According to a report by Reuters on the 16th local time, US President Trump had previously ordered federal employees to return to work in the office, causing chaos such as competition for desks among some agencies. Two insiders revealed that when employees returned to work at NASA headquarters, which is only 1 mile (about 1.6 kilometers) away from the US Capitol, they found "cockroaches rampant" there, and some people did not have desks and could only work on chairs.
Reuters reported that on January 20th, Trump ordered hundreds of thousands of federal employees to return to their offices and no longer work remotely. But 10 federal employees interviewed by the media said that many people found that a suitable office environment was not ready to welcome their return when they returned to work. Federal employees described situations such as competition for office desks and chairs, network disruptions, and insufficient parking spaces. It is reported that some people were sitting on the floor, while others were told to use personal smartphone hotspots to gain access to government data on their computers.
The report mentioned that in a private chat, staff from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services compared the "desk wars" in some regional offices to the "Hunger Games," a series of popular novels and movies that tell the story of young people fighting life and death in government approved competitions.
In addition, Reuters quoted federal employees as saying that their work efficiency has decreased and they are even unable to complete their tasks. A US Internal Revenue Service manager said in an interview that tax assessors who share a training room in an IRS office in Memphis, Tennessee, are unable to discuss sensitive tax issues with clients over the phone because they are concerned about violating privacy laws.
Regarding the above phenomenon, critics including governance experts, federal union representatives, and civil servants have stated that the lack of preparation is not accidental. In their view, this is intentionally making the office atmosphere unpleasant, thereby forcing more government employees to resign. Previously, on February 11th, Trump signed an executive order to further advance the large-scale downsizing of the federal government.
A White House official, in response to a Reuters question, stated that the General Services Administration staff responsible for managing federal real estate "worked tirelessly to address the reported issues and achieve satisfactory results.
Reuters reported that a spokesperson for the US Department of Efficiency did not respond to a request for comment.
(Editer：admin)
