Former FBI Agents Slam Bureau For Wasting Tax Dollars On ‘Wellness Room’ For Employees

A former FBI Agent slammed bureau Tuesday for wasting taxpayer funds after receiving a document in the mail from an alleged Field Office Insider New Jersey, which announced that a “wellness room” It includes massage recliners and lounge furniture as well as a yoga room for employees.

Steve Friend is a former FBI agent, and is currently a senior fellow for The Center for Renewing America. He tweeted two photos from an unknown insider at Newark Field Office. They show a memo announcement by the Health & Wellness Committee, and a sign that he was practicing self-care. “reminders” Outside the wellness room.

Friend was suspended for making a whistleblower complain about the Department of Justice. He tweeted, “Friend, I’m being suspended because of this tweet. “this is not a serious law enforcement agency.”

“I definitely see a value in activities that could build morale, but I don’t think that it should be done on the taxpayer’s time and dime,” Friend spoke to The Daily Wire. “And when you see things like massage chairs being made available to federal employees to have access to during their workday — as a taxpayer myself, I find that insulting.”

According to the document uploaded by Friend, a Newark Wellness Committee volunteer issued this memo citing its mission statement and how to increase the bureau’s so called culture of excellence to sustain current and retired employees’ spiritual, physical, and mental well-being.

“The Wellness Committee seeks to encourage employees to prioritize their physical, emotional, and mental health by offering a wellness space, program, and resources,” This is what the document looks like. “The Committee will support employees in their development and maintenance of healthy and positive habits that increase their overall wellbeing.”

Apart from lounge furniture and massage tables, the Wellness Room will include equipment for broadcasting wellness-related programs. Before entering the safe area, agents should take breaks and reflect on their feelings. “It’s OK to have bad and unproductive days.”

BONUS! You will find this sign outside. @FBI Wellness room. This is not a serious agency for law enforcement. The FBI is a joke at best. The FBI can be considered an enemy at best. @Weaponization pic.twitter.com/HFKoK5PO89

— Steve Friend (@RealStevefriend) February 21, 2023

Emotional wellness became a prolific focus for bureau officials during the pandemic, and the program itself comes off the heels of a recent trend, Friend said, that pushes FBI employees to be “kinder, gentler,” which the former federal agent noted extends beyond the field office in New Jersey.

The bureau had also reduced its physical fitness standards to bring in a broader pool of individuals who typically fail to meet those requirements, Friend said, that he had to pass before he became an agent, which took approximately four years and involved a multitude of comprehensive background checks, a polygraph examination, physical fitness test, as well as a medical physical examination.

“It is a contentious point, I know, within the rank and file that’s been raised a lot,” Friend said.

FBI Whistleblower Kyle Seraphin, who spent six years in the bureau working in counterterrorism and counterintelligence, was officially suspended indefinitely and without pay in June 2022 after he complained of allegedly questionable activity within the bureau and refused to comply with its COVID vaccine mandate.

Seraphin told The Daily Wire that the wellness program emulates the “worst and weakest parts of the Woke corporate culture.”

“When the work you do is honorable and rewarding, you don’t need a Wellness Room set aside to gather your thoughts,” Seraphin said. “That used to be called ‘your lunch break.’ But when you hire people whose work doesn’t actually impact the rewarding mission of law enforcement and simply exists for its own sake — perhaps they need to detox from the cognitive dissonance of ‘federal service’ being a federal jobs program.”

The Daily Wire reached out to the FBI Newark Field Office for comment Tuesday.