First off, thanks for all the death threats, it really makes me enjoy sharing information with a group I truly considered my community.

Second, senior staffers were passing out sealed boxes of printed memos for the 8am meetings. Part of my illustrious career here on the Hill is opening mail! That's why I get paid the big bucks and get to hold on to the letter opener.

It appears that they are tightening the rules on social media sharing on staffers. We didn't really have any before, it was just common sense - but people have been fired for oversharing stuff before (someone on my team was fired for sharing a photo of a work calendar on her instagram), and it's surprisingly easy to track because all of these idiots use the House wifi which is basically just recording everything done on it from every phone and laptop (she was busted by IT an hour after posting, so they totally watch the wifi) - that's well known, hence why I only use my work laptop and keep my phone wifi turned off - still probably getting recorded though using 4G in DC.

Anyways, no more unauthorized devices on the wifi, so work laptops and work phones only, if you get that perk. And, they're going to start blocking some websites and limiting access to things like twitter and facebook - I noticed on my work laptop that several sites are already down, mostly forums and social stuff. It's all worded like an attempt to make people more productive, but it really seems like it's all about stopping leaks or something. We're also going to have to sign some social media agreement that says we can lose our jobs if we fuck around on social media - probably includes what I'm telling all of you right now ... oops.

As I was writing this on my phone, my coworker got out of the quick 7:30 meeting and seemed all bummed, she told me they are limiting vacation time for the next two weeks (the real 10 Days of Darkness/Sadness I think) unless pre-approved and they told her to read the memo about internet use because they'll be very serious about enforcing it. They're actually threatening to fire people, which doesn't happen often.

I'll check back in around lunch.

StaffAnon