Since the mid-2000s, the corporate culture at NSA has been deteriorating, a process that has only accelerated in the past 24 months. Deplorable management behavior has been seeping down the ranks and now is running rampant even among front-line and mid-level leadership. Lack of funding for promotions has resulted in a hyper-competitiveness for even low-level promotions and results in people being pushed into leadership who exhibit some of the most pernicious management behaviors, including favoritism, scapegoating, bullying and age/gender discrimination. These behaviors go completely unchecked, despite vocal feedback from the workforce. By rewarding those skilled primarily at self-promotion and short-term results, the agency has recently begun to see deterioration of technical talent. Senior management has done nothing to address these serious systemic issues and has instead opted to deny that these problems exist in the first place. Many of the most talented continue to flee. Things are bad and everyone knows it.
