The wave of retirement announcements and sudden resignations by members of the 118th Congress may soon be spreading to lawmakers’ staff as well.
Senior-level aides on both sides of the aisle are becoming increasingly frustrated with the ossified, hyper-partisan climate in Washington, DC, according to a Washington Post analysis. The Post’s Paul Kane attributed staffers’ disgust with working on Congress to not just “pandemic fallout, ranging from partisan battles over mask mandates to the long closure of the buildings to the public,” but also “the ongoing toxicity since the January 2021 attack on the Capitol.”
“Congress is broken,” the nonprofit Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) stated in its 2024 “State of the Congress” report. The report noted that nearly half of senior aides in both chambers of Congress are considering leaving their jobs because of “heated rhetoric from the other party.”
“Only 12% of Democrats and 31% of Republicans agreed that ‘Congress is currently functioning as […]
Even working in the most well appointed nursing home in the country is a very depressing job. As the article states: “An identical number of staffers for both Democratic and Republican members of Congress said that the mental and emotional toll from their jobs was also a significant source of stress. Kane wrote that four in 10 staffers frequently experienced “direct insulting or threatening messages” while on the job.
“The physical and psychological toll of this place cannot be understated,” an unnamed senior aide to a House Democrat told CMF staff.”
This is the same response that average workers in the nursing home industry exhibit. The pay is certainly better in Congress but the residents are just as ill and dysfunctional, Not only are the residents in Congress struggling with memory loss, confusion, poor balance and probable seizures the article barely touches on the Mental health ills the workers must manage daily in addressing the needs of the residents. Just from the limited information we receive from the news media, despite the best efforts of the staff to cover for them, it is obvious as we witness delusions, anger outbursts, grandiosity, and paranoia of the highest degree. We should have mercy on the residents and send them off to less stressful locations. I’m certain that the turnover will do wonders for the moral of the workers.