Photo: Marko Djurica/ Reuters
US federal employees who have been working remotely are returning to their offices following Donald Trump’s executive order. However, instead of working efficiency, this has led to chaos: employees of the Federal Aviation Administration returned to buildings where they found lead in the water, and many agencies ran out of toilet paper due to cost-cutting. The New York Times writes about this.
Scientists working on confidential projects are forced to work in overcrowded offices, and some employees of the Ministry of Agriculture have found that their “workplaces” are actually located at the home addresses indicated in the documents.
Many workers complain that the administration has not provided enough resources and that the return process is disorganised. Even the staff of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been instructed to seek accommodation in any federal building within an 80km radius.
Due to a lack of funds, some officials are now cleaning toilets and taking out the garbage themselves. At the same time, according to The New York Times, the Trump administration and the Department of “efficient government” led by Elon Musk continue to cut civil servants, hoping that some of them will simply quit.
