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

[MineralMan]

3. I know that my job could not have been done remotely.

The materials I worked with would never have been allowed to leave even the room where I worked. At that time, even the equipment I was using was not even available outside of that building and was custom-made for the specific purpose and for that agency.

This was way before computers were small enough to be used at home or anywhere else. Now, I have no idea what things are like there now, but I imagine that the technology is still not off-the-shelf stuff. Things are not simpler now, I'm quite certain.

However, the final argument against remote work by NSA employees is the networking that is a huge part of the things that go on there. The communications would never be allowed to be done from outside in any way. The risk of compromising security would be way too high.

That doesn't mitigate the risks from COVID for those who work in that agency and its secure environment. That is still a major issue, no doubt. Still, while there might be non-classified work that could be done remotely, much of what goes on at that agency is far from being non-classified. So it was 50 years ago, and so, I'm quite sure, it is now.