Intelligence employees vent frustrations over being forced to return to the office

[Zorro]

Employees at one of the most secretive parts of government have been forced to return to their offices, leading to widespread concerns about their exposure to COVID-19.

Tensions inside the National Security Agency — which is responsible for eavesdropping and digital espionage — bubbled over last week, leading to an all-hands meeting at the agency on Wednesday to address complaints, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

“This has been percolating for a while,” said one former intelligence officer in touch with current employees. “The general sentiment is that NSA has been mishandling things.”

The meeting followed employees posting frequently on internal message boards about their frustrations over the pandemic and the agency’s handling of it. Some of those frustrations have to do with confusion over unclear standards, such as how employees who have been exposed to a potential infection are allowed to use administrative leave in order to safely quarantine, while employees who get sick need to use sick leave to stay home.

The tensions at NSA reflect a larger division within government as it adapts to the pandemic. While many parts of the federal bureaucracy have allowed their employees to work from home indefinitely, those agencies working on classified issues have less flexibility, and the NSA deals with some of the most highly classified programs in government.

https://news.yahoo.com/intelligence-employees-vent-frustrations-over-being-forced-to-return-to-the-office-100036400.html

NSA workers can't really do their jobs from home, so it's a particularly challenging situation.