Anyone know a govt employee who simply decided they won't go to the office?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone in the future considering government jobs should be required to read this thread.

There is very little if any discussion about actual work and productivity.

Instead it’s about silly rules, HR, time sheets, exceptions, RTO etc.

Prioritize working somewhere that’s focused on actual work and adding value. Not on where someone uses their laptop.

Fed here. We used to be about productivity and end product before doge. I have this one employee who literally walks on water. I can give him the most complicated issue and he can repackage the whole thing, tie it in a string, and he does it ahead of schedule. If he was only working 7 hours a day, I wouldn’t care. He does as much work as 3 employees. My goal was keeping him and my other high performers happy. I went after low performers and either counseled them out or fired them.

Despite being one of the administrations top priorities, my agency had been treated like infants. It’s all about your timesheet, writing your 5 bullets and working in person. Nothing else matters. In fact, we’ve had our performance metrics cancelled. Performance absolutely doesn’t matter. My best employee had a family emergency and still couldn’t get even a day of telework so they’ve been out on sick and annual leave now. It’s a massive loss to us. I begged the head of our agency to authorize telework. Employee knows I really went to bat for them, but I know they’re disgruntled. They have over a thousand hours of sick leave and 300+ of annual leave so I hope they come back, but they could be off indefinitely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, we're back to women knifing each other in the back because they're taking "too much" maternity leave (yes, I heard you with the living in the midwest scenario). Good old regressive days.

When will the US understand that parents need at least 6 months of paid maternity leave, and 6 months of paternity leave?

The birthrate is plummeting. Time to treat families right if the nation needs babies.

Separately, sure, ding people for living where they shouldn't be living. Punish them for not following the rules. But when the rules are insane in the first place, I think the people who skirt them aren't entirely wrong.

Paternity leave and maternity leave do not help the birthrate.

My controversial opinion is that they have made it worse.

Paid parental leave has resulted in both parents being expected to return to the workforce, especially in European countries. The tax structure and paid leave means you get a year or so off per kid and then back to work you go.

Women would have more kids if their husband earned more money and they didn’t have to ever return to work with young kids.

I agree, even though it is controversial.

All the countries with that system have increasingly low birthrates.

[Anonymous]

This is what anonymous IG complaints were made for.

Drop an investigation on her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a fabulously collegial Fed office where it’s like a big family. I know 2 colleagues have stopped coming to the office. They get their work done at home then report it as in office, which is time fraud. I suspect their managers will look the other way as long as they get their work done. No one is ratting them out either. I don’t mind at all. If something happens and everyone’s badge goes n data gets audited, I won’t be at the bottom of the pack.

If coworkers don't want to rat them out, fine. But it's kind of mind blowing to me that managers whether family or not are willing to certify that timesheet every week knowing there's fraud. I mean if it comes out - and these days it's not a hypothetical, there are looking for people to fire - do the managers think they'll somehow be able to claim ignorance or something?

That’s a good point. I’m just a co-worker. The managers at my place are crazy hands off. We all work so independently. Like I can easily go months without interacting with my manager, except at monthly team meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone in the future considering government jobs should be required to read this thread.

There is very little if any discussion about actual work and productivity.

Instead it’s about silly rules, HR, time sheets, exceptions, RTO etc.

Prioritize working somewhere that’s focused on actual work and adding value. Not on where someone uses their laptop.

Yes. This. Working in HR, the change to monitoring this type of work is utterly demoralizing. To show up to and office and do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great, we're back to women knifing each other in the back because they're taking "too much" maternity leave (yes, I heard you with the living in the midwest scenario). Good old regressive days.

When will the US understand that parents need at least 6 months of paid maternity leave, and 6 months of paternity leave?

The birthrate is plummeting. Time to treat families right if the nation needs babies.

Separately, sure, ding people for living where they shouldn't be living. Punish them for not following the rules. But when the rules are insane in the first place, I think the people who skirt them aren't entirely wrong.

Paternity leave and maternity leave do not help the birthrate.

My controversial opinion is that they have made it worse.

Paid parental leave has resulted in both parents being expected to return to the workforce, especially in European countries. The tax structure and paid leave means you get a year or so off per kid and then back to work you go.

Women would have more kids if their husband earned more money and they didn’t have to ever return to work with young kids.

I agree, even though it is controversial.

All the countries with that system have increasingly low birthrates.

My sister lives in a patriarchal country. She was basically told to quit her job as soon as she was visibly pregnant because "working too hard is bad for your baby." Her husband got raises when each of their kids were born solely because he had another mouth to feed (i.e. nothing to do with his work product). My mother says it used to be like that in America. It probably is good for birthrate but it obviously isn't fair to childless people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone in the future considering government jobs should be required to read this thread.

There is very little if any discussion about actual work and productivity.

Instead it’s about silly rules, HR, time sheets, exceptions, RTO etc.

Prioritize working somewhere that’s focused on actual work and adding value. Not on where someone uses their laptop.

Fed here. We used to be about productivity and end product before doge. I have this one employee who literally walks on water. I can give him the most complicated issue and he can repackage the whole thing, tie it in a string, and he does it ahead of schedule. If he was only working 7 hours a day, I wouldn’t care. He does as much work as 3 employees. My goal was keeping him and my other high performers happy. I went after low performers and either counseled them out or fired them.

Despite being one of the administrations top priorities, my agency had been treated like infants. It’s all about your timesheet, writing your 5 bullets and working in person. Nothing else matters. In fact, we’ve had our performance metrics cancelled. Performance absolutely doesn’t matter. My best employee had a family emergency and still couldn’t get even a day of telework so they’ve been out on sick and annual leave now. It’s a massive loss to us. I begged the head of our agency to authorize telework. Employee knows I really went to bat for them, but I know they’re disgruntled. They have over a thousand hours of sick leave and 300+ of annual leave so I hope they come back, but they could be off indefinitely.

This is what's happening at my DH's agency as well.

He would usually take sick leave for medical appointments and then come back home and remote work, since we don't live super close to his work site. Now? Everyone in his division, including himself, just takes the whole day off for sick leave and does not work at all that day. Deadlines are already being missed, but it's what DOGE wanted.