State VP Voice

BY HUI JUN TINA WONG

In every office, corridor, Teams call, and virtual chat group, our members are murmuring about flagging morale at the State Department.

Morale has been negatively affected by uncertainty: the department’s budget, the future of our jobs, pauses on programs and initiatives, closures or reductions at post, and directives to report on one another about perceived prior actions or comments misaligned with current administration priorities.

Amidst this angst and uncertainty, colleagues—some known as institutional innovators and reformers—are increasingly silent, tired and tuned out.

I don’t have any silver bullets to reverse this trend. However, I can offer some observations about what I am seeing. My message is this: To equip ourselves not to stay silent, we must not normalize our current experience.

I have a history of speaking up. My very first job was at a nongovernmental organization in New York City that was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, whose mission was to give voice to hundreds of thousands of voiceless children and families in the city.

Eleanor Roosevelt said in 1944: “If silence seems to give approval, then remaining silent is cowardly.” I bring that same conviction to the work of giving voice to those who may not be able to muster theirs right now. My advice:

Speak up. Talk about our values, externally and internally. We are a democratic institution sharing our American values around the world—with allies and adversaries alike. Internally, we must engage one another at every level and live those same values of kindness, civility, professionalism, fairness, and transparency.

To equip ourselves not to stay silent, we must not normalize our current experience.

Stop labeling others, and participate in culture creation. It is far too easy to put labels on others: pro-diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) or anti-DEIA, Christian or non-Christian, and more. Forcing labels onto others in the workplace stereotypes individuals and divides colleagues into “us” versus “them,” contributing to the further politicization of the workplace. Stop labeling others and reclaim your own story that drives merit, creativity, and problem-solving. I am proudly a Christian, the first generation to finish college, and hail from a family of farmers.

As an American by choice, I left behind a childhood in a communist regime to become a defender of democracy in the United States and around the world. I strongly believe reclaiming these and other individual assets makes us stronger and more unified as American diplomats. In implementing the current administration’s policies, we also swore our oath to serve the American people, and we do this faithfully every day at work, abroad and domestically.

As the late Pastor Tim Keller said: “Work is our design and our dignity; it is also a way to serve God through creativity, particularly in the creation of culture.”

Regardless of your own faith or spiritual practice, you play an important part in our Foreign Service community and an important role in creating its culture.

I encourage everyone to reach out to those whom you suspect don’t think like you to have a conversation about our institutional culture. In the conversations I’m already having across the department, I let colleagues know I respect their views as we work together to find common ground and to achieve our mission goals.

Create opportunities for others, not just yourself. In every staffing change or reorganization, there is opportunity. That opportunity should be for all. Some are positioning themselves for 6th- or 7th-floor jobs, leveraging insider strategies or political alignment.

While this can happen in any administration, we should make every effort to make room for everyone. Talk to, rather than shut down, colleagues who may have been let go from offices. Reorganizations reflect shifting institutional priorities, not individual failure.

Help each other to understand and navigate these changes and find solid landings. Thank you to the regional and functional bureaus that have absorbed departing 6th- and 7th-floor special assistants and other former bureau leadership officials. Let’s continue to take care of each other.

My final word: We are tackling difficult challenges around the world—multifront wars, natural disasters, gang violence, and threats to our homeland. We must remain united as an integrated State Department, across our rank and file, with continued advocacy for the much-needed resources and staffing we need to weather these storms. We are always stronger together.

Write me at wong@afsa.org if you have questions or would like to share your experiences.