Week 2 – Quick Paced Informality in the House of Representatives

This last week, during a Brown Bag discussion, one of the staffers made comment about working on the Hill that basically surmounted to “you have B+ time to do A+ work.” This perception matches previous conversations about working on the Hill that I attended through career services. During those discussions the idea that offices on the Hill will hire for openings that should have been filled yesterday. For as slow as government is stereotyped to move, everything is also expected to move fast. The notion that the work moves quickly has rung true during the second week of my internship, especially when I consider the organizational culture of the office.

The last two weeks have been district and committee work weeks in the House of Representatives. For the office I am interning in this means essentially everyone is working from home and only a few people go into the office randomly throughout the day. As such, most of the communication is conducted through text messaging. This allows for the quick paced work environment that is needed and accounts for the remote nature of the work being completed. Even if I get an email from one of the staffers about a work assignment, it was quickly followed up with a text alerting me that the email was sent.

As implied with communication often occurring via text, much of the interaction between member in the office is relatively informal. This is further seen through the Brown Bags and end up the week wrap-ups with the other interns and some staffers which consist of talking about our favorite books or our plans for the weekend. Also, during my first week, my supervisor told myself and the other interns that there is not a dress code while we are working remotely. Throughout this week, I noticed that that rings true throughout the office as I noticed more people wearing t-shirts in our meetings. The informality in the offices contrasts the formality of government work (where Congressmembers are constantly referred to as “the gentleman for ___” or “the lady from ___” on the floor and in committee hearings). However, it does somewhat follow suit with the House of Representatives in general because the House of Representatives is considered the less formal of the two chambers.