White House staffers walking
‘Great resignation’ being felt in Washington as workers seek better pay, quality of life
WASHINGTON — New White House press secretary Karine Jean-pierre was delivering her third on-camera goodbye to a departing staffer in less than 24 hours when she quipped to reporters, “I promise we will have a press shop.” She added, “Not everyone is leaving.”
It’s a dynamic playing out across the White House complex this month — and more evidence that not even the White House is immune from what has been called the “great resignation” as employers struggle to fill vacancies and workers jump to new jobs at record rates.
The administration is undergoing high staff turnover as President Joe Biden nears 18 months in office. Long hours, low morale and relatively low pay are taking a toll on senior staff and the more numerous junior aides who keep the White House functioning.
While it’s not unusual, the swiftness of the change has been stark at times:
Two-thirds of the White House press shop, much of the COVID-19 response team, two of the deputy counsels to the president, even the staffer who manages the White House Twitter account are all leaving within a few weeks of each other.
Some of it is by design. As is customary, White House staff were told to leave by July or to wait to depart until after the November elections, according to current and former officials.
Still, the turnover, particularly within senior ranks, pales in comparison to the turbulent first year of President Donald Trump, who hired and dismissed staff at a record pace. Also, the Biden White House staffing was more stable than many predecessors in its earliest days, making the recent and upcoming exits more noticeable.
Biden aides insist the departures are not tied to the president’s low poll numbers, but reflect a natural transition for staffers — some of whom also toiled long hours on the campaign — looking to improve their quality of life. The aides emphasized that replacements have been secured for most of the departing staff and that no critical roles are going unfilled.
“It’s a normal time for this level of turnover in any administration,” said White House spokesperson Emilie Simons.
“Government service involves sacrifice, and staff often have young children or promising careers in the private sector they put on hold, or opportunities for advancement within the administration or through graduate school.”
Many of the departing aides are heading to federal agencies, which have far deeper pockets than the smaller Executive Office of the President. They can often double their salary and substantially reduce their workload.
In many ways the departures echo a broader trend in the economy — which the Biden White House has championed — where a historically tight labor market has given workers abnormal leverage to seek stronger-paying jobs that are more compatible with their post-pandemic lifestyles.
Over 4 million workers have been quitting their jobs each month over the past year, according to Labor Department data, accounting for almost 3% of all workers leaving jobs each month — most for other work opportunities.
“It’s a worker’s market right now,” thenwhite House press secretary Jen Psaki said last year, months before leaving for a role at the news outlet MSNBC. “People are looking for more dependable benefits. They’re looking for wages that are higher.”