AUSA Position Outside DC

[Anonymous]

I am in the interview process for an AUSA job in a major city that is not D.C. Any ideas what the expectation will be for time in the office? I don't want to ask in the interviews in case this comes off as flaky.

[Anonymous]

I assume every day.

[Anonymous]

It is going to vary depending on the USA for that district. But it's litigation and there is still something to be said for being in the office bouncing ideas off of colleagues in those convos that happen in the office (or at least a lot of the management thinks so). Like PP said, assume every day, but my (educated) guess would be 3 days in office per week, minimum.

[Anonymous]

I would also assume everyday. The law enforcement personnel you are working with are generally all in person and aren’t going to Zoom or Teams you, and your witness interviews won’t be done that way either. Being a prosecutor is not a telework friendly job. TBH I can’t believe you actually have to crowd source this. Smart to not mention it in the interview at least, because I would probably write you off for even asking given the job you’re interviewing for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would also assume everyday. The law enforcement personnel you are working with are generally all in person and aren’t going to Zoom or Teams you, and your witness interviews won’t be done that way either. Being a prosecutor is not a telework friendly job. TBH I can’t believe you actually have to crowd source this. Smart to not mention it in the interview at least, because I would probably write you off for even asking given the job you’re interviewing for.

Not necessarily the case. Neighbor is an AUSA prosecutor and he wfh more days than not. DH is an atty in a DOJ litigating division that is civil, not crim, and he only wfh once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also assume everyday. The law enforcement personnel you are working with are generally all in person and aren’t going to Zoom or Teams you, and your witness interviews won’t be done that way either. Being a prosecutor is not a telework friendly job. TBH I can’t believe you actually have to crowd source this. Smart to not mention it in the interview at least, because I would probably write you off for even asking given the job you’re interviewing for.

Not necessarily the case. Neighbor is an AUSA prosecutor and he wfh more days than not. DH is an atty in a DOJ litigating division that is civil, not crim, and he only wfh once a week.

That neighbor is probably not a well thought of or effective AUSA. It is not a job you can do well teleworking the majority of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also assume everyday. The law enforcement personnel you are working with are generally all in person and aren’t going to Zoom or Teams you, and your witness interviews won’t be done that way either. Being a prosecutor is not a telework friendly job. TBH I can’t believe you actually have to crowd source this. Smart to not mention it in the interview at least, because I would probably write you off for even asking given the job you’re interviewing for.

Not necessarily the case. Neighbor is an AUSA prosecutor and he wfh more days than not. DH is an atty in a DOJ litigating division that is civil, not crim, and he only wfh once a week.

That neighbor is probably not a well thought of or effective AUSA. It is not a job you can do well teleworking the majority of the time.

PP. Not going to disagree with that. I'm a lawyer as well (former DOJ) and have long suspected it.

[Anonymous]

OP here: the first round of interviews was via zoom and all of my interviewers were in their homes. Perhaps 3 days a week in office is permitted?

[Anonymous]

I heard the DOJ was planning to adopt a rule requiring 6 days in the office per day period, but backed off after an uproar. Recognizing that an AUSA job may be more demanding and require more in-person interaction than some main justice jobs, I still think its reasonable to anticipate that some telework will be permitted.

[Anonymous]

My son is an AUSA in a major city. He works crazy long hours, often interrupting weekends and vacations. Everyone at the office knows this. He goes in probably 4+ days a week, but no one would care if it were less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is an AUSA in a major city. He works crazy long hours, often interrupting weekends and vacations. Everyone at the office knows this. He goes in probably 4+ days a week, but no one would care if it were less.

Your son’s colleagues are generally putting in the same work he is, so a person WFH 3 days a week would be noticed and talked about. OP, most big city USAOs are extremely competitive places, the brand new hire trying to WFH as much as possible is not a good look. If having more than 1 day a week WFH is crucial to you, this is not the job for you. I’m also guessing that they didn’t say anything about WFH because going forward they are not trying to encourage it as the feds are trying to move back to a more office centric culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is an AUSA in a major city. He works crazy long hours, often interrupting weekends and vacations. Everyone at the office knows this. He goes in probably 4+ days a week, but no one would care if it were less.

Based on this info, I would say you can probably have more or less a 3 days in / 2 days wfh schedule.

After years of wfh as the norm, I don’t understand why some people equate time in the office with working more productively or intensely. I am at a firm and usually bill 2100+ annually. I go in once a week on Thursday (unless there is a reason to come in another day) and have done this for the past 2 years. My evals are good, I was selected for the firm’s business dev program (i.e.: get clients boot camp) and was told my practice groups would recommend me for partnership when it’s my turn. I know gov may care about different things, but if doing the work is the measure of success, it shouldn‘t matter if your laptop is in the office or in your kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is an AUSA in a major city. He works crazy long hours, often interrupting weekends and vacations. Everyone at the office knows this. He goes in probably 4+ days a week, but no one would care if it were less.

Based on this info, I would say you can probably have more or less a 3 days in / 2 days wfh schedule.

After years of wfh as the norm, I don’t understand why some people equate time in the office with working more productively or intensely. I am at a firm and usually bill 2100+ annually. I go in once a week on Thursday (unless there is a reason to come in another day) and have done this for the past 2 years. My evals are good, I was selected for the firm’s business dev program (i.e.: get clients boot camp) and was told my practice groups would recommend me for partnership when it’s my turn. I know gov may care about different things, but if doing the work is the measure of success, it shouldn‘t matter if your laptop is in the office or in your kitchen.

Being a prosecutor is nothing like being an associate at a firm who will never sniff the inside of a courtroom nor have to conduct witness interviews and meet with law enforcement about investigations/pending cases.

[Anonymous]

Local USAO office is still just two days a pay period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is an AUSA in a major city. He works crazy long hours, often interrupting weekends and vacations. Everyone at the office knows this. He goes in probably 4+ days a week, but no one would care if it were less.

Based on this info, I would say you can probably have more or less a 3 days in / 2 days wfh schedule.

After years of wfh as the norm, I don’t understand why some people equate time in the office with working more productively or intensely. I am at a firm and usually bill 2100+ annually. I go in once a week on Thursday (unless there is a reason to come in another day) and have done this for the past 2 years. My evals are good, I was selected for the firm’s business dev program (i.e.: get clients boot camp) and was told my practice groups would recommend me for partnership when it’s my turn. I know gov may care about different things, but if doing the work is the measure of success, it shouldn‘t matter if your laptop is in the office or in your kitchen.

The difference between firm work and government work is that in a firm there is a bottom line and client satisfaction that matters. So the quality/quantity of your work is apparent, whether you are in the office or not, because these things matter and you have to bill. And if you don't get the job done in private practice, you are out. At DOJ, there are an awful lot of folks who do very little work and it's almost impossible to fire them and wfh has exacerbated this. I was there for many years and for some of them in a position to know about hiring/firing/hr stuff, and I only know of two folks in my entire Division who were told they'd be fired if they didn't move on; both moved on. So the big downside to attorneys working from home, from a management perspective, is different with the government. It makes an already-existing problem worse.