When weepy staffers at a federal agency need counseling and time off after an election, it’s time for trimming

**Written by Doug Powers

The EPA has developed an arrogant “tough sh*t, deal with it” attitude about their job-killing regulations and bloated bureaucracy, but now they’re getting a little nervous:

U.S. EPA employees were in tears. Worried Energy Department staffers were offered counseling. Some federal employees were so depressed, they took time off. Others might retire early.

And some employees are in downright panic mode in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory.

“People are upset. Some people took the day off because they were depressed,” said John O’Grady, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, a union that represents thousands of EPA employees. After Election Day, “people were crying,” added O’Grady, who works in EPA’s Region 5 office in Chicago. “They were recommending that people take sick leave and go home.”

EPA employees stand to see some of the most drastic changes under the Trump administration, and they may be taking things a bit harder than other government workers.

The president-elect has vowed to repeal some of the rules they’ve toiled on for the last eight years during the Obama administration, including the Clean Power Plan rule to cut power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions.

Send in the carbon-neutral grief counselors! Hey, if the regulatory gigs don’t work out, there’s always coal mining. But before that I’m guessing the EPA and their sympathizers will torch a 5-story-high pile of tires to protest any Trump attempt to thwart their plans to save the planet from damaging emissions.

I’m hoping the head of the EPA is facing this inquiry very soon:

(h/t @Kerpen)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe