the integration in which our employees can thrive and participate in supported relationships (through groups, teams, etc.); striving for a culture that is flexible, transparent, open, respectful, belonging, healthy, and collaborative.  Organizational Culture is the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, and behaviors that influence the interactions with our peers, employees and partners. 

Our agency's health and culture will directly impacts the health, happiness, success and wellness of our employees and the ability for the NWS to meet its mission.  An organization or office that has an unhealthy culture  could lead to unhappy employees (who are not respected, included, belong, etc.), decrease in retention, unmotivated staff, unhealthy work environment, with little creative thinking or moments for innovation.  

Further more, our agency's health/culture is a significant driver of performance: forecast offices with a healthy culture often outperform offices with more negative cultures.  It is quite simple and has been studied by many companies - happier and healthier employees (who are respected, belong, included, feel like they fit into their company/agency) put more time and effort into their work which outputs better products and services making our partners more satisfied and provides them with what they need.  This also organically increases retention and recruitment.  

By creating a more positive culture in the workplace, the NWS can better achieve its mission of protecting life and property.  To view previous survey data and studies, check out our NWS Surveys page.

Oh...and one more thing, by using a “tapestry” analogy, we know that individually, each behavior, or “thread” doesn’t amount to much. Woven together, however, these threads create a very strong system. 

This is where the Organizational Health Blueprint comes into play.  We have built the Blueprint to be a three step process to help your office improve its work environment, interactions with staff , and employee wellness and experience.  By doing this the office will work better together to meet the mission. Don't worry, your office will not be doing this alone.  Each office will be guided through this process by an assigned Culture Lead.   Your office will first use the Organizational Health Index (OHI) survey to assess the health and culture within your office.  If you do not have OHI specific data for your office (due to not meeting the 8 response threshold), then as an office talk about the graphic on each of the Focus Area pages within the Toolkit - i.e. Does your office have Great Transparency & Openness?  Based on  the evaluation, your office will determine two focus areas to address over the years to come.  And then when the next OHI survey gets released, you can reassess the health/culture of your office and the progress made.  Caveat, to see progress with office culture takes time - the OHI in 2026 may be your best bet to see more robust changes. 

First, we would suggest you use the Organizational Health Blueprint to guide where your office may need the most attention in promoting a health and positive culture (Transparency & Openness, Employee Wellness & Development, Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration, or Continuous Improvement and Harnesssing Innovation).  Under each of these are a set of practices that can be done to help improve these arenas.  In addition, there are other topics related to these focus areas that you may also want to explore (i.e. explore the drop downs under each of the focus areas in the top menu).  

Keep in mind, building a positive culture takes more than evaluating what you, your co-workers, and the agency set as core values and goals. You have to commit to it and commit to exploring ways to build and maintain positive momentum.  Also, check out this Inventory of Best Practices from past NRAP Culture Teams for additional ways to promote a healthy culture within your office.

Psychological Safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that others on the team will not embarrass, reject, or punish you for speaking up.  When you have psychological safety in the workplace, people feel comfortable being themselves. They bring their full selves to work and feel okay laying all of themselves on the line. Remember to check out the Psychological Safety page for more information.  

Here is a great article that touches on the importance of psychological safety within the workplace.  Also, here is a great video that dives deeper into this topic.  

The simple solutions is to speak to your SOO or another supervisor about your professional growth and development struggles. Your manager should be pleased you are motived and reflecting on your  job.  Discuss possible suggestions and solutions to help you achieve your potential. If you are unable to speak your supervisors, feel free to reach out to the Leadership Academy for more guidance. 

A great article about this very topic can be accessed here.  As a quick summary, (1) seek a second opinion on whether the amount of appreciation you expect from colleagues or manager is realistic; remember: people are busy and it may be unintentional, (2) praise and appreciate others’ contributions; by noticing a job well done, you help create a more positive culture, and (3) look for ways to make your work more visible.

While not everyone craves close friendship with co-workers, or even desires more than simple cordialness, we all have a baseline need to feel seen, welcome, and safe.  When that need isn’t being met, what you’re experiencing is workplace ostracism: a pattern of being ignored, disregarded, or otherwise excluded. It can be as blatant as it sounds, or it can be as subtle as a shift in body language, eye contact, or tone.

While purposeful ostracism with malicious intent does exist, it isn’t always the case. In unintentional ostracism, people don’t mean to exclude others, or even realize they’re doing it. They could be succumbing to affinity bias (our tendency to be drawn to people similar to ourselves), have a communication style that clashes with yours, or simply have different expectations for your working relationship, and not be aware that your expectations aren’t being met. 

To put it simply: everyone deserves to feel comfortable and safe at work. If that’s not happening, something needs to change. 

Fortunately, there are effective ways to manage/cope with workplace ostracism. 

Process the emotions - It’s normal to have a strong emotional response to being left out. Those emotions matter, and the time to process them is before you bring them to your manager, HR, or the co-workers(s) making you feel excluded.  

Set a safe environment - Determine who you want to speak to. Once you know, set a specific time for it — put a meeting on their calendar, request the chance to talk, or whatever else feels right in your office culture.  

Focus on Impact - You may not know the intent of those ostracizing you, but what you do know (and what ultimately matters more) is the impact it’s having on you. 

Repair - As with any form of conflict, a vital stage is repairing harm. Repairing harm is not about punishment, making others feel guilty, or belaboring a conflict. Instead, it’s about taking next steps that productively address the negative impact. 

Referenced Article

We always advise that when is comes to a toxic work environment to first communicate these concerns with your supervisor(s).  However, we realize that this is not always the best course of action.  Therefore, please reach out to the OOE DEIA Office, led by Pat Brown, for confidential support.  

For additional information regarding tools and resources as it pertains to EEO, harassment, bullying, SASH, etc. please visit the Workplace Violence Prevention page.  

And lastly, here is a chart that is intended to provide DOC employees and managers with a quick reference to resources for addressing employment-related issues, concerns, and/or dispute.  

Assess: An office should regularly review the staff turnover rate. Looking at what roles are turning over the most. Assess when did they leave and why did they leave? Conducting Stay and Exit interviews are important to this process.  You may start noticing trends that your office can then start to work on.

Get to know your people: Build healthy relationships with your staff from the beginning, understand their desires and understand their dreams so you can help them move towards that. Your employees goals are equally as important in your office/agency mission and goals, if they don’t align from the start they never will. 

Employee Growth and Development: Helping your employees along their career path is very important. Invest in your employees with formal training, mentoring and providing them with challenges to push them out of their comfort zone. A lot of the time, employees will leave an agency as they feel they have no future there.

Show Value: If employees don’t feel supported or valued by their manager, it won’t matter how much you pay someone or the perks you offer, they will still leave. People respect honesty and transparency so don’t gloss over issues that cause people to leave. Consider the trends gathered from exit interviews and open conversations with your employees. If it’s something you’re doing take note and don’t be too proud, work to fix it and you will benefit greatly in the long run. 

First consider reaching out to the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Program led by Patricia Brown. 

Next would be taking it to the NOAA level. The Federal EEO complaint process consists of the pre-complaint process (informal process) in which an individual (employee, former employee, applicant for employment, or contract employee) makes the initial contact with the OICR. Such individuals must contact the OICR within 45 calendar days of the alleged discriminatory event, or within 45 calendar days of becoming aware of the alleged discriminatory event. Here is a link to the EEO complaint process poster for more information.

If an individual believes they have been discriminated against and wishes to file an EEO complaint of discrimination, they must first begin with the pre-complaint process by contacting the OICR at:

By mail:

Building SSMC4, Suite 7500

1305 East-West Highway

Silver Spring, MD 20910

Check out our DEIA page which provides a lot of resources and background as it pertains to DEIA.  Also, view this Diversity Terminology presentation by Mary Dunbar of the OOE DEIA Program which takes a deep dive into the meaning behind Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility. 

Quiet quitting has been popularized recently with employees "not engaged" at work -- people who do the minimum required and are psychologically detached from their job. This describes half of the U.S. workforce.  Employees tend to do the bare minimum, and not going “above and beyond”.   There can be several factors that lead an employee to quietly quit such as burnout, lack of engagement, joy and purpose.  If you feel this happening to you, try to talk to a colleague, mentor or supervisor.  Many times it is the office environment that is the main issue. It is important that you see your motivation, purpose and passion within your role day to day.  Check out this Harvard Business Review article  and the Gallup research that provides additional context.  

Please see the Retirement section of the Employee Resources page for information.  The Central Region google site page is also a good source for the retirement process.