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.

[MineralMan]

1. Having worked in the NSA building as an analyst

while serving in the USAF, I can tell you that much of the work that goes on there could not be done remotely. To say that security precautions inside the NSA are strict would be the understatement of the century.

There is simply no safe way to do, for example, the job I did there, except within the walls of the NSA buildings. No way at all. Even more than 50 years later, I cannot discuss it.

[HipChick]

2. Exactly...

Considering what would be required to enable them to work outside those buildings....

[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.