New OPM memo on RTO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP, but I personally work with Feds who do play Pickleball and do other workout stuff during telework.

Also another Fed from FDA here and I know a lot of my colleagues are engaged with personal activities, ice-skating, kids activities, etc. during the core business hours. They would never respond on Teams and email responses are always delayed. You can almost see a pattern. Some won’t work on Friday but don’t take a day-off as well. The supervisors choose to ignore as they themselves are behaving similarly. And such employees are preferred and become supervisors because they don’t ask questions and challenge the current system. Pathetic situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP, but I personally work with Feds who do play Pickleball and do other workout stuff during telework.

Also another Fed from FDA here and I know a lot of my colleagues are engaged with personal activities, ice-skating, kids activities, etc. during the core business hours. They would never respond on Teams and email responses are always delayed. You can almost see a pattern. Some won’t work on Friday but don’t take a day-off as well. The supervisors choose to ignore as they themselves are behaving similarly. And such employees are preferred and become supervisors because they don’t ask questions and challenge the current system. Pathetic situation.

Cool story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fellow feds - stop defending bad actors.

We can all agree that telework as benefits but we need to draw a line in the sand somewhere when it comes to being good stewards of tax dollars. Defending surfing or running errands or playing sports at 1000 on a workday is unacceptable and you will never get support from the public or politicians as long as you think it is ok. Going to the gym at your worksite or in your garage is not the same thing as checking off the computer to go enjoy some leisure time.

My DH works in tech and will randomly go work out or to pickup some groceries in between meetings. His boss knows. No one gives a crap so long as he is available and getting work done.

If a fed employee is working their full 40 hours, turning in quality work, and not missing meetings then why would anyone care if they flex out to play pickleball or whatever.

I flex out several times per month to volunteer at my kids’ school and also to transport donations to a food bank. I’m also a high performer at my agency. It never dawned on me that anyone would have a pathetic enough life to care about this type of thing. Miserable people really want to drag down the rest of the world with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fellow feds - stop defending bad actors.

We can all agree that telework as benefits but we need to draw a line in the sand somewhere when it comes to being good stewards of tax dollars. Defending surfing or running errands or playing sports at 1000 on a workday is unacceptable and you will never get support from the public or politicians as long as you think it is ok. Going to the gym at your worksite or in your garage is not the same thing as checking off the computer to go enjoy some leisure time.

My DH works in tech and will randomly go work out or to pickup some groceries in between meetings. His boss knows. No one gives a crap so long as he is available and getting work done.

If a fed employee is working their full 40 hours, turning in quality work, and not missing meetings then why would anyone care if they flex out to play pickleball or whatever.

I flex out several times per month to volunteer at my kids’ school and also to transport donations to a food bank. I’m also a high performer at my agency. It never dawned on me that anyone would have a pathetic enough life to care about this type of thing. Miserable people really want to drag down the rest of the world with them.

Amen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fellow feds - stop defending bad actors.

We can all agree that telework as benefits but we need to draw a line in the sand somewhere when it comes to being good stewards of tax dollars. Defending surfing or running errands or playing sports at 1000 on a workday is unacceptable and you will never get support from the public or politicians as long as you think it is ok. Going to the gym at your worksite or in your garage is not the same thing as checking off the computer to go enjoy some leisure time.

My DH works in tech and will randomly go work out or to pickup some groceries in between meetings. His boss knows. No one gives a crap so long as he is available and getting work done.

If a fed employee is working their full 40 hours, turning in quality work, and not missing meetings then why would anyone care if they flex out to play pickleball or whatever.

I flex out several times per month to volunteer at my kids’ school and also to transport donations to a food bank. I’m also a high performer at my agency. It never dawned on me that anyone would have a pathetic enough life to care about this type of thing. Miserable people really want to drag down the rest of the world with them.

Amen

As a business leader, if my employees are client facing when they need to be, get their assignments done and add value to the team I don’t care when or where they work. I have no problems with Feds working this way as well. Performance is easy to track if goals are clear and actionable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fellow feds - stop defending bad actors.

We can all agree that telework as benefits but we need to draw a line in the sand somewhere when it comes to being good stewards of tax dollars. Defending surfing or running errands or playing sports at 1000 on a workday is unacceptable and you will never get support from the public or politicians as long as you think it is ok. Going to the gym at your worksite or in your garage is not the same thing as checking off the computer to go enjoy some leisure time.

My DH works in tech and will randomly go work out or to pickup some groceries in between meetings. His boss knows. No one gives a crap so long as he is available and getting work done.

If a fed employee is working their full 40 hours, turning in quality work, and not missing meetings then why would anyone care if they flex out to play pickleball or whatever.

I flex out several times per month to volunteer at my kids’ school and also to transport donations to a food bank. I’m also a high performer at my agency. It never dawned on me that anyone would have a pathetic enough life to care about this type of thing. Miserable people really want to drag down the rest of the world with them.

Amen

As a business leader, if my employees are client facing when they need to be, get their assignments done and add value to the team I don’t care when or where they work. I have no problems with Feds working this way as well. Performance is easy to track if goals are clear and actionable.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP, but I personally work with Feds who do play Pickleball and do other workout stuff during telework.

Also another Fed from FDA here and I know a lot of my colleagues are engaged with personal activities, ice-skating, kids activities, etc. during the core business hours. They would never respond on Teams and email responses are always delayed. You can almost see a pattern. Some won’t work on Friday but don’t take a day-off as well. The supervisors choose to ignore as they themselves are behaving similarly. And such employees are preferred and become supervisors because they don’t ask questions and challenge the current system. Pathetic situation.

+1. And they all claim their high performers and no one should dare question what they're doing because work is getting done.

We all know it happens. The people claiming it doesn't just don't want telework to end.

[Anonymous]

When they are clearly looking to axe feds, not a wise time to be doing the above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When they are clearly looking to axe feds, not a wise time to be doing the above.

Not a wise time to defend the behavior either.

Feds should come out and say it is wrong to play pickleball or surf or do whatever during work hours not double down and say it is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the most disappointing thing about this is seeing long time civil servants promoted into leadership just go along with this farce. Going back into the office more consistently is a good goal, I want my team back more than they are in, but mandatory 5 days in with strict 8 hour tours is stupid.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When they are clearly looking to axe feds, not a wise time to be doing the above.

Not a wise time to defend the behavior either.

Feds should come out and say it is wrong to play pickleball or surf or do whatever during work hours not double down and say it is fine.

But if they are using leave of flexed out then it’s not work hours.

It concerns me that anyone is not intelligent enough to grasp that employees can look at this thing called an Outlook Calendar and use internal agency systems to track workflow and know what needs to be done to meet deadlines.

Sometimes I’m on such a crunch I have to eat lunch at my desk (unpaid) to get everything done. Other times things are slower and it doesn’t affect anyone if I flex out to go to the gym or whatever. How is this any different than an employee popping out for a dentist appointment?

I’m convinced everyone against telework and employees managing their own schedules is either incompetent or spend their lives building widgets.

[Anonymous]

Just FYI, the reason that DOD people get to "work out" during working hours is because this has always been an operational readiness thing. Any of these people could deploy during a military conflict, and so it helps if they are in shape enough to handle the tasks they might be given. Are you people really that foolish that you don't know this? Personally I think if you work for DOD you should probably be able to hike long distances and run a couple of miles, lift things since you might be prevailed upon to do these things. Also, a significant percentage of DOD civilians are former military of all ranks and if we had a serious conflict like WW 1 with high casualties, a lot of these folks would be called back into active duty military service. Again, don't have opinions about things you don't understand. It just makes you look dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just FYI, the reason that DOD people get to "work out" during working hours is because this has always been an operational readiness thing. Any of these people could deploy during a military conflict, and so it helps if they are in shape enough to handle the tasks they might be given. Are you people really that foolish that you don't know this? Personally I think if you work for DOD you should probably be able to hike long distances and run a couple of miles, lift things since you might be prevailed upon to do these things. Also, a significant percentage of DOD civilians are former military of all ranks and if we had a serious conflict like WW 1 with high casualties, a lot of these folks would be called back into active duty military service. Again, don't have opinions about things you don't understand. It just makes you look dumb.

my non DOD agency had the 3 “wellness hours” as well. it was a nice perk like any other perk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When they are clearly looking to axe feds, not a wise time to be doing the above.

Not a wise time to defend the behavior either.

Feds should come out and say it is wrong to play pickleball or surf or do whatever during work hours not double down and say it is fine.

It's. Not. Work. Hours.

My last job, my hours were 6:30-3:00 daily. You saw me at the store at 3:30, on my own time.

These days, I have calls that start at 7 am and calls that end at 6 pm. The way to deal with that, when overtime is not authorized, is to take a chunk of time during the mid-day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fellow feds - stop defending bad actors.

We can all agree that telework as benefits but we need to draw a line in the sand somewhere when it comes to being good stewards of tax dollars. Defending surfing or running errands or playing sports at 1000 on a workday is unacceptable and you will never get support from the public or politicians as long as you think it is ok. Going to the gym at your worksite or in your garage is not the same thing as checking off the computer to go enjoy some leisure time.

My DH works in tech and will randomly go work out or to pickup some groceries in between meetings. His boss knows. No one gives a crap so long as he is available and getting work done.

If a fed employee is working their full 40 hours, turning in quality work, and not missing meetings then why would anyone care if they flex out to play pickleball or whatever.

I flex out several times per month to volunteer at my kids’ school and also to transport donations to a food bank. I’m also a high performer at my agency. It never dawned on me that anyone would have a pathetic enough life to care about this type of thing. Miserable people really want to drag down the rest of the world with them.

If you have so much free time to do all these non-work related activities during your core business hours, it can be interpreted that you don’t have a sufficient workload. And this is a known fact at Federal Agencies. The workload for each federal employee is significantly less than what you typically see in the industry. As a former federal employee I can testify to that and I had excellent performance throughout my duration of work at Federal government. No wonder federal employees can do their work in 20 hrs or less per week while still being a high performer.
Also, the annual performance evaluation of federal employees is a joke. There isn’t any real evaluation, no feedback sought from your direct reports, collaborators, or stakeholders. All employees usually get a same rating almost every year, unless one is totally negligent. The supervisors would give the highest rating to their favorites or those who are next in line for a promotion. Been there, seen that!