Federal employees are honorable and hardworking. But let’s not ignore that the fact that portraying Federal employees as slackers is a universal joke.
And it is such a universal joke for a reason. “Close enough for government work” did NOT just materialize out of nowhere! It is deeply embedded in our language and culture for a dang good reason.
I don’t doubt that there are hardworking federal employees, but those aren’t the people who are freaking out about the Trump administration and the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to trim the fat and save the taxpayers some money and bureaucracy. There’s still a large contingent of federal employees who see their jobs as a taxpayer-subsidized “stationary store with Danish,” and they showed up in force for a recent protest.