SAN DIEGO — Morale of city employees is down citywide but none more so than San Diego firefighters and police officers, according to the city of San Diego's annual Employee Sentiment Workforce Report.
On Monday, November 14, the city council will discuss the findings of the workforce sentiment report. Those findings reveal only two departments citywide, Risk Management and the IT Department, as having a 50% satisfaction rate.
At the very bottom of the list of departments when it came to how satisfied they are with their job was the city's police and fire departments, as the two departments battle with staffing shortages and high attrition rates.
When asked to rank how satisfied they are will their job and their work conditions only 5% of firefighters reported a 9 or a 10 out of 10. In regards to actual positions, the Fire Fighter 3 and Fire Fighter 2 positions rated their overall satisfaction rate to be 1.3 and 1.9%, the lowest citywide.
Meanwhile, city librarians reported the highest overall satisfaction rating at 49.2%.
Police and fire Departments were also at the bottom of the list when looked at the department level with 6% average satisfaction score for the Fire Department and 18% for San Diego Police.
The low percentages led the authors of the report to suggest that changes to be made.
"Leadership at the branch level should work to understand the root causes of satisfaction variation across their departments. Department directors should work with branch leadership to determine lessons from highly satisfied departments and identify possible strategies to apply to less satisfied departments," reads the report.
In recent years, San Diego's police and firefighter employees have blamed the city for failing to pay what other agencies are paying throughout the region. By failing to do so, the departments have forced more overtime in order to meet minimum staffing levels, in turn burning employees out.
San Diego Fire Association president Jesse Connors says that while the survey does show an overall frustration within the department, the ship, according to him, is getting righted.
"Much of that frustration is residual due to historic treatment," said Connors in a statement to CBS 8. "City Leadership wasn't very supportive of firefighters or the sacrifices they've made over the last 20 years, but that treatment began changing in the last couple years with new leadership. Morale is improving but it'll take some time. I equate it to turning a big ship; the Quartermaster turned the wheel, and the rudder is moving, but the ship can't just turn on a dime, it takes time to 'come about'."
Added Connors, "The biggest frustration with our firefighters right now is due to a lack of staffing. That means they're forced to work a lot more and may be away from their families for several days at a time. It's one thing when it happens randomly throughout the year, but it really affects them during the holidays. Despite the relative frustration, overall firefighter morale has been improving dramatically over the last two years. We just hope city leadership keeps on the current course by continuing to address low staffing numbers through hiring and competitive pay and benefits."
The city council will discuss the Employee Sentiment Workforce Report during a special meeting on Monday, November 14 at 12 pm.
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