Ex-FBI agents deride bureau's ‘Happiness Seminar,’ say agents should focus on fighting crimes

Former FBI agents criticized the bureau headquarters’ “Happiness Seminar” scheduled for later this month, saying that agents should be investigating crimes rather than worrying about their smile.

According to a photo of a poster tweeted on Tuesday by FBI whistleblower Steve Friend, FBI headquarters will host a “Happiness Seminar” on May 30 for employees to “Discover the power of smiling.”

Friend, an FBI special agent who left the bureau after blowing the whistle on alleged civil liberty violations during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation, tweeted that the seminar will have three parts that feature “the effects of smiling,” “the effects of speaking good words,” and “the effects of doing good deeds.”

“The @FBI is woke and weaponized,” he added. “Americans deserve more for their taxpayer dollars and our premier law enforcement agency should focus on combatting actual crime instead of impersonating a Silicone Valley start up tech firm.”

He also noted that FBI Director Christopher Wray wants Republicans to increase the bureau’s “funding to $11.4 billion. How much taxpayer money goes towards ‘Happiness Seminars’ for employees?”

Regarding the “Happiness Seminar,” Kevin Brock, the former FBI Assistant Director of Intelligence, told Just the News on Friday, “The secret to happiness in an FBI career is investigating individuals who deserve to be investigated and bringing them to justice.”

As discussions continue as to where the FBI headquarters should be located, Brock added that he believes the building has “become way too big and a resource drain for the FBI," referencing an article he wrote on the subject last year. "If these types of activities are now being conducted at FBI headquarters, that’s one more argument in favor of assessing” whether the FBI headquarters should be so large, he said.

Friend told Just the News on Friday that the “Happiness Seminar” is “just another example of how prioritization for the headquarters arm of the FBI is completely out of balance with what the American people want from their premier law enforcement agency and what rank-and-file do for work on behalf of the bureau.”

He explained that it is “indicative of a trend in the past few years, almost an effort to make the FBI in line with Silicon Valley startup tech firms instead of a down the line, law-and-order-focused organization.” The “downstream effects” are that it attracts a “different sort of person” to apply for the FBI, “and I don't think it’s gonna do the country very well if they’re worried about comfort at work instead of their mission of enforcing federal law,” he added.

Friend also noted that one of his “personal objections of this is fostering a work environment in the FBI office to be a positive work environment.” He remarked that, “to be an agent, to investigate crime, that work is done outside the office,” adding that he’s “advocated for a long time” that the majority of agents’ time should be spent working with local and state law enforcement partners.

Friend explained that these partners bring casework to the FBI and “have experienced detectives that are even better than longtime tenured FBI agents because a lot of [those agents] are not focusing on investigative work,” but rather work that is administrative or focused on counterintelligence or national security.

On the poster for the "Happiness Seminar," it says that the event is “Presented by the FBI’s newest ERG: ASEZ WAO.”

Friend tweeted that ASEZ WAO is “the @FBI’s newest employee resource group.”

According to the FBI Jobs website’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page, “ERGs are informal, employee-led groups that connect employees with shared interests to network and support one another. These groups bring awareness to barriers and issues impacting their members and advocate for solutions.”

The ERGs listed on the FBI site are Blacks in Government (BIG), FBI African American Millennials (FAAM), FBI Family, FBI Jewish Americans, FBI Latinos for Empowerment Advancement and Development (LEAD), FBI Pride, Federal Asian Pacific American Counsel, Federally Employed Women (FEW), From Boots to Suits, and Toastmasters Club.

The organization hosting the “Happiness Seminar” is ASEZ WAO. The acronym means “Let us save the earth from the beginning to the end as one family,” as ASEZ stands for “Save the Earth from A to Z” and WAO stands for “We Are One Family,” according to the organization’s website.

“ASEZ WAO is an international volunteer service group that consists of the Church of God young adult workers from 7,500 churches in 175 countries,” the website explains. “We plan to contribute to making improvements for mankind and the earth by taking care of our neighbors and communities with young adults’ passion and positive energy and participating in environmental protection activities.”

“The Church of God was established by the Second Coming Christ Ahnsahnghong, in the Republic of Korea, at the ends of the earth in the east, in 1964,” according to the Church of God’s website.

Friend also tweeted on Wednesday photos of unclassified FBI materials that show the FBI Los Angeles Field Office has two new “Relaxation Rooms,” where employees can relax with a massage chair and white noise machine. These are across from the “Wellness and Resiliency Space,” which is “A space to empower employees to have an environment for stress management and mindfulness,” where self-help books are provided, according to the FBI email.

“With all these fantastic opportunities to NOT WORK at the @FBI while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, it’s no wonder that applications are at record levels,” Friend tweeted. “Defund the FBI.”

The FBI National Press Office and Los Angeles Field Office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.