Anyone fired for failing to RTO?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have but luckily had enough leave to get by until my religious accommodation was approved.

What religion requires an exemption?

You only get the accommodation if you already know. Telework is for the patriots and the faithful which is why appointees are all at home along with the churchgoing new hires. It's all about lording it over the liberal fed employees while actual work gets done.

Churchgoing fed here. My faith doesn't require fasting, or praying on specific days, but it does require acts of service. RTO has legitimately reduced my ability to help people in my community (e.g., I was driving for a member with an illness, and now I can't because of all the time I spend commuting). I am confident an exception would not be approved and I am not planning to try - not interested in getting myself or my church on some list. But it's infuriating because a lot of us "liberal fed employees" are people of faith whose practice is actually affected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is obsessed with the fiction that people are not complying. It's the Bigfoot of the jobs forum.

OP here and well aware that people are overall complying or quitting. But what if someone didn’t?

I am at the end of my rope. I am a single mom I had accepted a fully remote position because it made sense. My commute takes 3 hours each day. I am burning through my leave balances just trying to survive and my health is spiraling, and my employer is not approving TW for RAs. Can’t afford to quit and I kind of want to die. So a not insignificant part of me wants to say no and just stop commuting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is obsessed with the fiction that people are not complying. It's the Bigfoot of the jobs forum.

OP here and well aware that people are overall complying or quitting. But what if someone didn’t?

I am at the end of my rope. I am a single mom I had accepted a fully remote position because it made sense. My commute takes 3 hours each day. I am burning through my leave balances just trying to survive and my health is spiraling, and my employer is not approving TW for RAs. Can’t afford to quit and I kind of want to die. So a not insignificant part of me wants to say no and just stop commuting.

We have a SMBC in our group with a similar commute and it is hard for her because daycare only allows 10 hours of care per day so 8.5 work hours plus 2 hour commute exceeds her daycare time. She has been given some TW accommodations by her manager where she can leave early some days and TW in the evenings to make up the time. Shes a good person, I am glad her manager is sticking up for her.

[Anonymous]

Someone at my law firm peaced out when told to return, which is weird because it seems like a lot of folks aren't complying (at least not with 4 days/week). She must have landed on the wrong project with the wrong partner/senior associate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have but luckily had enough leave to get by until my religious accommodation was approved.

What religion requires an exemption?

You only get the accommodation if you already know. Telework is for the patriots and the faithful which is why appointees are all at home along with the churchgoing new hires. It's all about lording it over the liberal fed employees while actual work gets done.

Yeah why should appointees be in office? They are special and nothing will happen to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have but luckily had enough leave to get by until my religious accommodation was approved.

What religion requires an exemption?

You only get the accommodation if you already know. Telework is for the patriots and the faithful which is why appointees are all at home along with the churchgoing new hires. It's all about lording it over the liberal fed employees while actual work gets done.

Yeah why should appointees be in office? They are special and nothing will happen to them.

There's no CBA so everything is based on management decree. The appointees and SES decided they can telework but regular employees cannot. I believe the military refers to this policy as officers eat first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have but luckily had enough leave to get by until my religious accommodation was approved.

What religion requires an exemption?

You only get the accommodation if you already know. Telework is for the patriots and the faithful which is why appointees are all at home along with the churchgoing new hires. It's all about lording it over the liberal fed employees while actual work gets done.

Yeah why should appointees be in office? They are special and nothing will happen to them.

There's no CBA so everything is based on management decree. The appointees and SES decided they can telework but regular employees cannot. I believe the military refers to this policy as officers eat first.

Our appointees TW but career SES do not. I think the career SES are very afraid of losing their jobs if they appear to be out of line. Agree it is a rules for thee situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is obsessed with the fiction that people are not complying. It's the Bigfoot of the jobs forum.

OP here and well aware that people are overall complying or quitting. But what if someone didn’t?

I am at the end of my rope. I am a single mom I had accepted a fully remote position because it made sense. My commute takes 3 hours each day. I am burning through my leave balances just trying to survive and my health is spiraling, and my employer is not approving TW for RAs. Can’t afford to quit and I kind of want to die. So a not insignificant part of me wants to say no and just stop commuting.

If you can't afford to quit I'm not sure why you think refusing to RTO is going to work. The risk of getting fired is quite high.

Have you actually put in an RA and been rejected?
Can you go part time?
If no to both, just throw all your energy into job hunting.

I truly am sympathetic and I hope you find a solution, but "tell me people aren't complying, yet keeping their jobs" isn't it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really curious because downtown DC remains a ghost town.

Well, a huge number of people quit, retired, or were fired.

But Feds were never the people you saw around DC. We mostly don't work downtown, but on the fringes in SW, SE, and NE. We get only 30 minutes for lunch, so most of us brown-bag it or eat in our own cafeterias if there are any. And as a group, we're on the older side and we live in the suburbs or exurbs - so we're not sticking around for happy hour.

Exactly. I would spend my entire lunch break walking somewhere to spend $20 on lunch I'd have to bring back to my desk to eat. And we don't do happy hours anymore - all the older folks who could afford to live close in, and the younger childless people in apartments, retired or took DRP. Those of us left are the mid-career folks with commutes and strict childcare schedules. You'll only see us walking to and from the train station.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have but luckily had enough leave to get by until my religious accommodation was approved.

What religion requires an exemption?

You only get the accommodation if you already know. Telework is for the patriots and the faithful which is why appointees are all at home along with the churchgoing new hires. It's all about lording it over the liberal fed employees while actual work gets done.

Churchgoing fed here. My faith doesn't require fasting, or praying on specific days, but it does require acts of service. RTO has legitimately reduced my ability to help people in my community (e.g., I was driving for a member with an illness, and now I can't because of all the time I spend commuting). I am confident an exception would not be approved and I am not planning to try - not interested in getting myself or my church on some list. But it's infuriating because a lot of us "liberal fed employees" are people of faith whose practice is actually affected.

That's unfortunate. A few months ago I was stuck on I95 when my Stanley water bottle burst into flames and told me Jesus wants me to humbly pray in private for 5 minutes of each daylight hour. I had no choice but to file a religious telework accommodation.

[Anonymous]

My spouse is 5 days a week in the office, but that's not different for him due to the nature of his job. He doesn't comply with the situational telework policy in terms of requesting approval if he needs to do an hour or two at home due to a medical appointment or other obligation he has to take some leave for. No one cares. He's in a unique situation in that he works independently although technically reporting to someone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have but luckily had enough leave to get by until my religious accommodation was approved.

What religion requires an exemption?

You only get the accommodation if you already know. Telework is for the patriots and the faithful which is why appointees are all at home along with the churchgoing new hires. It's all about lording it over the liberal fed employees while actual work gets done.

Churchgoing fed here. My faith doesn't require fasting, or praying on specific days, but it does require acts of service. RTO has legitimately reduced my ability to help people in my community (e.g., I was driving for a member with an illness, and now I can't because of all the time I spend commuting). I am confident an exception would not be approved and I am not planning to try - not interested in getting myself or my church on some list. But it's infuriating because a lot of us "liberal fed employees" are people of faith whose practice is actually affected.

That's unfortunate. A few months ago I was stuck on I95 when my Stanley water bottle burst into flames and told me Jesus wants me to humbly pray in private for 5 minutes of each daylight hour. I had no choice but to file a religious telework accommodation.

Did Jesus tell you where to pray? That's going to make a difference. I mean your agency head might just insist you do it in the bathroom at work so as not to interfere with RTO. Mayyyybe they'd make a pumping room available to you.

[Anonymous]

I just want to say that nothing will happen. I have an employee who did not RTO. They have been given warnings and I basically have to email them daily about how they're supposed to be in the office, but nothing more happens. HR laughed at me when I asked about firing them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is obsessed with the fiction that people are not complying. It's the Bigfoot of the jobs forum.

OP here and well aware that people are overall complying or quitting. But what if someone didn’t?

I am at the end of my rope. I am a single mom I had accepted a fully remote position because it made sense. My commute takes 3 hours each day. I am burning through my leave balances just trying to survive and my health is spiraling, and my employer is not approving TW for RAs. Can’t afford to quit and I kind of want to die. So a not insignificant part of me wants to say no and just stop commuting.

If you can't afford to quit I'm not sure why you think refusing to RTO is going to work. The risk of getting fired is quite high.

Have you actually put in an RA and been rejected?
Can you go part time?
If no to both, just throw all your energy into job hunting.

I truly am sympathetic and I hope you find a solution, but "tell me people aren't complying, yet keeping their jobs" isn't it.

To be fair there is a private sector comparison. My megacorp mandated 5 day RTO but no one is complying. Most people come in 1 or 2 days a week. They only enforce it against the divisions they want to cut people in. I guess that doesn't translate well to the govt where they want to get rid of everyone.

[Anonymous]

a guy in my office said no to RTO and he was 'counseled out'. He wasn't fired but my assumption (bc I don't really know what happened) was that they would fire him if he didn't quit.

I think in the end he actually moved to a different agency and a different office.