The chief spokesperson for the agency overseeing the mass firing of thousands of federal employees over their job performance, recorded fashion influencer videos in her office during work hours.
McLaurine Pinover, communications director at the US office of personnel management (OPM), posted several videos on Instagram posing in different outfits and affiliate sponsor links from her office at OPM, according to CNN.
Time stamps showed that several of the videos were made during office hours, per CNN.
On the same day OPM sent a memo to federal officials demanding that they identify barriers they faced in their work to “swiftly terminate poor performing employees,” Pinover posted a video with the caption “work look” and the hashtag #dcinfluencer. The post also included an affiliate link directing followers to a store where they can purchase the look.
On Feb. 13, when OPM directed federal agencies to lay off thousands of employees, including 20 people on Pinover’s own team, she posted a video showing off a dress along with the caption “a moment for mixed patterns.”
“To post that video the very day your entire team is getting laid off is ridiculous,” Jack Miller, OPM communications director during the Biden administration, told CNN.
Pinover was posting as recently as Tuesday, the same day the Department of Education announced it was cutting half its workforce.
“It is highly problematic that while dedicated civil servants who want to work for the government are being fired for all manner of dubious reasons, or are being forced out by this administration, that someone at the agency leading that attack on the civil service is using their government job for private gain,” chief counsel for the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Donald Sherman, told CNN.
Former OPM staffers said the videos were filmed in the office of the communications director, which happens to be right across the hall from an annex used by workers for the the Elon Musk-led “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). DOGE is responsible for the firing thousands of federal employees—based on their job performance—to cut spending.
Pinover defended these firings from that same office, telling NPR that “the probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment.”
When Musk ordered all federal workers to list five things they achieve each week, Pinover praised the move as “a commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce”.
Pinover did not respond to CNN when reached for comment but she has deleted her Instagram account.
“I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office.’ She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is advocating for the firing based on performance and efficiency of the rest of the government workforce, and she’s using government property as a backdrop for her videos,” a former OPM staffer said.
Miller called Pinover’s actions “absurd.”
“Your number one job as a leader is to protect and support your people,” Miller added. “So instead of fighting tooth and nail to keep your team, we’re posting fashion videos.”
[Featured image by The Independent ]
