The scenarios that follow are representative of the types of issues that might be brought to the Ombuds Office. These are not real situations. In all cases the Ombuds role is to listen, clarify and help generate options. The visitor always selects what will happen next, not the Ombuds.

“The Greedy Traveler”

SITUATION:
Scott, an engineer on Project XYZ, has been on the road a lot recently. He frequently travels with Sam, Corrine, and Carlos, three other members of the project team . Sam is the specialist on the team and Sam often incorporates side trips with his business travel and jokes about how NASA will never know the difference as he hides these personal expenses with his business expenses. Sam has come right out and said that NASA owes him these perks as he is away from home so frequently. Scott is uncomfortable knowing this information and decides to visit the Ombuds for help determining what action he might take. Scott shares his story with the Ombuds and tells him he wants this abuse of policy to stop. Together Scott and the Ombuds discuss options.

OPTIONS:

• Scott can talk to Sam directly and let him know he is uncomfortable with his use of agency dollars for personal travel and remind him of the policy and consequences.
• Scott can go to Sam’s boss and ask him to look into this.
• Scott could go to the Ethics Office.
• Scott can give the Ombuds permission to raise this concern anonymously with Sam, Sam’s boss or with the OIG.
• The Ombuds could ask the OIG group to conduct a review of business expenses within Department XYZ over the last two months without even alerting them to the specific concerns around Sam. In this way Scott’s identity as the concerned party would be even more protected.

OUTCOME:
Scott decides to talk directly with Sam. He lets him know that he values him as a team member and doesn’t want him to risk his job by abusing the agency policies. Time will tell but Sam appreciated the concern and agreed with Scott that he had gotten a little carried away. He says that he will stop expensing personal travel to the agency.

“Safety First”

SITUATION:
Lee has worked in the machine shop for 17 years. He is well respected for his expertise and considered a “by the book” kind of worker. There are several new employees on his team who have a “know it all” attitude because they have come with high training credentials. Lee has seen that they sometimes cut corners in safety procedures and when he brings this to their attention they make fun of him for being overly cautious. Lee doesn’t want to cause trouble on the team but he is afraid the cut corner is going to result in major harm to a coworker. Lee decides to talk to the Ombuds after trying to reason with his coworkers. Lee believes that the new workers simply don’t understand all the procedures and the reasons why they were put in place. The Ombuds helps Lee generate options and weigh the pros and cons of each option.

OPTIONS:

• Lee can go directly to the supervisor and suggest that the team go through some training on safety measures as a refresher.
• Lee could go to the Safety Director and ask him/her to do an inspection
• Lee can give the Ombuds permission to take specifics of the case to the Security Director without revealing Lee’s name
• Lee can give the Ombuds permission to go to either the supervisor or Safety Director to suggest that some concerns have been raised and that additional oversight or training may be beneficial.
• Lee or the Ombuds could go to the Center Director or OIG.

OUTCOME:
Lee gives the Ombuds permission to anonymously go to the Safety Director. The Director decides that a standard safety training refresher is a good first step. The training gets scheduled for the following week. Two months have passed and Lee has seen a marked difference in the behaviors of the newer employees.

“ Moving On “

SITUATION: Serene didn’t know where to turn. As a mid level accountant Serene had received praise for her work from supervisors and peers. Six months ago her manager had told her she was next in line for a promotion and gave her a high profile project. Serene had been working long hours for months but decided it was worth it because she wanted more responsibility in the department. Two months ago her manager took a new position and a new leader came to the group. Serene was nervous in that she had no previous work experience with this leader and he was known as someone who was loyal to his past colleagues. When the new position became open the new leader selected someone from his old group, bypassing Serene. She was devastated and came to see the Ombuds. Serene wanted to get her career back on track but wasn’t sure it could happen in her current department. The Ombuds listened, displayed empathy and helped Serene focus on the future. They discussed options for Serene’s career development.

OPTIONS:

• Serene could meet with her current Leader and express her disappointment and ask for help creating her development plan. She could explicitly describe her career goals and ask for help achieving them.
• Serene could meet with her past Manager and ask for help networking within the agency and identifying other potential moves.
• Serene could meet with Human Resources and lodge a formal complaint regarding the selection process.
• Serene could go to her Leader’s supervisor and either lodge a complaint or ask for help identifying next steps.

OUTCOME:
Serene decided on a couple of steps. She decided she would talk to her current leader as she knew she was going to need his support in whatever next steps she took. She also let him know that she would be talking to his supervisor as she wanted to increase her visibility and wanted the leader’s support. In addition, Serene scheduled a lunch with her past Manager. During this lunch the Manager gave her a heads up regarding other openings that would become available soon and offered to put in a good word regarding her performance. Serene came to accept that she was going to need to move on, but had a plan in which to do this.

“Too Close for Comfort”

SITUATION:
 Helmut and Charlene share an office space. For the most part it has worked out well and both have been respectful of each other. Last Tuesday when Charlene came into work she logged into the computer and was dismayed when a very inappropriate Web site popped onto the screen. She quickly logged off but was confused as to why this happened. Later at lunch Charlene mentioned this to her friend and colleague Sarah. Sarah wasn't surprised at all and said that she had more than once come to the office looking for Charlene and saw Helmut scramble to hide things he had up on the screen. Charlene became very upset thinking about this situation and Sarah suggested she go talk to the Ombuds. Charlene explained to the Ombuds that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing an office with Helmut knowing this information and she wanted someone to look into this and make sure the behavior didn’t continue. The Ombuds listened and helped Charlene identify actions she could take.

OPTIONS:

• Charlene could go to her supervisor and request an office change with no explanation
• Charlene could go to Human Resources and lodge a formal complaint and ask for an investigation
• Charlene could go to the Ethics Director and ask them to investigate
• Charlene could ask Security to investigate by auditing sites Helmut has accessed on his work computer
• Charlene could give the Ombuds permission to go to supervisors, security, ethics, or human resources with or without identifying the source of the information.
• Charlene could confront Helmut directly about this letting him know she was upset by what she discovered.

OUTCOME: