Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) Results. Case Study:
"Who has the highest Fear of Reprisal within the Government of Canada and Why?"

NEWS (AUG 2024):

This page is now also published at : https://en.gorodnichy.ca/evidence/fear-of-reprisal

Data: Public Service Employee Survey datasets (2018)

Web App: https://open-canada.github.io/Apps/pses (mirror: https://itrack.shinyapps.io/PSES)

Source code: https://github.com/gorodnichy/iTrack-PSES-development

Developer: Dmitry Gorodnichy, GCCollab R4GC Community Lead

Question:

"Who has the highest Fear of Reprisal (Question 36) in the Government of Canada and Why?"

Answer:

According to the Public Service Employee Survey datasets (2018), “Fear of Reprisal” (Question 36) is the largest in Units/Divisions that provide “evidence” in support of Policies and Industry products.

Analysis:

Images below show results for “Fear of Reprisal” (Question 36) across the Government. Divisions/units that have mandate in Policy and Vendor products evaluations have the highest level “Fear of Reprisal” (lowest positive ranking) in the Public Service.

Notably, this “Fear of reprisal” is not correlated with Harassment and Discrimination (Questions 48 - 61), indicating that it stems from something else—the fear of speaking up.

The divisions/units with the highest levels of “Fear of Reprisal” are listed below (sorted from worst first):

PHAC - Health Security Infrastructure - Centre for Emergency Preparedness
PHAC - Infectious Disease Prevention
Health Canada - Health Products and Foods - Marketed Health Products
Health Canada - Regulatory Operation - Health Product compliance
ECCC - Industrial, Chemical Waste Directorate
AAFC - Office of Audit and Evaluation
Canadian Institute of Health Research - Research Knowledge Transfer Ethic

It can also be noted that for the same agencies, divisions/units that do not deal with policy and vendor products evaluations have much lower “Fear of Reprisal” (higher positive ranking). This further confirms that the primary source of fear, in those units where it is high, comes from speaking out against the malfeasance of the employer with respect to the work of professionals in those units.

Why is that so? What could be the reason for high Fear of Reprisal in the Divisions that are tasked with providing evidence in support of government policies and vendor products, if it does not come from Harassment and Discrimination ?

Lets examine the official messaging over the past years that is based on the "evidence" provided in those Divisions: