{"id":117796,"date":"2021-09-23T12:17:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T16:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=117796"},"modified":"2021-09-23T12:17:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T16:17:39","slug":"army-chief-public-affairs-officer-sacked-after-97-negative-climate-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=117796","title":{"rendered":"Army chief public affairs officer sacked after 97% negative climate survey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Amy Hannah, Director, Army Marketing and Research Task Force, poses for a command portrait in the Army portrait studio at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Mar. 5, 2019. (U.S. Army photo by Monica King)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

US Army Brigadier General Amy Johnston (it looks like there was a name change since her official photo above) was the Army’s top public affairs officer. She was suspended from her duties as the top ranking Army spokesperson after a whopping 97% of her staff describe the workplace she’s fostered as “workplace hostility.”<\/p>\n

Jeff LPH 3 sends in this Army Times piece<\/a>;<\/p>\n

The Army\u2019s highest-ranking public affairs officer and top spokesperson has been suspended from her duties after 97 percent of respondents to a command climate survey for her office reported \u201cworkplace hostility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brig. Gen. Amy E. Johnston took over as the service\u2019s chief of public affairs in April 2019, according to her official biography.<\/p>\n

In that role, she is \u201cresponsible for all communications activities involving the United States Army\u201d and she serves as the principal public affairs advisor to the Army secretary and chief of staff.<\/p>\n

Army Times obtained slides detailing a recent command climate survey that revealed massive dissatisfaction within the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs. A source familiar with the suspension said it was related to the survey, which has sparked an Army investigation.<\/p>\n

An Army spokesperson confirmed that Johnston was no longer in her position, but said she could not provide details about the pending investigation or comment on the survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can confirm that Brig. Gen. Amy Johnston has been suspended and placed on special duty pending the outcome of an Army investigation,\u201d said Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith. \u201cGiven that the investigation is ongoing, we can provide no further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent through her office.<\/p>\n

Johnston\u2019s suspension came in the wake of a command climate survey that revealed alarming conditions at OCPA.<\/p>\n

Of the soldiers and Army civilians who responded to the survey, 97 percent reported \u201cworkplace hostility,\u201d which is a key indicator of potential toxic leadership issues, according to the slides.<\/p>\n

The data also revealed a morale crisis. Roughly two-thirds of soldiers and civilians at OCPA reported low morale in the survey, with only 8 percent saying they had high morale.<\/p>\n

According to the briefing slides, spirits were low due to overwork, poor work-life balance and unclear expectations concerning work products.<\/p>\n

The survey also revealed potential issues with sexual and racial harassment.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one percent of respondents said there was sexual harassment present at OCPA, and 26 percent reported they\u2019d seen racial harassment.<\/p>\n

There have been other signs of dissatisfaction with Johnston\u2019s leadership of OCPA, as well.<\/p>\n

Johnston was named in the Army Regulation 15-6 investigation that looked into how the service handled Spc. Vanessa Guill\u00e9n\u2019s disappearance and murder.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Much more at the source, including slides from a presentation given about the command climate survey.<\/p>\n

Click on the photo above and take a look at the General’s awards and decorations and her biography here<\/a>. There are some questions I have with the awards she’s wearing, in particular the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and Service Medal (GWOT-EM and GWOT-SM respectively).<\/p>\n

According to the Code of Federal Regulations for the GWOT-SM<\/a>, no award stars or bronze oak leaf clusters are to be worn with it. Battle stars are permitted, provided the “service members who were engaged in actual combat against the enemy and under circumstances involving grave danger of death or serious bodily injury from enemy action.” Without her wearing a Combat Action Badge, I’d be curious to know why she’s wearing the battle star.<\/p>\n

The General is also wearing an arrowhead on her GWOT-EM. I’m also curious how she rates that attachment, which is only authorized if she participated in “in a combat parachute jump, helicopter assault landing, combat glider landing, or amphibious assault landing.” Any of those actions would likely also rate a Combat Action Badge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Army Brigadier General Amy Johnston (it looks like there was a name change since her … Army chief public affairs officer sacked after 97% negative climate survey<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213,359,232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-army","category-army-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118273,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117796\/revisions\/118273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}