What is the Republicans' whole "return to office" obsession?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agency has a commission with two republicans on it. They are constantly going after WFH and want RTO mandate. They almost never come to the office themselves. One doesn’t even live in the DMV. Republicans are just hypocrites.

Completely. They want to regulate YOU and how YOU do YOUR work, but don't want the same to apply to themselves. So typical of the GOP.

Republicans unfortunately don’t have monopoly over hypocrisy.

[Anonymous]

The boost to the economy, think of it. Gasoline, lunch, metro fares, taxes collected the social aspect of being together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds good to blue collar workers who don’t have that option and the GOP is all about stoking division.

America is fighting an online civil war. The GOP has an army of bots and trolls, but the DNC does not.

Whose fault is it that they are blue collar workers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boost to the economy, think of it. Gasoline, lunch, metro fares, taxes collected the social aspect of being together.

Why should federal employees have to subsidize local businesses and be expected to buy overpriced but mediocre sandwiches and salads for $15 a pop? Especially when the white collar private sector workers who make a whole lot more than they do aren't?

[Anonymous]

I think most of the Federal Government budget is spent on entitlement programs defense spending and interest on debt so there is not much to cut so they make big political issues out of small potatoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomers are obsessed with 20th century office culture.

I dunno why boomers think you need to waste 2 hours of uncompensated time going to and from work and everything in between. The world is not capable of progressing until boomers simply die off a lot more.

THIS. This is it.

Also, Congress is in person. And they can't imagine anyone doing things differently and being effective.

Bottom line, like a lot of other things right now, this about feelings and vibes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boost to the economy, think of it. Gasoline, lunch, metro fares, taxes collected the social aspect of being together.

You missed office rents. That’s what’s behind all of this. Trump himself and many of his billionaire backers own tons of commercial space that’s empty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds good to blue collar workers who don’t have that option and the GOP is all about stoking division.

America is fighting an online civil war. The GOP has an army of bots and trolls, but the DNC does not.

Whose fault is it that they are blue collar workers?

No one’s fault. Those jobs are needed too. But it’s easy to make them mad at “cushy office workers “

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The boost to the economy, think of it. Gasoline, lunch, metro fares, taxes collected the social aspect of being together.

You missed office rents. That’s what’s behind all of this. Trump himself and many of his billionaire backers own tons of commercial space that’s empty.

Yep. Because if it was about cutting federal spending, WFH makes more sense. But he wants to privatize everything too.

[Anonymous]

Republican like to scape goat. Mostly they have focused on immigrants...but feds have been added to the list. I do not think we were on the MAGA radar until recently. Now we are another group that is ruining their otherwise would be perfect lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Republicans are pro-business and WFH is not efficient and reduces productivity, I don’t care what anyone says. All these people saying I get so much more done at home, yeah right. Maybe more laundry and naps. That’s one of the few things I would agree with as a Harris voter.

I have WFH for 24 years. I started in a corporate position. They started with a pilot program with easily measured work. Claims processors and help desk staff where the first group. They compared number of claims and calls answered at home vs. the office. Staff completed more claims and calls at home and, they had higher quality work. The company closed the call center and sent everyone home and then eventually sent the rest of the staff home. They saved a lot of money, had happier employees, and higher quality work.

I have also WFH as a Fed. I get more done the days I WFH. I'm sure there are slackers in every organization, but the idea that most are hanging out all day and not working when teleworking or remote is just not true.

[Anonymous]

If the new DOGE co-czars have their way most Fed. Govt. Employees will no longer be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My agency has a commission with two republicans on it. They are constantly going after WFH and want RTO mandate. They almost never come to the office themselves. One doesn’t even live in the DMV. Republicans are just hypocrites.

This. How many if these billionaire agency heads are going to be in their federal office 40 hours a week? Probably none.

[Anonymous]

Shedding real estate leases is a major economic uplift to most companies. That most employers would rather keep paying office rent and RTO means they are doing the math and concluding the lost productivity is not worth the office space savings…. In other words, employers are economically incentivized to WFH if it actually works.

FWIW, I know of a small number of otherwise true believer Feds in the more prestigious agencies abusing WFH really badly. Like dance classes and workouts and boozy lunches during working hours three or four days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about this: If they want to insist on passing legislation for federal workers to return to the office it should actually MEAN all federal workers.

That includes: Members of the House and Senate, the President, Vice President, and all of their staffers.

And the requirement should be that they MUST be at their desk at their designated duty station for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, with the only exception being designated federal holidays, sick leave and vacation leave equivalent to what GS federal employees get.

That means no more golfing on the taxpayer nickel for Mr. Trump, and so on and if members of Congress need to raise money or meet with lobbyists or whatever, too bad, they need to do it from their office in DC.

Members of Congress work far less than GS federal employees do. They should hold themselves to the same standards they expect the rank and file to.

You are massively misinformed. I worked from 6 am until about 8 pm for 6 days a week when I was on the Hill.