Working as a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice offers many advantages over toiling as a law firm associate. Greater responsibility. Better hours. Nicer bosses (with some exceptions).

But working for the DOJ has disadvantages too. Lower pay. Less support staff. No Aeron chairs working pens.

And maybe rats snacking on your toddler. From a tipster:

Cadwalader may have bed bugs, but the Justice Department’s child care center has rats. The center is… managed by a board of directors, mainly middle aged DOJ lawyers.

Here’s an email making the rounds. My favorite line is “They will stay upstairs for play the rat of the day.”

Check out the email, after the jump.

Here’s the e-mail. The Justice Department day care center is known as “Just Us Kids” — geddit?

From: Just Us Kids
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 12:24 PM
Subject: Twos. Toddlers and Infant parents, Please Read

There was an odor in the Twos room that made us suspicious that we may have another dead rat in the center. The building engineer was here this morning checking the ceiling spaces. Nothing was found. The odor was strongest in the corner by the wall and closet on the lower level. After the children went outside, the building engineer cut a hole in the drywall and located a dead rat. The rat was removed. The area inside the wall was sprayed with germicide and disinfectant and the drywall has been replaced. Unfortunately, there is a strong, unpleasant odor in the downstairs area.

The Twos will have lunch and nap in the upstairs library today. They will stay upstairs for play the rat of the day. D.C. licensing requires that children under two years of age be on the ground floor for emergency egress. For this reason we cannot relocate the Toddlers or Infants upstairs for the rest of the day. We know of no health threat from the dead rat. The Steritech exterminator was here this morning and found no evidence of rat activity in the children’s play areas. However, the smell in the Center is unpleasant. Due to the smell, if parents of Toddlers and Infants want to pick up their child/children please let us know.

While we are distressed at the pest issues we have had this week, we are glad the building management is addressing the problem in the loading dock so as to make it lass [sic] likely that pests will find their way into JUK in the future.

Thank you for your patience.

Earlier: Breaking: Cadwalader Overrun By Bed Bugs!!!