This morning, Twitchy reported a story about how federal employees are throwing childish temper tantrums in the wake of President Trump's executive order mandating a return to work, ending a policy that began with COVID that allowed many of them to work from home.
Charlie Kirk and others tweeted out screenshots of their conniptions from Reddit (a wretched hive of scum and villainy if there ever was one). Amazingly but unsurprisingly, some of these employees are so petty and spiteful that they want to punish local small businesses in Washington, D.C., as a twisted form of protest.
Over on Reddit, federal employees are in a total meltdown that President Trump has ordered them to return to the office and get back to work. Right now, the top suggestion is for employees to boycott all the local small businesses near their office — the restaurants, grocery… pic.twitter.com/sGP9Pu83ln
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 23, 2025
What's next? Are they planning on kicking puppies until their demands are met?
Way to win hearts and minds, people.
But I wanted to spend some time on this issue because I actually can sympathize -- to a point -- with employees who want a flexible work arrangement.
For most of my life, I have worked from an office. When I was younger, that 'office' might have meant a restaurant kitchen, a fish market, or a bakery, but as I grew older the office turned into a more traditional one as I pursued my career as a writer, editor, and communications professional.
As we entered the 21st century, however, I noticed that flex schedules and working from home were becoming more common, particularly in certain industries like communications and the tech sector. With advances in communications technology, like Webex, Zoom, and other virtual meeting and presentation environments, there were many careers where working from a home office -- either every day or just for part of the week -- was not only becoming acceptable, but some companies preferred the arrangement (probably to save a lot of money on commercial real estate, among other reasons).
I thought I could thrive in such an environment so, about five years ago, I quit my job of 20 years and went to work for a company that encouraged telework. This was before COVID, so there was no mandate that everyone work from home, it was just an option available to many people.
These days, I work from home about 80 percent of the time. In addition to my full-time job, as a freelancer for Twitchy, I only have to report to work when our managing editor Sam Janney demands that I scrape the barnacles off of the Twitchy luxury yacht.
Did you know that we have a luxury yacht? It's true. Along with a private jet and several dachas across the U.S., in the Caribbean, and in the European Alps.
[Editor's Note: None of what Calvin just said is true.]
The point is, I get it. I love working from home. I get to spend my days with my dog and I can structure my schedule (within reason) across each day, not just within an 8-10-hour window of the normal work day. As long as I get my work done, there is no problem.
But this is what brings us back to Trump's executive order and the federal employees.
Trump didn't issue that EO because he wanted to be mean or because he hates those workers (OK, maybe he dislikes them a little bit after so many of them sabotaged his first administration). He did it because it is patently obvious to most people that they are NOT getting any work done. At least not any work that is helping the American people which, just to remind all of the Capitol Hill and agency staffers, is your entire raison d'etre.
The fact that they don't recognize this, and recognize that a huge problem arose during COVID stay-at-home mandates is exactly why they NEED to be closely supervised in an office.
I remember during COVID when I was a course manager we had issues with GS employees that had literally not even logged into their laptop computers in 6 months.
— Green Beret Nap Time (@GBNT1952) January 23, 2025
They were never fired. Can you imagine? https://t.co/LwTCjlaKTa
Sadly, yes. I can imagine that.
Not all of the blame lies with the staffers, however. Let's not let Tony Fauci or the Biden administration off the hook. They sold lies. Remember when Fauci said 'Two weeks to slow the spread'? Instead, we got YEARS of lockdowns, and people got used to the fact that they could put in barely any work at home and they would never face any consequences.
Trump wanted to open things back up during the initial summer of COVID (and these same unelected bureaucrats balked him at every turn). Many governors like Ron DeSantis actually DID open their states back up. But the Biden administration kept selling the lie that it was 'not safe' to go back to work.
Pure nonsense. It was never really unsafe. That should have been clear to the Biden administration when they took over in January of 2021, but they went in the opposite direction, adding unconstitutional vaccine and mask mandates to an already untenable working arrangement. They were quite content to lie to people that 'two weeks to slow the spread' was perfectly acceptable as the 'new normal.'
With all of that, is it a surprise to anyone that the federal employees got used to it and now don't want to give it up?
Those Biden administration lies lies aside, however, now that Trump is back in office, and has reinstated a perfectly reasonable 'old normal,' federal workers have two options. They can handle it like adults, or they can throw themselves to the floor and bang their fists like petulant children whose mothers dragged them to the mall to go clothes shopping.
They have chosen the latter, it would appear.
In addition to their proposed 'protest' being purely malicious against honest business owners who didn't have anything to do with the executive order, it makes no sense.
I mean, weren't they already not buying from local businesses because they WEREN'T IN THE OFFICE https://t.co/JSIah8dkIF
— Amy 🐘🦙🚫🧟♂️🧟♂️🧟♂️ (@WaltzingMtilda) January 23, 2025
They never think these things through, do they? This begs the question of whether any of them are even qualified for the jobs they are in.
If they would act like adults, they could probably work out a compromise arrangement where a hybrid schedule could be established for some jobs, or a gradual deployment of 'return to work' could be set up. President Trump is a reasonable person, despite everything you hear from the media, and would likely listen to such proposals, as would most of his Cabinet, as long as they come with strong guardrails.
But no. Many have decided that the best way to react to this is to go on some sort of twisted hunger strike because they don't want to eat their vegetables.
This is a disgusting display of behavior by these federal employees. This is the entitlement and disdain these people have for anyone else but themselves. Let them behave and boycott accordingly, on the world stage, so everyone can see who they truly are. https://t.co/suDGRi9yZs
— NATeloc (@na_teloc) January 24, 2025
Oh, they're showing everyone who they are alright. And it's not pretty. Just like when Congressional staffers got together recently to demand a 32-hour work week. Yeah, good luck with that.
They're on the right track, assuming their objective is to make Americans to continue to dislike them and have no respect for them,
If federal employees don't want to grow up, of course, another option is available to them:
Get. The Hell. OUT.
Not a single person is going to shed tears if Trump's EO results in a drastic reduction in the size of the federal government and workforce. They are welcome to go into the private sector to try to issue their demands if they want.
As I noted above, this doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's what I did, after all. Not the 'issue demands' part so much. I once demanded that Sam get me a new barnacle scraper. She laughed at me and gave me a butter knife and a plastic spork from Wendy's.
[Second Editor's Note: Stop it. She did no such thing.]
But seriously, if they can find a work-from-home career in the private sector, they are welcome to go. And I will wish them nothing but good luck.
If they think a private-sector business is going to let them get away with what they have clearly been getting away with in their government jobs for the past several years, however, they're in for a rude awakening. It doesn't work that way with businesses who have to make a profit to stay afloat, or larger businesses who have to answer to shareholders.
If they want to stay in the government, they need to get used to the return of reality and sanity.
Unlike the lie we were told when Biden won the election in 2020, this time, the adults really ARE back in charge.
Instead of whining and planning protests on Reddit, federal employees can go one of two ways:
Grow up or get out.
