Why Too Many U.S. Federal Employees Are Tax Cheats and Rule Breakers

The House of Representatives passed a bill last Tuesday that would fire federal employees who've been seriously delinquent in paying their taxes. They did this because almost 100,000 federal workers are behind on their taxes, including 700 congressional employees. These workers owed more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes 2010, up from just under $600 million in 2004, according to the Internal Revenue Service. We could charitably call these folks "rule breakers."

Of course, we've also learned recently that there's been significant rule breaking in the General Services Administration (lavish conferences and now word of excessive bonuses) and the Secret Service (the prostitution scandal in Colombia). Combined, the problems of tax evasion and rule breaking generally point to deep ethical issues in the federal workplace.

The federal government really needs to know what Gallup knows: Rule breaking is very predictable. The more disengaged the workplace, the more employees will break rules. And according to Gallup's 12-question employee engagement survey (Q12), U.S. government workers are mostly not engaged (52%) or are actively disengaged (18%).

Now, it may surprise many government leaders to learn that generous pay and benefits don't predict a great workplace. Federal workers are generally well compensated and receive more vacation days and better healthcare and retirement packages than many private sector employees -- yet they remain disengaged and work within a growing culture of rule breaking.

Bluntly, incidents of rule breaking, and now serious tax evasion, by federal employees will never get fixed until the government creates an engaged workplace with engaged employees. The government's biggest problem right now is failed management practices, pure and simple.

A fair question to ask: Why wouldn't the federal government be the best managed workforce in the world? It has more potential than most other workplaces -- not only very good pay and benefits, but also a rich mission and purpose. What if federal managers suddenly attacked the problem of employee disengagement, turned it around, and transformed their workplaces into the best in the world? This would do more than anything else to restore honesty and integrity -- not to mention high levels of productivity -- to the U.S. government.