Biden’s White House staffers are reportedly looking for alternatives to working under the current administration, pointing to frustration with leadership as the reason they’re seeking change.
QUICK FACTS:
- Several White House officials are cited “low morale” amongst the staffers saying that there has been a “higher than usual turnover” of employees in 2021, according to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook
- Some staffers believe there is too much gap between those who have worked for Joe Biden for years during his lengthy political career and the newer members of the White House staff that have no serious connection to Biden or his more permanent entourage.
- Another theory is that the typical positives of working at the White House, such as holiday parties and ceremonies, have been scaled down or cut out altogether due to COVID-19 restrictions.
- Some events were structured to only allow White House staff to attend if they did so as an unpaid volunteer who came to staff the event, according to an email that was sent from the White House operations team and shared with POLITICO.
- Kamala Harris has also seen a number of her staff leave her employ, citing concern they would be labeled a “Harris person,” Fox News reported earlier this month.
WHAT OFFICIALS ARE SAYING:
- “A lot of the natural coordination that happens in a typically functioning White House has been lost, and there has been no proactive effort to make up for it through intentional team building,” said one White House official.
- “No one expects business as usual during the pandemic, but it’s beyond demoralizing, it’s insulting — especially when you see DNC and Hill staff and other D.C. types get invited,” explained a White House official who was granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to us. “Many colleagues have brought this up to me unprompted. And I’ve had D.C. friends ask me if I wanted to grab coffee after they attended. Meanwhile, we work here, and most of us haven’t worked here before or stepped foot into the White House.”
- “It’s also hypocritical and ironic that a President whose brand is built on empathy and family has staff policies that fly in the face of that brand. It’s not a good look and it’s emblematic of how this place runs.”
BACKGROUND:
- Earlier this year Harris’s office was outed as being “chaotic” and that staffers were “treated like s-t” according to a bombshell report in POLITICO from June.
- Staffers have begun to go public with their complaints as well as making moves to update their resumes and look for new job opportunities in 2022, according to The New York Post.
- Sen. Joe Manchin put the blame on White House staffers for the death of Biden’s social and environmental spending bill saying White House staff drove him to his “wit’s end,” blaming officials he didn’t identify as the reason for failed negotiations, according to The New York Post.
