The CIA is tweeting wellness tips and everyone's confused

  • The CIA, not known for tranquility, has been tweeting workplace wellness tips, hashtagged #ThrivingatCIA. 
  • This first started a few months ago, and provides an unexpected window into what the self-proclaimed 'Nation's first line of defense' does to stay calm at work.
  • The posts have not been well-received on Twitter. Users responded referencing foreign drone strokes and accusations about the torture of terror suspects.
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The CIA, not known for tranquility, has baffled followers by posting a flurry of wellness tips and motivational aphorisms. 

"Take a breath," followers were told on Wednesday. "The work day can be overwhelming. We offer our officers a quiet space to step away and catch their breath. Deep breathing is one of the easiest forms of relaxation you can practice and use on your own."  

Workplace woes are indeed endemic across the US, and around the world, with rising rates of burnout, stress, and anxiety. 

But people on Twitter did not take well to the US Central Intelligence Agency — responsible for mass-hacking of electronics and the torturing of foreign nationals — dishing out advice on stress.

The #ThrivingAtCIA hashtag quickly became flooded with people offering critiques of the government agency. One user posted a picture of someone being waterboarded, calling it the CIA's version of deep breathing. "Destabilizing governments and assassinating foreign nationals does take a toll on the staff," another user wrote.

For an agency known for secrecy, the CIA's social media presence has been noisy

After the CIA joined Twitter in 2014, solemnly tweeting "we can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet," the agency's online presence grew more and more conversational. In 2019 the account gave a shout-out to Marvel's Black Panther in honor of its Oscar nominations, as well as mentioning that Jeopardy host Alex Trebek "won the hearts of CIA's workforce."

"Even though we're the CIA and a clandestine organization — we have certain rules we have to follow — can we be more social?" Amanda, the CIA social media lead who declined to reveal her last name, told The Hill in 2019.

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