Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) employees who came forward as part of an external study investigating mental health at the spy agency described a sometimes isolating and bleak environment “laden with stigma.”
One participant told researchers the “service has a fear of mental illness.”
Those comments are included in a first-of-its-kind research project commissioned by CSIS and published earlier this month in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. Researchers spoke to employees who were willing to come forward, with their identities protected, to talk about the unique working environment at the spy agency.
“Employees of this organization are literally protecting national security, are getting no recognition for what they do,” said lead researcher Rosemary Ricciardelli in an interview with CBC.
“A job well done by CSIS means nobody even knows it happened.”
Thirty-eight employees, a mix of men and women ranging from 31 to 67 years old, sat down for in-depth interviews with the research team in 2024. The cohort included employees who work in the field and are “exposed to potentially psychologically, physically, and/or socially traumatic events.”
While the pool is relatively small, those who did participate gave a rare peek into what working for the service can be like.
A majority of respondents said they had been diagnosed with or had symptoms of a mental health disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety , insomnia and burnout.
“I did have anxiety attacks driving into work,” said one participant quoted in the paper.
One of core tenets of working for CSIS — the need to keep secrets, including from loved ones and even other colleagues — “can be isolating when struggling with mental health,” said the study.
Ricciardelli said that level of secrecy impacts so many realms of employees’ lives.
“Because not being able to talk to your partner about your day-to-day, it does impede on relationships,” she said. “With friends, what is small talk? It’s, ‘What do you do?'”
The study flagged hypervigilance as another byproduct of the job, “with psychologically and socially compromising implications.”
“I’m always on,” said one participant. “I can’t help it, but I’m always suspicious of people all the time.”
Employees who participated also flagged reprisal in the workplace as a contributing factor to mental harm.
“We are an organization which sees threats everywhere,” said a participant.
The fear of revenge was also cited by participating employees as a factor contributing to mental health harm.
That spectre of reprisal also fed into a perception of mental health stigma within the service, said the paper, which concluded that mental health stigma is prominent at CSIS.
Some CSIS employees who took part in the study reported feeling judged or fearing pushback if they became known within the organization as “mentally unwell.”
“They refuse to have conversations about people who might be mentally unwell,” said a participant.
Another employee said they felt judged by a manager who learned from an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) report that they had seen a psychologist.
“She took me off all the good files,” the participant said. “Even though they had no idea why I was going. So, I stopped using [the EAP services].”
The research paper urged protection for staff who may disclose their health status and might be “interpreted by others as unwell,” alongside “a need to protect the organization from breaches or betrayals of trust that could result from some forms of mental distress and illness, and thus potentially, jeopardize national security.”
It also found CSIS and its employees face a difficult situation where they “must assess both the risks of national security breaches with respect to information sharing and adequate health disclosure.”
“The apparent conundrum persists even with an (almost immediately) available and vetted internal psychologist who nonetheless is not privy to some classified information and therefore cannot always immediately act or counsel without organizational guidance,” it said.
Responding to the findings, CSIS said it has provided information to employees on a range of mental health topics, and is talking to them about what other support is needed.
“Although there has been significant progress in mental health support available to CSIS’ employees, we recognize that there is still more to do,” the service said in a statement this week.
Some of the participants interviewed back in 2024 reported improvements.
“I actually started developing work related PTSD symptoms because the nature of my work exposed me to a lot of awful things … and they are getting better at supporting employees who have more direct PTSD symptoms from the actual operational work we do,” said one.
“But they’re still nowhere close to supporting people who have those symptoms because of harassment or intimidation or reprisals or bullying or anything like that.”
Another said the service is becoming “a little bit more empathetic” and a “little bit more aware of emotional intelligence.”
An example of culture change given by one employee was a new course on seeing “abhorrent material online,” and tighter controls around who needs to see that type of content.
“It took them years to realize that when you keep looking at pictures of dead people on social media for work, or like beheadings and stuff like that, it’s gonna impact you. But it took them a really long time to figure out [how] that might negatively impact you,” they said.
“They don’t just send out pictures anymore of dead people or dead children online for us to look at.”
The research project said it’s working to find “culturally and operationally sensitive solutions and ways forward.”
“I think there are a variety of different ways of creating more humanness,” said Ricciardelli .
Reports of poor morale are nothing new for the agency.
The results of the Public Service Employment Survey (PSES) suggest fewer than half of surveyed employees would recommend working at CSIS.
CSIS director Dan Rogers, who took over the job in the fall of 2024, has called culture change at the service an “overriding priority.”
Last year, in the wake of sexual assault allegations, CSIS hired an independent ombud to give employees “an independent, informal, confidential, and impartial safe space to talk about work-related issues.”
The research paper ends on a positive note, finding the culture within the service is “changing such that more openness is slowly evolving regarding mental health.”
It called that “a very promising finding that provides hope for future improvements.”
