For Boston’s federal workers, a quiet week

The 18,000 federal workers in the Boston metropolitan area were prepared for a Democratic National Convention week of traffic jams, security woes and protester crowds.

Instead, they got four days of peace and quiet.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino had urged workers to take vacation or telecommute, and federal workers seemed to heed his advice. Only half of the employees at the O'Neill Federal Building got credentials that would allow them into the "Hard Zone" security perimeter surrounding the building and the FleetCenter next door, and even fewer actually showed up for work. The Social Security Administration's public offices were closed for the week, as was the Veterans Affairs clinic two blocks away from the O'Neill Building.

While federal office workers generally worked from home or took the week off, federal law enforcement personnel racked up serious amounts of overtime all week, working 12-hour shifts to provide convention security. Personnel from the FBI, Massachusetts National Guard, various units of the Homeland Security Department including the Federal Protective Service, Secret Service, Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration -- as well as mysterious gray-uniformed personnel manning vehicle checkpoints who refused to identify their agency -- worked together to successfully protect convention attendees. Many were out-of-towners on hand to augment local federal officers.

"All the agencies are working well together, and everything is going as planned," Secret Service spokeswoman Ann Roman said midway through the convention. Federal officers arrested one woman for lighting papers on fire on the street, but Roman said the arrest was not convention-related. Other than that and a few false alarms, there were no reports of major security problems for federal officers to deal with. By Thursday morning, those stationed around the center shared a single sentiment: They were ready to go home.