Grueling Schedules Taking Their Toll On West Wing Staffers

Washington Post:

The White House mess -- the military-inspired term for the West Wing cafeteria -- opens at 7 a.m. each day. And each day, there is a long line of hungry staffers who have already been at the office for well over an hour.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[vippy]

It should be called the White House Mess (Hall) not White House mess? Two different meanings!

[pc51]

What? No million dollar date night for staffers? Maybe Obama will take them all to the ballgame tonight when he spends the evening enjoying the game (right after his whirlwind overseas family vacation (where, once again, nothing was actually accomplished besides spending untold millions for the trip) instead of doing anything to help struggling Americans, he is helping hinself, that is for sure! What a poser!

[ljc]

zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­z Get new writers.

[anothervoice]

And still he manages to be 10 times more effective than the last President. It just keeps getting better!

[Annette truth teller08]

Could'nt come up with a White House Staffers infighting and hate Obama story, so this is the best that they could come up with.

This story was included in Mark Halperins 10 future predictions about the Obama Administration.

It said that it would be made public that some of his staffers are getting burnt out.

It easy to predict or speculate on something like this when you have a President that believes in hard work and demands that of his staff.

Next.

[flapjack]

He demands hard work from his staff -- not himself.

[pc51]

Please, all the guy does is travel, pontificate, and party!

[anothervoice]

And you WOULD be an authority on pontificating.

[flapjack]

I love it when well connected people that got their jobs by way of their connections b.itch about the jobs they got and wanted.

If this is too much for them, they should leave.

[Okieborn]

Hey Quit complaining !!
A Large block of the American citizenry would love to have the job and especially the Gov. Insurance !!

[benjalo]

I want to know how to see that news bulletin they get every morning - would like to see what that looks like.

[Bude]

I love these poster who claim to be speaking for "the public".

[ElsaIndy]

They are too busy marketing Obama .

Obama has not enunciated one simple principle upon which policy can be formed, and has left Congress, the most disfunctional polarized institution in the country to solve the healthcare and other issues. Obama has taken on too many issues and has shown no leadership on any of them. Nor has Obama shown he understands and if forming policy based on economic principles. Indeed he ignores soaring healthcare costs in favor of expanding coverage with no cost containment mechanisms. This when healthcare costs are almost 20% of our GNP.

The public is tired of Obama's speeches, his rhetoric, his Camelot 2 images, his preaching. He needs to stop promising Americans everything: green energy, transportation, renewed schools all on borrowed money from China. He needs to tell Americans their taxes need to rise ( see Samuelson in today's Washington Post) if they want government services they have to pay for them; he needs to tell Americans they cannot afford the current healthcare system, he needs to tell Americans they need a stiff carbon tax which will actually be stimulus bringing in billions immediately. He needs to stop making empty promises.

[tlgeiger62]

Go stick your head back up your a@@ jackhole! You're not needed.

[pc51]

Coming down hard off that Kool Aid, huh?

[nancy50]

I agree with you Elsa. There have been so many broken promises, that I no longer know what Obama stands for. I realize that his plate is full with the economic mess, but he seems unwilling/unable to mix it up with Congress and tell them what he stands for. Maybe that comes from not actually served in the Senate for very long before he left on the campaign trail, but we desperately need someone like LBJ who knew how to get things done in Congress. Without LBJ's machinations, the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 would not have been passed. I have very little hope for any real health care reform if Obama is not willing to get in there and get his hands dirty.

[Savanna]

Oh gosh, lets all complain about broken promises after six months in office. I am sure
that Obama is getting his hands dirty as you like to say everyday on the healthcare issue.
I have been apart of the OFA campaign to push Congress ahead. What have you done?

[pc51]

Newsflash - Obama does not care about your little problems! There are unlimited places to go, in style, on taxpayer funds -and fun and shopping and working out and ballgames and burgers and parties to be had! So chill.

[t iessa]

He is still campaigning. It is what he does. It is all he has ever done. He campaigned for the state senate and as soon as he was elected he started campaigning for the U.S. Senate. As soon as he was elected to the U.S. Senate he started campaigning for the Presidency, even though he said he wouldn't. Once he was elected to the Presidency he just keeps campaigning.

[anothervoice]

Your comments are merely opinion. You have no evidence but an external examination of the situation. It's all very easy to stand at the margins and throw brickbats, but given the size and number of tasks at hand, you should be very glad he's "campaigning" as hard as he is.

Have you never met someone who was driven? Consider that a super qualified black man is President for the first time in our history and has inherited the task of cleaning up the biggest mess in history. Failure is clearly not an option.

Your comments are all fairly superficial. You don't think before you post and toss this fluff you call thoughts at the thread as intelligent discourse. Think before you post, stop confusing the issues and add something useful.

[oscartucker]

t iessa, I knew you would be here with all of your spewing. Please, sit down and take a breath. You carry that water so hard for the repubs. Read your post; you don't make sense even to yourself. Oh, and you should remember what President Obama walked into. You want to forget all of that. He and his staff are working hard to get this nation back on track. It's the repubs who are "campaigning". It is what they do. It's all they have ever done. They are so busy campaigning that they can only say "NO".

[Michele Himmel]

Agree 100%. He is a professional campaigner. Sad thing is, he is highly educated and could do much, but it appears his only goal was to be the first black Prez.

[Michele Himmel]

To the other posters. t iessa has stated facts. Look at Obama`s running history right from the state level up. Matter of fact include his voting records at each level as well.

[swan1]

Bran will help that problem of yours!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!

[rubygreen]

Thank you President Obama and your team for all your hard work. Unfortunately this work schedule is the reason there is usually a big change in staff after the first year.

Congress needs to take note and get to work and stop whining like children!

[Jamesdean]

they get handsomly paid, they get all the perks, they move around in powerful circles and we are saying thank you to them!!! have never heard anybody saying thank you to millions of people who work three jobs and even then struggle to survive.

[anothervoice]

No Jim, not handsomely paid. If you examine the same job description at an equivalent private sector post, you'll not a big discrepancy in compensation. And that's before you add in 70-80 hour work weeks.

Why do you suppose government workers become lobbyists? For the work load? Not quite.

You didn't think before you posted.

[Aabby]

They don’t get handsomely paid. Everyone by law gets less than the President who gets $400,000. You can look at what people of their caliber gets opposed at Goldman Sachs and the like and compare.

[pc51]

They will all be working for Goldman Sachs within a few years, so don't worry about them!

[ljc]

Handsomely paid? Are you tripping? The highest pay is $172,000.0­0. Alot of these people have to maintain two residences (the job is temporary). I read that Rahm Emmanuel's family is still in Chicago. It is very expensive to live in that part of the country.

[Jamesdean]

whether they are handsomly paid or not is all relative: $100,000 salary may not be much for some, but could be a lot for many. But even if they are not well-paid, should we really thank them for doing their work? If that's the case then all of us should be thanked for doing our work.

[breakingpoint]

When you spend all day working, defending and fighting for corporations and banks rather than the American People thing are naturally harder than they have to be.

[oscartucker]

Really? You know better than this: "When you spend all day working, defending and fighting for corporations and banks rather than the American People thing are naturally harder than they have to be." You are at a "breaking point".

[anothervoice]

Hit and run comment - score zero.

[bosunj]

My heart bleeds. Can't stand the heat stay outta the kitchen. Nobody is holding a gun to your heads!

[anothervoice]

...Except maybe all these people waiting for their job to come back. I'd be busting my butt too if I knew all my fellow Americans were out of work and the economy was in the tank.

[Vulcerco]

Are these they guys working for no pay or something close to that?

[anothervoice]

That's exactly right. On salary at 80 hours per week is a 50% salary cut.

[pc51]

Sorry, I do it in a seocnd, knowing it is time-limited and in the meantime I will have the best health insurance, best of everything in the world at my fingertips. They need to quit complaining. Lots of people have it a heck of lot worse then having a plum temp. job that will ensure them the best of everything for the rest of their lives.

[ORpolitico]

Why does anyone think this is a good thing? They wear this like some badge of honor. Working yourself to death and being so tired you can't make good judgements hardly makes you good at what you do. Unfortunately, this has become the American work ethic. We are some of the most productive, least appreciated workers in the world, with no time to have any sort of balance in life. Unfortunately, our society measures our worth on how much we produce, not who we are as human beings. There is more to life than just work.

[Balzac]

You're exactly right. I knew this would be a problem.

[Altruth]

Balance is good, but you have to understand that the Bush Administration was on vacation most of the time. Congress is still on the Bush Administration vacation and work ethic plan that is why we thank and appreciate the Obama Administration Staff for all of their hard work.

[pc51]

Please, in a few short years they will all have super-cushy high paying lobbyist or financial sector jobs that will demand much less of their time. They know that.

[WoodyCPM]

Get back to work, you slackers!

[Altruth]

You are talking to Congress, RIGHT!