White House staff are reportedly upset that they are being excluded from holiday events, according to a new report from Politico’s West Wing Playbook.
The report said that many staff in President Joe Biden’s administration’s morale is incredibly low, with a number of staffers looking to leave the White House in the near future. Similarly, much of the junior staff say the leadership is disconnected from the rest of the administration.
In addition, many have not been invited to White House events and many of the staffers could only attend the White House Independence Day event if they volunteered at it without pay, according to the report, while invitations for events like the turkey pardoning and Christmas tree lighting were given out by lottery, which excluded many staffers.
The administration also used a lottery system for holiday tours for only three days, while White House Operations offered five additional days for non-White House staff.
“No one expects business as usual during the pandemic, but it’s beyond demoralizing, it’s insulting — especially when you see DNC and Hill staff and other D.C. types get invited,” one staffer said in reference to staff from Capitol Hill or the Democratic National Committee. “Many colleagues have brought this up to me unprompted. And I’ve had D.C. friends ask me if I wanted to grab coffee after they attended. Meanwhile, we work here, and most of us haven’t worked here before or stepped foot into the White House.”
The staffer added that “It’s also hypocritical and ironic that a President whose brand is built on empathy and family has staff policies that fly in the face of that brand. It’s not a good look and it’s emblematic of how this place runs.”
