Diplomats are asked to weigh in on State Department overhaul

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is asking diplomats and other State Department workers what’s working and what’s not as he prepares for a sweeping overhaul.

A survey sent Thursday to the 75,000-person workforce and obtained by The Associated Press asks whether employees have a clear chain of command, what tools they lack and how much time is spent dealing with bureaucratic hurdles. It also asks staffers to list their top three recent accomplishments.

The online survey asks what functions the State Department should “stop doing” and what missions should be transferred to other government agencies. Staffers are asked to build a “word cloud” to describe the agency’s mission.

The survey comes as Tillerson proposes to cut roughly 3 per cent of the workforce and more than quarter of the budget.