Let me offer a few thoughts as a retired Feddie
* In my experience, Civil Servants are just like everyone else, with a wide range of political opinions. Due to veterans' preference rules, there is a higher percentage of veterans than in the general population and, in my office at least, rather more older persons, likely because the feds don't use your age during the hiring process. Otherwise, a crowd of us looks and acts pretty much like any crowd of randomly selected individuals.
* Job Rules: Civil Servants have heavily defined roles with strict rules. You wouldn't want it any other way!
* Confidentiality: Accessing records without authorization or disclosing information to persons not authorized gets you in big trouble - up to firing, loss of pension, and civil or even criminal penalties. Just in case someone forgets, there are periodic reminders - after which you sign a document saying, "Yes I watched the training video".
* Political Neutrality: Civil servants avoid political discussions at work, focusing on their duties.
* Public Interaction: Calls with the public are recorded and reviewed to maintain quality and accountability. Thus even if you were foolish enough to engage in political banter with the taxpayer, you might get caught and suffer consequences - so just don't. Besides, you get rated on how quickly you complete an activity correctly, so wasting time with political chitchat costs you later.
* Evaluations: Everyone gets regular evaluations based on rules, directly impacting your raise, promotion and even job security (although it's more common to try to remediate shortcomings rather than fire immediately). If Elon really wanted to know what people did, he could just pull the evaluations.
* Manager Accountability: Managers are also evaluated, so don't count on sliding by with an easy manager.
* Stress and Support: Employees work under stress, and it’s important to be kind and understanding.
