Every low level lanyard job person in DC: please don’t wear a campaign button in my house, someone could see it and I might get in trouble
SCOTUS: first you take a loan from someone with business before the court and then you just don’t pay it back. Did you see my insurrection flag.
True story, I watched a friend / anonymous Dept of (Redacted) civil servant refuse to eat from a buffet because it wasn't made clear who had paid for the food at the event.
If you can get a few relatively wealthy/ locally politically connected folks, a few tech folks, and someone that can write grants to commit time it’s totally feasible.
To be clear, I find this kind of thing a little silly and at least *slightly* paranoid. Like, who really cares if you have a cup of coffee and it turns out some PAC paid for it.
But, the contrast in mindset at the top and the bottom is very revealing!
It IS silly but several people genuinely believed they could lose their jobs for it and I know there are higher ups who are happy to swing that axe for fun. But yep the contrast is remarkable
For the record, the general executive branch gift rules at 5 C.F.R. § 2635.203(b)(1) exclude modest items of food and non-alcoholic refreshments like soft drinks, coffee, and donuts from the definition of a "gift" if it's not part of a meal, so it's generally okay to accept. The buffet is different.
And there's nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution and saying "no", but the disparity between how seriously the vast majority of people covered by the rules treat them and how certain high-level folks react is really striking.
It was interesting to me that during the Trump administration a lot of the yearly ethics training seemed to focus more on political activity by employees (especially on social media) and de-emphasized rules about actual or perceived conflict of interest.
During my time working for state government, I’ve seen the pendulum swing a few times. At one point it was okay to accept freebies as long as it was a public event, then it was almost nothing was acceptable. Now there’s an inconveniently vague “nominal value” rule.
When I worked for the government under Obama in a civil service position with a security clearance, every time I would send my (non-American) grandfather pictures of my son, his great grandson, I would inform the SSO (security officer) of the foreign contact.
And then there are these fuckers.
Fed employee here. There’s all this regulatory case law solely about the few circumstances where federal employees can be provided with bottled water (by their employing agency.)
I worked for police depart for 25 yrs as dispatch. People brought in baked items at holidays. We would thank them, throw away as majority of police personnel are hated. Don’t know what could be in baked items. Don’t know why library would be hated? Wouldn’t be bribe as what would it be, late fines?
Just had a conversation with someone who works for social security about how tightly controlled any expression of political affiliations is, not just within the building, but in terms of social media likes and dislikes.
Fought SS since 2019 on overpayment of 3 mo’s when starting benefits. Was informed by agents I could work as long as I didn’t go over certain amount in this time. They went fr beginning of yr, not when starting benefits! Not 1 agent mentioned this! Want me to pay back 4 mo’s as they’re month behind!
We never had any political signs or bumper stickers growing up because my dad was very serious about not breaking the electioneering rules.
But then my dad wasn't a SCOTUS justice, he was big on ethics.
I worked for city government, not federal, but same principle. We got yelled at because the local McDonalds wanted to give us free cheeseburgers on their 'public service recognition' day.
