Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon reports on the interesting results of a program designed to collect taxpayers’ comments and suggestions about one Cabinet-level federal department.

A tool meant to provide customer service to the public from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has turned into a message board full of complaints and demands made by the agency’s employees.

Federal workers are complaining about “second hand e-cigarette smoke,” want taxpayers to subsidize their bike share, and do not want to have to use their government laptop when they work from home.

“The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Switchboard tool represents a means that can be replicated by other agencies to respond to customers,” Digital.gov wrote on Friday. The Switchboard website acts as a message board where users can comment on how to improve the agency’s customer service. The tool was launched in 2009 and has been touted as an innovative way to improve the agency’s dealings with taxpayers.

However, the Digital.gov noted that 80 percent of the suggestions are from HUD employees themselves.

“Please ban the use of e-cigarettes inside HUD offices” is the subject line of one request. …

… Other ideas from HUD employees include eliminating the designated smoking area at HUD headquarters, subsidizing bike share for field employees, and establishing a “formal workplace bullying grievance process.” …

… Other employees asked for automatic approval for employees who want to work from home for three days or fewer, and automatic enrollment for all federal employees in the TSA Pre-Check program so they do not have to wait as long as non-government employees at airports.

One worker does not want to be required to use their government laptop when they telework because it makes them “less productive.”

“Laptop screens are tiny and hard to use,” the employee said. “You have to flip back and forth between documents and it kills productivity. Also, carrying laptops back and forth to work will be a pain and add to the likelihood that laptops will get lost, stolen or broken.”

The forum also includes an idea for “reverse mentoring” where young employees teach senior staff how to use Snapchat. One post asks for a “courtesy phone for the homeless” at all HUD offices.