FDA Purges Press Office Of Older Employees
15 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 6th, 2010 // 9:45 am
Oh, to be young. And that appears to be a requirement to work in the FDA press office, at least according to FDA Webview, which reports that FDA associate commish for external affairs Beth Martino, who is a 31-year-old former Kansas aide to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is purging senior specialists who are 50 and older.
The moves were described as abrupt and undertaken to make room for younger people closer to her age. Three of those let go: Elaine Gansz Bobo, 52, Dick Thompson, 65, and Ira Allen, 62, who were told they could be terminated as probationary hires for “incompetence” or resign, FDA Webview writes. Bobo and Allen had to immediately clean out their desks and were escorted off the premises, while Thompson, a former Time magazine Washington bureau science editor and high-level WHO communications advisor in Geneva, was told to find other work outside of FDA.
A fourth staffer, deputy director of web communications Donna Avallone, 62, is a career employee who was allegedly stripped of her title and reassigned by a new Martino appointee, Carl Chitwood, who FDA Webview writes is 37 years old. A fifth person, public affairs officer Tom Gasparoli, 55, reportedly resigned voluntarily six months ago, soon after Martino arrived. The dismissed employees, except for Avallone, had been hired late last year by assistant commissioner for public affairs George Strait, who was reassigned to an undescribed job in the press office after Martino arrived, the web site continues.
We have written Martino for a response and will update you if one is received.
Meanwhile, on his own blog, Allen recently wrote that “it is now five weeks after leaving what I thought would be a career capstone job at FDA. Last November, a fairly new public affairs chief at the agency whom I had known from both journalism and health advocacy hired me along with five other experienced hands to bulk up the media relations staff. The job was stressful but good, requiring me to absorb a lot of new knowledge and deal with several crises a day. I got on well the boss, and was told that whatever I needed to understand, I would pick up within the one-year probationary period and that no one fails that test unless they violate the law.
“However, he was moved aside in favor of a 30-year-old political operative whose previous job was press secretary to the governor of Kansas, now the HHS secretary. The new boss had no big-league experience, no managerial experience and no warmth. Remote was not only her typical work venue but her style of management, communicating with us line troops rarely and then mostly by emails that second-guessed everything.
“So as I recognized things were going to be difficult, I started asking around and received assurances from my closest colleagues and mentors that I was doing fine and not to worry. Then one day I was called to my boss’ office and given two pieces of paper. A notice of termination and a resignation. Choose, I was told, and choose right then. To add insult to the injury, she cited fabricated, unspecified instances of my incompetence after 40 years in the business. She did not need to do that because the government has the right to terminate anyone on probation for no reason.
“I was not alone. Four of us over 50 years of age were ousted, called incompetent and apparently replaced with cheaper, younger acolytes. They and the excellent civil servants who remain – and they are the finest coworkers I have ever had – have now gotten the message. None of the four of us who were in disfavor made waves or did anything but approach the job professionally. But we were not hired by her, so we became expendable.”
Hat tip to GoozNews
industry insider
In Big Pharma’s heyday, ex FDAers were highly prized recruits for their supposed “inside knowledge” and “connections”. We’ll see if that still applies. Somehow I have my doubts.
Karl in FL
I think this event is disgusting. It should happen to her in 30 years!
Betsy
I’m a bit confused. It is not against the law to age discriminate within a corporation or federal agency or anything else?
I would love a clarification. Thanks.
Dave
I feel a few lawsuits will be filed
Industry Veteran
This genius 31 year old will not be in that job or at FDA 2 years from now after having disrupted the lives of several in order to give jobs to her friends. She is exactly what our government does not need now at time when we are so vulnerable and jobs are so scarce. I hope that she was not a Kansan like her former boss as it destroys my previously fondness for the character of the folks from that good state.
Fact Geek
It is laughable to think of Dick Thompson being let go for incompetence.
At WHO, he almost single-handedly brought highly-principled outbreak communication to the agency, starting with the SARS epidemic in 2003. In 2004 he initiated a process which resulted in official WHO Outbreak Communication Guidelines, which are now well on their way to being incorporated, in some form, into the International Health Regulations.
His work product from 24 years at Time magazine, most of those as a science writer, speaks for itself.
Those of us who are familiar with the machinations of FDA — and with the principles of good risk communication — understand that this is an enormous loss for FDA, in its efforts to build credibility and accountability with the public.
SteveM
Re: “Beth Martino, who is a 31-year-old former Kansas aide to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius…”
Kathleen Sebelius is a totally empty suit. So she hired totally empty suits. The fact that Beth Martino is a managerial moron should not surprise anyone given her pedigree.
Shame others will have to clean up Martino’s (and Sebelius’s) mess though…
Lori
This is truly a shame, but it is very rampant throughout the FDA especially in the Office of the Commissioner, where the only ones being hired are those mostly under 30 to take over the jobs of others.
I had a chance to file an EEOC complaint against former boss, but did not want to wreck my chance to go to another job or division.
Nepotism abounds within the FDA and even when information and retaliation is reported to Congress nothing is done.
Ron Rader
Although wrong, perhaps illegal, etc., FDA has always been just totally unpredictable and biased when it comes to hiring (in my experience). For example, I have applied multiple times over the years for positions where I am truly one of the few world’s leading specialists, have decades of on-target experience and described this in great detail in the KSAs. But I am a baby-boomer (>50) and I’ve never even been called in for a token interview (even though I am local).
Somehow, FDA consistently ends up hiring 20- and 30-somethings with no more than just a Master degree (same as I have) and a few years experience, usually nowhere near as relevant as mine and surely many other applicants to the advertised position. So much for the much-hyped-as-fair federal hiring system!
I have noticed similar patterns at NIH, where management swaps in young persons and gets rid of the older ones, particularly lower and middle management. These new staff appear much more beholden, only think well within the box (are closed minded. scared/insecure) and gladly function as intra-NIH political operatives for their appointees, while (I presume) older, more experienced managers are less prone to take shortcuts, less prone to circumvent the law (as with hiring and much contracting, in my experience), less prone to sucking-up to their supervisors etc.
Otherwise, right or wrong, press officers are considered much the same as political appointees, with new managers presuming that they need to clean house when they take over (so they can appoint their own cronies). I’m sure the same thing happens in most FDA management positions, particularly those with any public visibility or interaction.
industry insider
Sebelius is a joke, I agree I doubt that the health insurance ceo’s lost nary a wink of sleep when old Kathy made her varied and empty threats. To wit, there are fewer people insured since the the Kathy and Barack Goodtime TV Hour came to town than before she took office.
Puzzled
Wow, has somebody at the top been reading the Diary of Chairman Mao? It’s like the FDA is carrying out its own Cultural Revolution! When do the denunciations begin?
gethwatyouask for
After electing a President who had no work experience and no appreication for such what do you expect. The trone of the government starts at the top and it has all rolled downhill. The FDa is a mess. One only has to look at the ridiculous DESI unapproved process, most recently morphine to understand the arrogance and stupidity and grasp what is going on at FDA.
industry insider
Good Post, Puzzled. Can’t wait for the first edition of “The Sayings of Chairwoman Hamburg and General Secretaries Woodcock and Temple”.
Former SES
Someone also needs to look in to why the EEO Director, who was hired within the last six months, is no longer there. And someone needs to ask about “Linda Rice”
marcy stone
Thirty years? I say let’s see what happens to Martino tomorrow, perhaps she’ll develop a progeria and lose her job for reasons other than total incompetence.
This article is a shocker.