Welcome to #TBT, commonly known as Throwback Thursday! Believe it or not, it was 5 years ago this week – October 28, 2019, to be exact – that NBC Washington broke the story about a secret Facebook group that current and former TSA agents had developed. Called TSA Breakroom the space wasn’t just any Facebook group. It was one that 18,000+ TSA officers used as a “safe place” to vent about management and passengers. And vent they did!
In-house venting happens
Of course, “in-house” venting happens at most jobs. It goes right up there with gossip: which boss is doing what to whom, the employee who recently got fired and why, and the customers you can’t stand.
Such “water cooler gossip” is often seen as a way to blow off steam, especially at a job that’s considered high-stress. But the reality is that talking crap about anyone or anything, especially over long periods of time, is usually more negative than positive in the whole scheme of the job. After all, negativity just breeds more negativity (*cough* look at politics *cough*).
Toxicity against passengers
Although steam was being blown off, unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing positive about this secret TSA group; it appeared to be absolutely toxic. The examples of things posted in the group, which included racism, fat shaming, homophobia and ridiculing passengers, were atrocious:
The TSA’s official response
The group had been running for at least 9 years when NBC broke the story about uncovering it in the wake of a similar Border Patrol group that had been “discovered” by ProPublica just a few months earlier, in July, 2019.
Needless to say, the TSA was not amused. They sent the following to the NBC News4 I-Team:
The TSA Breakroom Facebook page is not affiliated with TSA. It is a private site that is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by TSA. As such, TSA does not monitor the site.
The Code of Conduct for TSA employees provides that an employee’s off-duty internet use must not adversely reflect on TSA or negatively impact its mission, cause embarrassment to the agency, or cause the public and/or TSA to question the employee’s reliability, judgment, or trustworthiness. Our workforce is strongly encouraged to report illegal or unethical behavior wherever and whenever they see it. Employees can report suspected misconduct to TSA’s Office of Investigations via phone or online. TSA holds its employees to the highest professional and ethical standards and has zero tolerance for illegal and immoral conduct.
Members of the public can make reports by phone, email and other ways as listed here https://www.tsa.gov/contact/customer-service.
The aftermath
Not surprisingly, TSA Breakroom was shut down shortly after the NBC report went live.
Since people on Facebook are required to use their real names, it’s possible that certain guilty parties in the group might have found themselves under internal investigation, just as 62 current and eight former Border Patrol employees were (as per U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials), following revelations from the secret CBP Facebook group (which was also shut down).
5 years later
It’s been 5 years and if you’re a member of the public sector, there’s no way to definitely know if the TSA Breakroom was re-started on another corner of the internet. That being said, if TSA officers were smart, they wouldn’t have started another group. “Secret” or not, eventually these sorts of places are always eventually leaked and discovered.
But while the group ran, it reflected a highly toxic undercurrent.
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