A recent National Park Service directive to limit high scores on employee evaluations has raised fears of more layoffs after a turbulent year of cuts and resignations.
Staffers at the beloved agency were kept in the dark about why their supervisors were ordered to cap scores. In audio obtained by The Intercept, however, a top regional director said the directives came from top officials in Washington, including the budget office led by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought.
Don Striker, a veteran agency leader who oversees parks in Alaska such as Denali National Park, said the new performance review process was crafted outside the NPS.
“To the extent that they continue to do things that many of us feel are the reign of terror, that deliberately impact our morale in hopes that they’ll drive us out, that’s OMB and that’s OPM, right?” Striker said, referring to Vought’s Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management. “And that’s what the performance thing came under.”
“Ultimately,” Striker went on, “it was not in the hands anymore even of the National Park Service political leadership or the Department of the Interior political leadership.”
“It’s just another method of trying to bring morale down.”
NPS officials told supervisors to limit the number of 4s and 5s they give to employees, on a 1-to-5 scale. The period over which employees were evaluated was also compressed to 90 days, the minimum allowable under the law, after changes imposed by Washington.
When the directive to limit high scores was handed down in December, some employees had already received their annual ratings. In response, some supervisors downgraded scores — occasionally with a note recognizing the original, higher score.
Employees in Alaska and California said their parks’ supervisors decided to respond to the mandate by handing out 3s across the board.
“It’s just another method of trying to bring morale down,” said one NPS employee, who asked for anonymity to protect their livelihood, of the new performance review standards. “A lot of people came into the government to do good work. They didn’t come into the government to compete with others on who is the best across multiple parks with different missions.”
In an unsigned statement, the National Park Service did not address Striker’s comments to staffers.
“Consistent with OPM’s government-wide performance management guidance, we are working to normalize ratings across the agency,” the agency said. “The goal of this effort is to ensure fair, consistent performance evaluations across all of our parks and programs.”
“Willing to Shoot Hostages”
At one point during the town-hall-style meeting in Anchorage last month, Striker worried aloud that his comments might be leaked.
The performance review overhaul had already set off a firestorm among NPS employees, who have generally considered themselves relatively insulated from layoffs thanks to their agency’s popularity.
While higher numerical ratings of 4s and 5s can lead to employee bonuses, several NPS staffers who spoke with The Intercept said they were more concerned that keeping scores down was a way of making layoffs easier.
At the meeting, agency officials cast the directive as an effort to tamp down on bureaucratic grade inflation. More than 60 percent of federal employees received a 4 or 5 on their performance reviews, according to a 2016 Government Accountability Office report.
The Interior Department has said that the new directive is meant to “normalize” ratings and thus “ensure fair, consistent performance evaluations across all of our parks and programs.”
Striker echoed that in his comments to NPS employees in Alaska, who were gathered both in person and through teleconferencing.
The agency was trying to “baseline” performance ratings, Striker said, “to make sure that we’re consistent, not just within our individual work groups.”
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Employees who spoke with The Intercept on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs said that many staffers have been doing the work of two or three colleagues over the past year, thanks to a round of resignations and layoffs of probationary employees inspired by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“People back in D.C. are willing to shoot hostages.”
As Striker was questioned about the directive to shorten the period over which performances were evaluated, he acknowledged that the 2025 review process had been a “cluster.” He grew more defensive when asked what he was doing to represent Alaska employees of the NPS in Washington, arguing that it was best not to provoke decision-makers.
“People back in D.C. are willing to shoot hostages,” he said. “That’s a phrase that I’ve heard. Let’s not put ourselves in that breach. It’s just not worth it. It’s just not worth it.”
“Don’t Let The Door Hit You”
Striker said his message for employees frustrated by the performance review process was: “Get over it.”
The consequences of resisting directives from Washington could be dire, he said.
“Literally, I do not want to sugarcoat this,” he said. “You can either do the job, or don’t let the door hit you in the butt. That’s where we are as an organization. I would rather you not offer yourself up, to put yourselves in that position.”
At times during the town hall meeting, employees chortled and interrupted Striker.
“It was definitely pretty tense at times,” said one employee who attended the meeting. “People were pretty frustrated with the way the employee evaluation had gone.”
Broader Change
In June, the Office of Personnel Management instructed federal agencies to ensure that they do not give out a “disproportionate” number of high employee ratings.
In December, the outlet Government Executive reported that the office was preparing to expressly limit the number of top scores.
Critics of President Donald Trump’s administration say the rollout of the new ratings system at the Park Service could herald broader changes across the federal government.
“The National Park Service is enforcing this with great vigor, which is surprising and disappointing given how many staff the National Park Service has lost in the last year, and how overworked the staff currently are,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “The idea that people can only get basically satisfactory performance reviews is bad management. It’s not true, and it’s terrible for morale.”
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