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BOMToxic culture has plunged the Bureau of Meteorology into chaosRick Morton is The Saturday Paper’s senior reporter.
October 22, 2022
Reports suggest that morale at the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is indeed low, with concerns raised about workplace culture, communication, and career development. Specifically, some staff have reported a highly bureaucratic environment, limited opportunities for advancement, and a lack of support for employee development.
The workplace culture at the Bureau of Meteorology is so toxic that a man was hospitalised twice for psychiatric care, another had a heart attack while working extreme overtime, and was asked to come back earlier than a doctor advised, and at least five more staff took stress leave because of panic attacks and anxiety regarding management oversight.
More than 20 staff have left the media and communications division at the BoM in the past 18 months. The entire marketing team at the agency was “bloodlet” and removed during a restructure and rebranding effort that consumed the time and resources of the weather office during a period of intensifying calamity relating to climate change and natural disasters. Senior meteorologists have also left.Since June last year, the bureau has spent more than $260,000 with Elm Communications Canberra Pty Ltd, just trying to plug gaps in its public affairs workforce.
Although many of the concerns relate to the media division, meteorologists and other staff have complained of “the severe dysfunction” in this area infecting other parts of the service. Gag orders have been issued to prevent forecasters from speaking to journalists unless their comments are pre-approved. Media managers have explicitly banned the mention of climate change in connection with severe weather events.In one case during major New South Wales flooding in March last year, an edict was issued that BoM forecasters and other specialists were not to speak to any media after a meteorologist was accused of “fluffing” his lines on climate change.
A spokesperson for the BoM denies this.
In addition to the above concerns, The Saturday Paper can reveal the Commonwealth agency admitted some months ago to staff that it has not been paying overtime correctly and has so far failed to reimburse employees. Indeed, it stopped communicating with them in August about the issue.
The bureau says, in a response to The Saturday Paper, that a “discrepancy” was identified and “an audit of overtime payments is currently under way and all payments made dating from 1 June 2021 are being reviewed”.
The Saturday Paper has spoken with 20 current and former staff members at the bureau to establish a distressing and farcial account of a government agency’s response to a changing climate.
Details in this account that do not appear within quotation marks have nevertheless been provided by individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.
On October 6, a delegate from the federal government insurance company, Comcare, wrote to a former employee of the BoM advising that the agency was “liable to pay compensation” for aggravating a major depressive disorder and contributing to a panic disorder. The order included compensation for time off work between December last year and August this year, and all medical expenses for a period of nine months. Their position was backfilled while he was still in hospital and advertised without his knowledge.
