Exclusive: Frustrated State Department employees hire attorneys, charging 'political retribution'; CNN, January 28, 2018

Elise Labott, CNN; Exclusive: Frustrated State Department employees hire attorneys, charging 'political retribution'

"This ambassador, and several other State Department officials said they don't think the problem is not only the result of the political whims of the White House but is also due to a combination of a poorly-managed redesign and distrust of the career employees by the State Department's leadership -- all of which has contributed to a morale problem that continues unabated.

Low morale

Multiple sources have told CNN morale inside the State Department is at the lowest level in years, largely because of the perceived talent flight and an insular and distrustful approach from Tillerson and his team that's being interpreted by longtime employees as evidence their input is not valued."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spends his first weeks isolated from an anxious bureaucracy; Washington Post, March 30, 2017

Anne Gearan and Carol Morello, Washington Post; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spends his first weeks isolated from an anxious bureaucracy

"Eight weeks into his tenure as President Trump’s top diplomat, the former ExxonMobil chief executive is isolated, walled off from the State Department’s corps of bureaucrats in Washington and around the world. His distant management style has created growing bewilderment among foreign officials who are struggling to understand where the United States stands on key issues. It has sown mistrust among career employees at State, who swap paranoid stories about Tillerson that often turn out to be untrue. And it threatens to undermine the power and reach of the State Department, which has been targeted for a 30 percent funding cut in Trump’s budget.

Many have expressed alarm that Tillerson has not fought harder for the agency he now leads."