Lithuania takes steps to improve embassy workplace after negative staff survey

Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry has taken measures to improve the work environment, management practices and workload at the country’s embassy in the United States, LRT reported.

The ministry said the measures followed the results of an anonymous survey conducted at the embassy in December. The survey results were presented to Ambassador Gediminas Varvuolis and embassy staff.

“The minister held a discussion with the ambassador, while the Foreign Ministry’s inspector general held discussions with the mission’s employees,” the ministry said in a comment provided to BNS. It added that other measures had been introduced to improve the work environment, management practices and workload management, and to strengthen the embassy team.

The measures include targeted management training for Varvuolis to strengthen his leadership skills, the ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry said the embassy’s survey results stood out negatively compared with the ministry as a whole. It added that it had acted immediately to clarify and improve the situation.

The ministry said it regularly conducts employee engagement and job satisfaction surveys, and places significant importance on staff wellbeing, emotional health and respectful workplace relations.

BNS reported that the Delfi news portal wrote in early August that some employees at the embassy in Washington had contacted the Foreign Ministry, alleging disrespectful behaviour by the ambassador, raised voices and long working hours.

BNS also reported last week that representatives of the opposition Homeland Union Lithuanian Christian Democrats were seeking to organise informal discussions about Varvuolis’s work as ambassador to the United States.

The invitation to a discussion with party members from Žygimantas Pavilionis, deputy chairman of the Seimas Foreign Affairs Committee, and former Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė reportedly reached the entire embassy staff. Pavilionis confirmed to BNS that he had been communicating with embassy employees and said they had mentioned Varvuolis’s work during the discussions. Šimonytė said she had not communicated directly with employees at the Lithuanian embassy in Washington for a long time.

In response, the Foreign Ministry formed a commission to examine the situation at the embassy and appealed to the Seimas Ethics and Procedures Commission over Pavilionis’s discussions with embassy employees. The parliamentary commission decided on Wednesday not to investigate the complaint.

Foreign Ministry Chancellor Aistė Stakėnienė also met with Varvuolis this week to discuss the situation at the embassy, the ministry confirmed to BNS.

Varvuolis has served as Lithuania’s ambassador to the United States since August 1 last year.