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The Republican congresswoman has some of the highest staff turnover.
Indiana’s 5th District representative Victoria Spartz (R) made the top ten list for the Worst Bosses for the second year in a row. The listing by nonpartisan Legistorm for the highest staff turnover in the House of Representatives showed Spartz in the number one spot in 2021 and a close second in 2022.
“LegiStorm's collection of congressional staff salary data combined with real-time tracking of staff gives a unique picture of who has the most turnover, and therefore who might be Congress's worst bosses,” the Legistorm turnover summary said.
Ukrainian-born Spatrz has had a number of staffers leave as a result of an alleged toxic work environment where her temper is unpredictable and her behavior belittling.
She reportedly has scolded staffers in the presence of others, questioned their intelligence and criticized the writing abilities of aides.
“Some members of Congress get a reputation for being hard to work for, whether due to anger management, shady ethics, poor pay, demanding too much or creating a toxic work environment,” Legistorm clarifies in describing the rankings.
“Whatever the reason, the resulting office dysfunction can lead to high turnover, helping to make a member of Congress more ineffectual. One possible side-effect of high turnover is making an office less responsive to constituents while being more dependent on lobbyists for advice.”
Former staffers say Spartz rarely fires workers but instead makes the work environment so untenable they chose to leave, at least that was the case for more than 6 former staffers.
Four more aides have declared their intention to depart, following another staffer who recently left Spartz’s office, raising concerns of her staffing record with senior members of the GOP. The 2022 listing, although placing her second in the house average turnover, was slightly worse than the previous year’s point ranking showing movement in the wrong direction for staff retention.
Spartz became more familiar to members of congress when she inserted herself into a congressional delegation of House Foreign Affairs Committee members to the Ukraine border last March. Her presence which at first was thought to be complimentary, became complicated when Spartz’s tone at a NATO meeting was said to be unhelpful and unmannerly, creating bipartisan frustration with her attitude.
Spartz began serving on Jan 3 2021. A recent report reveals her intention not to run for the house seat again in 2024.