What it’s like to work for Rahm Emanuel

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  Emanuel's young staffers: Mike Simmons, from left, Ankur Thakkar, Caroline Weisser, Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Michael Faulman

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  Ankur Thakkar and Caroline Weisser talk in the press room at the mayor's office.

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  Ankur Thakkar and Caroline Weisser talk in the press room at the mayor's office.

   

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  Ankur Thakkar (from left), Anna Valencia and Caroline Weisser in the mayor's office

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  Staffers from the mayor's office exit through the front door.

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  Caroline Weisser (from left), Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Ankur Thakkar walk through Daley Plaza.

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  Matt Fischler (left) and Mike Simmons discuss city policies in Simmons's office in City Hall.

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  Michael Faulman (from left), Anna Valencia and Mike Simmons

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  Caroline Weisser (from left), Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Ankur Thakkar on a coffee break

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  Matt Fischler at an informal meeting with one of his colleagues at City Hall.

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  Mike Simmons (left) with Michael Faulman at City Hall

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  Mike Simmons (left) and Michael Faulman at City Hall

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  Mike Simmons (from left), Caroline Weisser, Matt Fischler and Michael Faulman 

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  A portrait of Mayor Rahm Emanuel hangs in a hallway at City Hall.

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  Ankur Thakkar (left) and Matt Fischler lend support while the mayor makes a major announcement about introducing Chicago's new Welcoming City Ordinance.

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  Ankur Thakkar checks the Twitter chatter as the mayor announces the upcoming introduction of the Welcoming City Ordinance.

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  Matt Fischler and Ankur Thakkar provide feedback to Chicago Office of New Americans Director Adolfo Hernandez post-event, where the mayor announced the new Welcoming Chicago Ordinance.

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  Anna Valencia waits while the mayor discusses an upcoming announcement on immigration with Chicago aldermen and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

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  Caroline Weisser works behind the scenes during a press announcement aimed at investing in infrastructure and rennovating CTA facilities.

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  Newspaper clipping of Rahm Emanuel hang on the wall in Caroline Weisser's office at City Hall.

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Emanuel's young staffers: Mike Simmons, from left, Ankur Thakkar, Caroline Weisser, Matt Fischler, Anna Valencia and Michael Faulman

Photo: Elizabeth Jochum

THAKKAR, 28, IS A PHILOSOPHICAL GUY sporting a beard and a stylish skinny tie. Along with Hauswirth, he is building the office’s Internet presence nearly from scratch. Because of Thakkar, you can see photos on Instagram of the mayor hanging backstage with Conan O’Brien or catch Emanuel checking in on foursquare at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival. Thakkar live-tweets mayoral press events on an iPad and manages the mayor’s office’s Facebook, Twitter, Livestream, Google+, Storify, YouTube, foursquare and Instagram accounts. The accounts usually reference Emanuel in the third person; the @RahmEmanuel account, established during the campaign, is still used to promote the mayor’s activities. When Thakkar first met Emanuel about a month after he started his job, he wanted to blurt out, “I am you, on the Internet.” But he got scared, and instead he smiled.

Emanuel has been described as a fear-inspiring boss. “We joke that someone should open a special trauma ward…for people who’ve worked for Rahm,” a former staffer during Emanuel’s years as a senior advisor to President Clinton once told Rolling Stone.

But Emanuel’s twentysomething employees—who make up just over one-third of the mayor’s staff of 85—describe their boss as more like a tough but fair professor whose expectations they want to exceed. He challenges them to take decisive action, just as he does. He’s a role model who excelled at a young age, as they hope to.

Junior staffers speak fondly of the life lessons Emanuel has taught them: Pay attention to details, read as much as you can, don’t lose the human connection in the digital age. When his field director, Anna Valencia, got sick on the campaign trail and had to stay at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Emanuel wanted to see her. “Please, no!” she had to plead with Faulman. (As Emanuel’s “body guy,” he travels everywhere with the mayor while Emanuel's on the clock.) “I was in a hospital gown dying,” Valencia, now 27, later joked.

Emanuel is demanding, aggressive and expects his staff to work long hours, his young aides admit. But many of them sought out this fast-paced environment, where they’ve been tasked with big responsibilities. Matt Fischler, a 24-year-old policy associate, helped launch the mayor’s Office of New Americans, the first citywide office that focuses on immigration. Mike Simmons, the mayor’s 29-year-old policy director, has been integral in implementing Emanuel’s strategy to eradicate Chicago food deserts.

“No one who values a comfortable, show-up-at-9:30-and-leave-at-5 [job] is going to want to work for Rahm Emanuel,” as one former employee put it. “It’s a staff of workaholics, let’s be honest.”