Staffers in Muriel Bowser‘s Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs had better be on their feet when the mayor is around. Bowser staffers have been told to stand when she enters their office, according to an email obtained by LL through the Freedom of Information Act.

In a Feb. 5 email to executive assistant Bernedia Long, Bowser community affairs director Charon P.W. Hines told her staff to get moving when the mayor is around.

“Please send a message to all the staff in the [Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs] suite letting them know when the Mayor enters the MOCA suite, all of us must stand to greet her,” Hines wrote. 

A Bowser administration employee speaking on background tells LL that greeting the mayor is a standing order—pun not intended.

Asked about whether it’s really policy for staffers to stand when Bowser enters an office, mayoral spokesman Michael Czin opted instead to plug Bowser’s fitness initiative.

“Every time someone stands it brings us one step closer to meeting the Mayor’s Billion Step Challenge,” Czin writes in an email.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery