Here is a quick link to an article on the TSA. It appears that employees feel this is an awful place to work because there is no desire to surface problems and, in fact, retaliation against those that do.
Of course this issue doesn’t exist just within the TSA but I can guarantee you that it is almost a perfect litmus test on whether their culture is good or bad..
If you hear any employee talk about retaliation for voicing an opinion then you can be guaranteed that the culture is bad and getting worse. On the other side, for example, Zappos actually encouraged their employees to freely tweet about their jobs and experience. They gave their employees the opportunity to directly speak to outsiders. Sure it’s a risk for Zappos but then again that company was most concerned with meeting the needs of its customers and employees and not kissing the rear end of its leadership.
In companies where there is no voice, the goal is rarely to meet the needs of its customers but more often to benefit the select insiders leading the firm. Oh you will hear plenty of messaging about how important customers are, but when you deal with such firms you recognize almost instantly that this is BS.
To survive these firms any employee will have to choose between leaving the firm or sucking up to leadership (which just perpetuates the rotten culture).
Often the only way to solve such an issue is to have a competitor come on the scene and begin taking market share. This sometimes lights the fire that forces change. But when an organization occupies a space without any competition, the culture is likely never to change unless your pry it apart with a crowbar. And that is where I guess we might be with the TSA.