“It’s like a desperate cry for help,” the employee said in a telephone interview. The employees contacted by The Times agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity, out of fear of retribution from the federation’s leadership team.

Several employees said the reviews were motivated by the looming change in leadership. Flynn’s desire to retire from the chief executive post he has held since 2000 has been public knowledge for months, and recent news media reports suggest the search for his successor is nearing an end. Berhalter, the federation’s chief operating officer and the brother of the men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter, has emerged as a leading candidate to replace Flynn, perhaps as soon as next month.

U.S. Soccer’s president, Carlos Cordeiro, said he and other senior officials, as well as federation board members, were aware of the online postings, but he declined to comment publicly on anonymous complaints.

He noted the federation was undergoing some of the biggest changes in its recent history, adding staff members and increasing the diversity and responsibilities of the organization’s leadership. And a U.S. Soccer spokesman, in a statement, acknowledged that “at the moment we are at an inflection point where we are rapidly growing as an organization, which is both rewarding and challenging.”

“As we grow,” the statement continued, “listening to our employees and taking action where and when needed will be more important than ever.”

At U.S. Soccer’s Chicago headquarters, where most of the federation’s nearly 200 full-time staff members are shoehorned into a 150-year-old stone mansion, employees said they or colleagues had left recently — or were actively searching for new jobs — for a variety of reasons: better opportunities, better hours, better pay. But several cited the workplace culture as part of their decision-making.