Cincinnati IRS Official Complains of Employees 'Thrown Under the Bus'

To: Waddell Jon M; Bowling Steven F

I know many of you have heard the comments and/or read articles about Lois Lerner publicly calling employees low-level workers and/or throwing EO Determinations employees under the bus. I am not trying to make excuses for anyone, just asking that you keep in mind that we weren't at the conference and don't know exactly what was stated. Sometimes reporters take information out of contex t.

I was on the phone with Holly earlier today and have also sent Lois an email expressing our concerns. And since most of you know me you know I'm not shy about what I say.

I want to apologize to each of you for whatever derrogatory comments were made. I know it is upsetting when you have been working so hard to try to address our inventory.

I wasn't at the conference and obviously don't know what was stated and what wasn't. I realize that sometimes words are taken out of context. However, based on what is in print in the articles, it appears as though all the blame is being placed on Cincinnati. Joseph Grant and others who came to Cincinnati last year specially told the low-level workers in Cincinnati that no one would be "thrown under the bus." Based on the articles, Cincinnati wasn't publicly "thrown under the bus" instead was hit by a convoy of mack trucks.

Was it also communicated at that conference in Washington that the low-level workers in Cincinnati asked the Washington Office for assistance and the Washington Office took no action to provide guidance to the low-level workers?

One of the low-level workers in Cincinnati received a voice mail message this morning from the POA for one of his advocacy cases asking if the status would be changing per "Lois Lerner's comments." What would you like for us to tell the POA?

How am I supposed to keep the low-level workers motivated when the public believes they are nothing more than low-level and now will have no respect for how they are working cases? The attitude/morale of employees is the lowest it has ever been. We have employees leaving for the day and making comments to managers that "this low-level worker is leaving for the day." Other employees are making sarcastic comments about not being thrown under the bus. And still other employees are upset about how their family and friends are going to react to these comments and how it portrays the quality of their work.

The past year and a half has been miserable enough because of all of the auto revocation iss ues and the lack of insight from Executives to see a need for strategic planning that included having anyone from EO Determinations involved in the upfront planning of this work. Now, our leader is publicly referring to employees who are the ones producin g all of this work with fewer resources than ever as low-level workers!

If reference to low-level workers wasn't made and/or blame wasn't placed on Cincinnati, please let me know ASAP and indicate what exactly was stated so that I can communicate that message to employees.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/irs-apologizes-for-inappropriately-targeting-conservative-politicalgroups-in-2012-election/2013/05/10/5afef7b8-b980-11e2-b5686917f6ac6d9d_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPNE_p

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/10/irs-apology-conservative-groups-2012-election/2149939/

http://www.wlwt.com/news/local-news/cincinnati/irs-cincinnati-workers-singled-out-conservative-groups-for-review//13549970/20096270/-/xcujae/-/index.html