Shouting managers, exhausted officials, allegations of mistreatment and 960 reports related to harassment: A new investigation has offered an uncomfortable glimpse into working life inside the European Commission, raising questions about the institution’s workplace culture and its ability to deal with complaints.
A Politico investigation published on August 6, 2026 by Sebastian Starcevic, titled “Why people want a job at the European Commission — and why so many end up miserable”, sheds light on a lesser-known side of working life inside the institution. Some officials describe excessive pressure, difficult management, burnout and a reluctance to speak out.
Rather than portraying the Commission as a uniformly difficult workplace, the investigation highlights differences between teams and departments. Some officials describe supportive environments while others report serious problems with management, a picture that sits uneasily with the Commission’s public image of transparency, professionalism and good governance.
The investigation is based on interviews with around a dozen current and former Commission officials. The sources are of different nationalities, ages and professional backgrounds, and hold different positions within the institution.
Most are not identified by name or Directorate-General, and Politico does not present their allegations as formally established findings. Their testimonies nevertheless point to significant differences in employees’ experiences, particularly depending on the department, the managers overseeing their work and the commissioner for whom they work.
According to Starcevic’s investigation, some officials described managers shouting at employees. In one case, an official alleged that their boss had physically assaulted them during an argument at a bar near the Berlaymont, the Commission’s Brussels headquarters.
Other staff members reportedly felt reluctant to challenge their superiors or use internal complaint mechanisms, amid concerns about the professional consequences of speaking out and doubts over the effectiveness of the procedures available to them. Some teams are described as positive and supportive workplaces, while others are portrayed as environments marked by excessive pressure, poor management or fear of speaking out.
The investigation also provides a figure concerning harassment. Since September 2024, the Commission’s chief confidential counsellor, who reports to Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration Piotr Serafin, has received 960 reports from “colleagues feeling harassed, alleged harassers, witnesses, managers and HR Correspondents”, according to a Commission spokesperson.
That post is itself recent. It was created under a Commission decision adopted on December 12, 2023, which overhauled the institution’s rules on preventing psychological and sexual harassment and placed a single counsellor at the head of the network handling informal complaints.
The figure covers a broad range of reports and therefore should not be interpreted as 960 substantiated cases of harassment. Around 2,400 managers had also received training on the Commission’s anti-harassment policy.
The figure should be set against the size of the institution. As of January 1, 2026, the European Commission had 33,071 staff members, according to its own HR figures, including officials, temporary and contract staff, special advisers, local staff and staff under national law.
The Commission itself describes its workforce as numbering around 32,000 permanent and contract employees, including policy officers, researchers, lawyers and translators. The 960 reports therefore represent a significant volume of complaints reaching the internal counselling system, but they should not be taken as evidence that harassment is widespread across the institution or that all of the reports concern substantiated cases.
Several officials also pointed to the Commission’s bureaucracy itself as a source of frustration. According to the investigation, cabinet teams and the Commission’s policy departments, known as Directorates-General (DGs), can struggle to communicate effectively with one another.
The result, some officials said, is a cumbersome system in which staff spend considerable time chasing approvals, information and responses from colleagues across different parts of the institution. Officials also stressed that their experience can differ depending on which commissioner they work for and the cabinet they are part of.
These differences, they suggested, can shape everything from management style and workload to how effectively teams communicate and how much support employees receive.
The allegations come at a time when the Commission is under scrutiny over conditions at its Brussels headquarters. On June 26, 2026, staff on floors one to seven of the Berlaymont received a message telling them the air cooling system would be shut down for the rest of the day because of extreme weather conditions.
The 13-storey building houses Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, her 26 commissioners and about 3,000 staff. Von der Leyen works on the 13th floor and most commissioners are based on the eighth floor or above, where cooling remained available.
One official on a lower floor, granted anonymity by Politico, said the arrangement was “like feudalism”, while a second called it “a disgrace”. A staff member on the eighth floor said the temperature there had reached 25.7C even with the air conditioning running.
Workplace conditions fall within Serafin’s brief. His mission letter from von der Leyen, published in December 2024, tasks him with working with the President on making the Commission “a truly inclusive and sustainable place of work” and with treating the modernisation of HR processes as a priority.
