Work site closed, but required to work

[Anonymous]

Hi, OP. Many of us are right there with you. Although my position requires a clearance, about half of my work is unclassified and could theoretically be done at home or elsewhere but our contract doesn't allow for telework of any sort.

It's a huge downside when the company is technically open for business and encouraging its employees to telework, but you're on a contract that doesn't allow it.

Between government shutdown and weather this is a bad, bad year for folks like us. I'm doing my best to take a deep breath and simply make the most of the day off since there is absolutely zero that I can do about it, and sitting around thinking about it just pisses me off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I understand your frustration but you need to work this out with your manager. I work for a Fed contractor and our policy is in general folks work from home when the Feds are closed. If they cannot, they work with their manager to discuss other assignments or they take leave.

I empathize that broad policies don't work for everyone but this is where you have to work with your manager to determine the solution to your problem.

You missed the point that the OP is in a cleared position. You cannot do work outside the office. It is either work, leave without pay or vacation hours.

Nope. Her OP says that she can't take leave or make up time because of a fiscal end deadline. Her follow up message says she's in a cleared role and can't work out of the office. So if she can't work out of the office, can't take leave, and can't make up the time - what are her options? It's not to ask DCUM it's to talk to her manager and get guidance on what to do today.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have billable time off?

It is f'ing awesome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband cannot work from home either. His contractor site never close so even though that company and the feds are sending their workers home, he is required to be there, take leave or make up the hours. His company used to offer 3 snow days but they took that away, along with 20% of his pay, medical benefits and a slew of things. There are perks to being a contractor but days like this suck.

Mine is at work, too, babysitting the server. He doesn't get paid leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for a gov't contractor. With the Gov't closed because of snow, I can not enter the office. My company, though, has a fiscal year ending soon, and is not allowing us to take today off and make up the time outside of the time period. They say people can work at home. That is simply not true. So, today will probably cost me a days vacation.

So why don't you make up the time within the time period? Work a couple extra hours each day the rest of the week. Typically in government contracting this is the case. Otherwise billing gets messed up. Even with my non-govt. contract job, I can make up time within the same week but can't roll over the make-up hours into next week.

[Anonymous]

PP: this is what I am opting to do: work extra....I actually worked yesterday and can use the holiday. It is frustrating to have the Fiscal deadline in a period where weather can be questionable? The issue is not having to make up the time, it is having so little time to do it. If this was next week, it may approach impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for a gov't contractor. With the Gov't closed because of snow, I can not enter the office. My company, though, has a fiscal year ending soon, and is not allowing us to take today off and make up the time outside of the time period. They say people can work at home. That is simply not true. So, today will probably cost me a days vacation.

Yep. That's the deal as an onsite contractor. Enjoy your vacation day. I had that happen last year and I didn't have any leave in the bank, so it really farted up bookkeeping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for a gov't contractor. With the Gov't closed because of snow, I can not enter the office. My company, though, has a fiscal year ending soon, and is not allowing us to take today off and make up the time outside of the time period. They say people can work at home. That is simply not true. So, today will probably cost me a days vacation.

Yep. That's the deal as an onsite contractor. Enjoy your vacation day. I had that happen last year and I didn't have any leave in the bank, so it really farted up bookkeeping.

What happened? Did you have to earn leave and pay it back after the fact?

[Anonymous]

This policy is standard with a lot of government contractors (including the one I work for). They just don't close. If you can't work at home you need to take paid or unpaid leave. They will not cover wages on overhead.

They have been able to get away with this because the job market has been so bad. As the job market improves they will find it more difficult to hold onto staff with policies like this.

I am fortunate to have work that I can do at home but not all my colleagues are in that position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for a gov't contractor. With the Gov't closed because of snow, I can not enter the office. My company, though, has a fiscal year ending soon, and is not allowing us to take today off and make up the time outside of the time period. They say people can work at home. That is simply not true. So, today will probably cost me a days vacation.

Yep. That's the deal as an onsite contractor. Enjoy your vacation day. I had that happen last year and I didn't have any leave in the bank, so it really farted up bookkeeping.

What happened? Did you have to earn leave and pay it back after the fact?

Yep - I got my regular paycheck but I had a negative leave balance for a while.

[Anonymous]

The real problem is the gov't is trying to get the contractors to reduce the overhead rates. These things would be overhead expenses. So, the government closes, it does not have to pay the contractors (though it does pay its own employees).

This reduction in OH is why we have seen material reduction in benefits (401K match, health ins, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real problem is the gov't is trying to get the contractors to reduce the overhead rates. These things would be overhead expenses. So, the government closes, it does not have to pay the contractors (though it does pay its own employees).

This reduction in OH is why we have seen material reduction in benefits (401K match, health ins, etc).

Yes. And when government workers got paid after the shut down for the time they did not work, most contractors did not. That money would have had to come out of overhead and most of the contracting firms can't charge that type of overhead.