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Overloaded email inboxes and other challenges face federal employees as they return to work

By Dan Ronan

With the longest government shutdown in U.S. history now over, federal employees are returning to work. But, as they do so, a range of emotions are bubbling up.

Some workers say they are relieved or anxious to start doing their jobs again, while others are uncertain that another shutdown could be coming in January. Some are also frustrated this partisan fight took place.

Federal Trade Commission attorneys Sam and Maya, who asked WTOP not to use their last names, returned to the office Thursday — their first time back in more than six weeks.

“It feels great. It feels good to be working again. It feels good to be doing the important work that we weren’t able to do for the past five to six weeks,” Maya said.

“I think people are generally happy to be back at work and doing public service, which is why we’re all on the jobs,” Sam said.

But the first hours back on the job were not without some mistakes.

They said most employees weren’t notified until late Wednesday that they were expected back in the office Thursday morning. And, managers used their government emails to reach out to employees.

“We’re not supposed to be checking our phone at all during the shutdown,” Sam said.

“The fact that it was only communicated through work email with less than 12 hours’ notice was surprising, but everybody did come back,” Maya added.

The two attorneys said they consider themselves fortunate because, during the shutdown, they did not experience some of the financial problems thousands of other federal workers had to go through.

“We spent time with friends and family,” she said.

“That’s how we survived for six weeks,” he said. “We took long walks. We’re attorneys, so we weren’t suffering completely by the lack of pay.”

“The uncertainty is difficult for sure, but like I said, I’m glad it all worked out and then we’re back to work,” Maya said.

But, the legislation President Donald Trump signed Wednesday only funds the government until the end of January.

“I do think that there are some questions about the fact that we have until the end of January before this could possibly happen again,” Maya said.

Playing catch up

During the 43-day shutdown, federal office buildings in D.C. and around the country sat empty, but emails, voicemails and calendar invitations were still coming in.

One federal employee said she felt fortunate not to have a completely stuffed inbox: “More like 200. But I worked through them this morning.”

Another man said he had at least 600 emails in his inbox. Some were time sensitive and will be deleted.

A federal employee standing outside his office said he was deemed an essential worker and kept sending emails to colleagues during the shutdown. “I probably sent emails to dozens and dozens of people who I know they were not working, but part of the process is that we’re continuing to do what we need to do,” he said.

An FTC attorney admitted it may take a couple of days for everyone to get back into the workplace routine.

“You haven’t paid attention to it for five weeks or so, there is a lot of recalling where you were in your work,” she said. “Pretty much back to normal. Honestly, we’re just working through.”

Another employee, an FTC attorney, said he’s thrilled to be back at work and expects he’ll be putting in some long days to catch up.

“Everybody is glad to be back. It’s been frustrating, having stuff pile up and not getting it done. Everybody is happy to be back at work,” he said. “You just got to go through and prioritize, figure out what’s most important to do first and work your way through the list.”

A Housing and Urban Development employee, who joined the government two years ago after a successful career in the private sector, said she’s not sure which workforce she prefers.

“I came from the private sector, so I don’t have any experience with this,” the woman said. “No, they just lay you off.”

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