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A recent National<\/span> Park Service directive to limit high scores on employee evaluations has raised fears of more layoffs after a turbulent year of cuts and resignations.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cTo 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\u2019ll drive us out, that\u2019s OMB and that\u2019s OPM, right?\u201d Striker said, referring to Vought\u2019s Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what the performance thing came under.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately,\u201d Striker went on, \u201cit was not in the hands anymore even of the National Park Service political leadership or the Department of the Interior political leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just another method of trying to bring morale down.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n NPS officials told supervisors to limit<\/a> 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 <\/a>by Washington.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 occasionally with a note recognizing the original, higher score.<\/p>\n Employees in Alaska and California said their parks\u2019 supervisors decided to respond to the mandate by handing out 3s across the board.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just another method of trying to bring morale down,\u201d said one NPS employee, who asked for anonymity to protect their livelihood, of the new performance review standards. \u201cA lot of people came into the government to do good work. They didn\u2019t come into the government to compete with others on who is the best across multiple parks with different missions.\u201d<\/p>\n \n