WASHINGTON (Dow Jones/AP) — Analyze this: The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to hire an organizational psychologist to improve employee attitudes and job satisfaction by reducing burnout, conflict and stress.
The newly created full-time position pays up to $147,978 a year. Applicants must have a degree in psychology, preferably a master's or Ph.D.
The SEC psychologist is expected to make recommendations on productivity, team building and diversity, and develop "innovative solutions to complex psychological issues."
According to the SEC's job posting, the appointment is for two years, with a possible two-year extension.
The online job posting has been circulated via e-mail throughout the SEC. Several employees said they find it so hilarious they feel compelled to share it with co-workers. Others privately grouse at the idea. They say hiring a psychologist is a waste of money and predict that disgruntled SEC staffers will quickly jump to better-paying private-sector positions once the job market picks up.
Some former SEC officials find the idea of an SEC psychologist laughable.
"Just one?" asks former SEC enforcement division director William McLucas, now a partner with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. "They should get a couple."
McLucas also figures "it's going to take more than two years" to buck up morale at the federal securities agency. "This is a long-term job," he jokes.
Former SEC general counsel David Becker thinks the hiring is long overdue. "Working for the SEC in the current media climate is enough to drive anybody nuts," he said.
Long hours, seemingly nonstop fraud cases, salaries that are below private-sector levels and criticism the SEC was beaten to the punch on high-profile cases by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have not helped morale at the SEC, observers say.
Spitzer's office declined to comment.
"The SEC is a great place to work, but it is not for the faint of heart," said former SEC chairman Harvey Pitt, who stepped down last year amid controversy over his tenure, and now heads Kalorama Partners LLC, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm.
Recruiting a "shrink" makes perfect sense, in Pitt's view. "I think it's terrific," he said. He said it shows a real concern for employees' well being and should send "a very positive message" to the SEC's 3,000-plus staff.
Pitt figures employees might be better off if they have a place to vent instead of keeping it pent up or taking it out on others. Asked if the SEC is a very stressful place to work, he joked: "Certainly, if you're chairman."
One way an organizational psychologist could make a big difference at the SEC would be to train managers "to get great performance out of people without criticizing them or stressing them out," Pitt suggested.
Sensitivity training might undercut the SEC's image as a tough enforcement agency, though, quipped Becker, who wonders if it is "about to introduce the group hug as a regulatory technique."
That might not be a bad thing, according to attorneys who defend clients facing SEC legal action. McLucas, the former enforcement director, said he'd like current director Stephen Cutler to get the first appointment once the psychologist is on board. That way, he says, "He can take out his hostilities with that person instead of my clients."
Whether SEC employees would line up to talk to a psychologist remains to be seen.
"I have this picture of Charlie Brown sitting at his window with a 'doctor is in' sign and nobody showing up," said former acting SEC chairman Laura Unger, now a consultant and corporate director.
Former SEC commissioner Joseph Grundfest, now a professor at Stanford University law school, suggested if the idea is good for the SEC, "maybe other government organizations should be looking for an organizational psychologist as well."
SEC spokesman John Nester said the position was created to help the SEC attract and retain employees of the highest caliber.
Christina Maslach, a psychology professor at the University of California-Berkeley who developed the Maslach Burnout Index, thinks the psychologist could wind up getting burned out as well. She said it sounds as if the SEC has "a lot of expectations" for a short-term assignment.
Stress and burnout "are not easy to fix," Maslach cautioned. "It's a very complex, tricky thing."