And all of a sudden everyone pretended they’d never encountered some government employee doing the bare minimum to avoid being fired for cause.

Last time I was at the passport office they literally had someone pointing folks to 1 of 2 lines, instead of, y’know, a sign. (And yes, there was someone else there who was clearly there to help as needed, which ended up with them just slowly pacing the room.)

Or, if we move to more remote work (which many departments now say they’ll do to cut costs) you don’t need as many people in the office planning departments etc.