Gov Workers Say Their Shutdown Out-of-Office Replies Were Forcibly Changed
7 hours ago
- #partisan politics
- #Hatch Act
- #government shutdown
- US government shutdown led to DOE employees setting automatic out-of-office emails.
- DOE employees' neutral OOO messages were altered to blame Senate Democrats without consent.
- Some agencies provided partisan language blaming Democrats for the shutdown in their OOO suggestions.
- Original DOE OOO message was neutral, but later changed to a partisan version.
- DOE unilaterally changed employee emails to include partisan language, raising Hatch Act violation concerns.
- Experts argue partisan language in official communications is coercive and violates public service principles.
- DOE press team responded to media inquiries with the same partisan OOO message.