I accidently started a trend among a certain group of being early to the meeting because I was worried about being late. So, instead of getting ten minutes to mentally prepare with a book or podcast, it became asinine small talk. Now I’ve just gotten better at being ten minutes early without signing in and setting a two minute timer on my phone to log into the chat. Now they complain I’m not chatting with them. Why can’t they understand I’d never choose to interact with them, this is work.

Because the government would have to hire the employees directly for this, versus the company that is contracted to do so.

When the government contracts for IT equipment, it comes with terms about maintenance, updates, and life cycle. It would require a much higher cost, especially in FTE funding, to ensure that open source code is viable and safe before deployment. I’m not implying that there are zero risks or errors with contracts, though they do provide some benefits.