December 13, 2012 10:38AM 

# Working on Trade Policy Can Be Depressing 

By [Simon Lester](https://www.cato.org/people/simon-lester) 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

This is from a [*Washington Post* article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/best-and-worst-places-to-work-in-federal-government/2012/12/12/3cacb7d8-4472-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html) on a recent survey of federal workers:

> The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative ranks as the worst small agency, \[with 32.7 percent of employees saying they are satisfied\]. Former employees said its sense of mission was eroded by an ambivalent attitude toward free trade early in the Obama administration and during the economic crisis. Views of the agency’s leaders plummeted 18.9 percentage points over 2011.

Here’s hoping that the Obama administration will push harder for free trade in the second term, for the good of the country and to cheer up the folks at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office!

##### Related Tags 

[Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).