Hilarious: Federal Employees Sue Because They Don’t Want to Get Emails From the Boss
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Did you ever suspect that many federal employees are entitled twits who are so out of touch that they think the rules don’t apply to them?
If so, you were right.
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They are not so much playing into his hands as they are proving that his concerns, and those of his supporters, are real.
— Robert Shibley (@rshibley) January 29, 2025
The Office of Personnel Management is testing a system that would allow it, and presumably The White House, to email all federal employees from a single email address.
Currently, there is no such system. Communications from the top have to go through several layers of bureaucracy before they are distributed to the civilian employees, and this is hardly an ideal system when there is a change in whole-of-government policies, such as the elimination of DEI programs. Most communications with federal employees would naturally come from their immediate boss, but sometimes, the White House might want to communicate a policy change or other information to everyone.
Federal employees have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management, after the agency created and began testing an email system meant to deliver mass communications directly to federal employees’ inboxes.
The lawsuit from two anonymous federal employees in the executive branch alleges OPM violated the 2002 E-Government Act by not releasing details of how the communication system will manage federal employees’ personal information stored in the system.
Kel McClanahan, executive director of the National Security Counselors law firm, filed the pro bono lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, alleging that the email system poses security risks for federal employees’ personal information.
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Admittedly, none of us likes getting an email from the boss. It usually contains bad news or puts more work on our plates, but it is a fact of life that employers need to be able to communicate with their employees.
The purpose of OPM’s mass communications system is unclear, but federal employees in the lawsuit pointed to the possibility of OPM using the communication method to send updates about reductions in force (RIFs). OPM declined to comment on both the lawsuit and the intentions of the new mass communication system.
Regardless of the purpose for the messaging system, McClanahan said the data security of federal employees’ personal information is the central point of the Jan. 27 complaint.
“We have no idea what this system is. We have no idea what the nature of the system is. All we know is that by OPM’s own language, it is a new distribution and response system,” McClanahan said. “If they’re going to set up a new system to do something that’s going to collect all this information, they have to ensure that it’s secure, and they have to ensure that people know that it’s secure — but they haven’t done any of that.”
Several federal agencies have also reportedly sent messages to their employees about OPM’s communications system, according to the lawsuit. For example, the lawsuit states that on Jan. 23, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security emailed employees to make them aware of the OPM email tests, and that the emails “can be considered trusted.”
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What personal information is at risk?
Their email address is hardly a state secret. It’s not like the president will be asking for their social security number and putting it in a database.
You can see the real reason that these people are suing–aided by a left-leaning group doing the work pro-bono–in the highlighted portion. They don’t want to get bad news and want to throw sand into the works.
2/ The basis of the complaint is a Reddit post!!! pic.twitter.com/w4M8zx8sli
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 28, 2025
2/ The basis of the complaint is a Reddit post!!! pic.twitter.com/w4M8zx8sli
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) January 28, 2025
I am absolutely certain that there are wonderful federal employees doing great work, but I am just as certain that there is a #resistance motivated both by ideology and public employee union activism. They like how things run and will fight every change, wielding their status as protected civil servants to muck up the works.
This proves they have too much time on their hands.
46% of federal managers admit to a pollster they will disobey lawful Trump orders they disagree with. https://t.co/UE1JtdXejC pic.twitter.com/dUFlkOtBI5
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 22, 2025
Some of the most controversial Executive Orders, such as the freeze on grants to NGOs, are a response to the resistance the Trump administration is getting, and everybody knows it even if Jake Tapper denies that it is so.
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Stephen’s Miller says the overwhelming majority of federal workers supported for Kamala.
Tapper: you’re “demonizing” them.
Miller bursts out laughing.
— Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) January 28, 2025
The amusing thing is that every time Trump runs into opposition like this, it just exposes how right he is about the out-of-control federal bureaucracy. As with the Pravda Media, the federal bureaucracy is discrediting itself every time it goes after Trump. They have been able to act with impunity so long that they don’t understand that the American public sees through their smokescreen.
Revolting against your boss is a fantasy many of us have had from time to time, but it isn’t how it works in the real world. I hope that these people move quickly into the FO stage of FAFO.