No more cellphones and laptops?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And do you find this problematic, OP?

Hard to say what impact this will have. Colleagues routinely work (unbilled) extra time because they have laptops and phones. And some don’t have desktops and use their laptops at work and bring them home.

If you aren’t allowed to telework, then you’d be in the office working these unbilled hours. If you’re in the office, why would you need a laptop and cellphone?

As for travel, isn’t there a travel freeze? How are you traveling without a work credit card to bill it to?

The telework ban isn’t the same everywhere. We are in the office 5 days but no one cares if you want to do extra work outside regular hours at home.

The travel ban is also not total. I don’t travel but I know of people in other agencies still traveling, DOJ litigators for example. If they have a hearing in CA it’s not like they can just not show up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And do you find this problematic, OP?

Hard to say what impact this will have. Colleagues routinely work (unbilled) extra time because they have laptops and phones. And some don’t have desktops and use their laptops at work and bring them home.

If you aren’t allowed to telework, then you’d be in the office working these unbilled hours. If you’re in the office, why would you need a laptop and cellphone?

As for travel, isn’t there a travel freeze? How are you traveling without a work credit card to bill it to?

There is "mission essential" travel that's still allowed. Think wildland firefighting (you may not need a laptop on the fireline but there's actually a lot of paperwork that some people have to do!) or FDA plant inspection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No need for cell phones. You aren’t allowed to telework so none of us would pick up after hours now anyways, same with checking email. It’s wild to think what would happen in an emergency (I’m in an industry that does have emergencies) because how would they get ahold of any feds? You can get in trouble now for teleworking.

At my agency, you are allowed to work for free/telework; you just don’t get any credit/pay/comp time

But in lit support, I sometimes need to check in and respond to emails during my leave

Yes, MAGA/OPM/DOGE, I’m a fed who works overtime and does not get paid for it.

[Anonymous]

We have enough monitors but not towers, so many of us are using a docking station with our laptops. Many of us prefer this as everything on the laptop is already set up and we don't have to set everything up again when moving to a different space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No need for cell phones. You aren’t allowed to telework so none of us would pick up after hours now anyways, same with checking email. It’s wild to think what would happen in an emergency (I’m in an industry that does have emergencies) because how would they get ahold of any feds? You can get in trouble now for teleworking.

At my agency, you are allowed to work for free/telework; you just don’t get any credit/pay/comp time

But in lit support, I sometimes need to check in and respond to emails during my leave

Yes, MAGA/OPM/DOGE, I’m a fed who works overtime and does not get paid for it.

No you actually aren’t supposed to be working for free extra as a fed. We are more like hourly workers than salary. Especially now that we can’t telework, you shouldn’t be working any extra now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No need for cell phones. You aren’t allowed to telework so none of us would pick up after hours now anyways, same with checking email. It’s wild to think what would happen in an emergency (I’m in an industry that does have emergencies) because how would they get ahold of any feds? You can get in trouble now for teleworking.

At my agency, you are allowed to work for free/telework; you just don’t get any credit/pay/comp time

But in lit support, I sometimes need to check in and respond to emails during my leave

Yes, MAGA/OPM/DOGE, I’m a fed who works overtime and does not get paid for it.

The antideficiency act forbids the acceptance of voluntary services for the federal government. You shouldn’t be working excess. My agency told us no telework, even on our own time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would they switch out all the equipment we have? Where's the budget?

i

My first thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No need for cell phones. You aren’t allowed to telework so none of us would pick up after hours now anyways, same with checking email. It’s wild to think what would happen in an emergency (I’m in an industry that does have emergencies) because how would they get ahold of any feds? You can get in trouble now for teleworking.

At my agency, you are allowed to work for free/telework; you just don’t get any credit/pay/comp time

But in lit support, I sometimes need to check in and respond to emails during my leave

Yes, MAGA/OPM/DOGE, I’m a fed who works overtime and does not get paid for it.

When I was at DOJ, lit support definitely got overtime; it just had to be approved (and it would be if there was a deadline). But if lit support just decides to check emails on vacation just because they feel an obligation to do so, that's different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No need for cell phones. You aren’t allowed to telework so none of us would pick up after hours now anyways, same with checking email. It’s wild to think what would happen in an emergency (I’m in an industry that does have emergencies) because how would they get ahold of any feds? You can get in trouble now for teleworking.

At my agency, you are allowed to work for free/telework; you just don’t get any credit/pay/comp time

But in lit support, I sometimes need to check in and respond to emails during my leave

Yes, MAGA/OPM/DOGE, I’m a fed who works overtime and does not get paid for it.

The antideficiency act forbids the acceptance of voluntary services for the federal government. You shouldn’t be working excess. My agency told us no telework, even on our own time.

When I asked if I can telework around a doctor appointment my manager originally suggested that I take the full day sick leave but still check my email....I was shocked that she suggested I work for free

[Anonymous]

Ok. Spend more money to get me a desktop. I just got a new laptop in December after 6 years. I’ve worked for the feds since 2006 and have never had a desktop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No need for cell phones. You aren’t allowed to telework so none of us would pick up after hours now anyways, same with checking email. It’s wild to think what would happen in an emergency (I’m in an industry that does have emergencies) because how would they get ahold of any feds? You can get in trouble now for teleworking.

At my agency, you are allowed to work for free/telework; you just don’t get any credit/pay/comp time

But in lit support, I sometimes need to check in and respond to emails during my leave

Yes, MAGA/OPM/DOGE, I’m a fed who works overtime and does not get paid for it.

The antideficiency act forbids the acceptance of voluntary services for the federal government. You shouldn’t be working excess. My agency told us no telework, even on our own time.

Does this apply to contractors too?

[Anonymous]

Bit what about snow days? They will expect us to WFH during snow days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bit what about snow days? They will expect us to WFH during snow days

If they don't give you a laptop I wouldn't sign a TW agreement.

[Anonymous]

At my agency, we only have laptops that we plug into docking stations. They switched over to this in literally 2015...for cost and telework reasons!