If you're a fed, are you planning to quit or go back?

[Anonymous]

I'm definitely less productive in office because people are always coming in to talk to me about things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a fed with teenagers and I don’t begrudge younger parents flexibility but I think the cost of this is often to their coworkers who are doing their work while they are at afternoon ballet class, or kind of paying attention on a work call while driving. The rest of us would be better off if you were fully doing your job, which is much harder to manage and track remotely. I can’t stand Trump and am dreading most of the administration, except for the scaling back of telework. My coworkers and I are all for it.


If people are doing work while at a ballet class or driving, that's clearly not ok (unless they have permission- though not while driving!) and should be dealt with on an individual basis. I agree.

I agree as well, but have not ever experienced anyone at my agency doing anything like this. We have a very high workload, and it would be noticeable quickly.

You’ve never noticed anyone only being available from 9-3 and then sending an email at 9 pm to signal that they were working?

.

New poster - no, people in our office don’t do that - as the other PP says, maybe a 10 minute school pickup or similar but we can’t make up hours at night we didn’t work during the day.

I’m a fed who works at home. My kids have no school this week. I dropped them at camps at 9/9:30 and was online at 10. At 3 I w picked them up and stopped and ran an errand. I ran this by my boss ahead of time and took 3 hours of annual leave today. Based on child care I could find, if I didn’t work from home I would have needed a full 8 hours of leave today. Instead I was able to move our project forward.

You were being honest and took leave. I don’t know anyone who would take those three hours of leave. They would just say they worked a full day from home.

You can't be away from your desk for hours without anyone noticing. We use Teams and people do look for you.

[Anonymous]

The number of files I handle is tracked (and a random number are audited by our quality office), so basically, I have numbers to hit. Sure I could probably goof off for a day, but if my numbers are low when they do my timesheet, every 2 weeks, they'll notice and then I also get rated quarterly on the amount of work I do. I'd assume I'm far from the only fed who has this kind of setup.

[Anonymous]

My agency has very quantifiable work, and study after study has shown more productivity with telework.

It's also very public facing, so a decrease in output will be very quickly noticed. We're already stretched super thin and the public is complaining. Hope Congress has fun with the outcome of full time RTO, because their entire day will consist in drafting congressional letters and being on the phone with irate constituents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The RTO has nothing to do with increasing productivity. There are PLENTY of people that slack off more in the office than those that work from home (long lunch/bathroom breaks, chatting with colleagues, pretending to work while surfing the web, etc.). You have the same issues in office like at home.

They want butts in seats because it stimulates the economy. You use your car, gas, lunches, drycleaning etc. You get in an accident, insurance goes up, body shops get more work, car rentals get kick-back, it's all daisy chained. If you stay at home, a huge portion of potential capital is out of circulation.

If you can't properly manage people at home, you won't do it better if those same people are in the office. Inefficient and poor performers will do so regardless where they work from.

It’s not just about managing poor performers. It’s information sharing, oversight, and norms (time management and appropriateness). It’s very hard to share norms when you are not in person. Many young or less experienced employees are also less likely to ask for help when remote.

The biggest companies in the world aren’t RTOing because they want to help Goldman Sachs’ commercial real estate portfolio. It’s genuinely bad for development and there are real oversight risks that shouldn’t be understated.

In this day and age, technology bridges that gap. My issue with RTO is that one size doesn't fit all. For some teams, it makes sense to meet in the office for information sharing and team building. For others? Not so much. I'm forced to come into the office while all of my team is scattered across the US. I sit in a conference room, by myself, all day on calls without seeing or interacting with anyone. How's what useful to me or the company? I'm taking space where someone else could benefit from.

You can't RTO everyone if logistically, it doesn't make sense. It's always a knee jerk reaction based on outdated information or boomer ideology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My agency has very quantifiable work, and study after study has shown more productivity with telework.

no they (as in studies) don't

"Remote Workers actually aren't more Productive'
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-01-04/2024-year-employers-clamp-down-on-remote-work-not-so-fast

that was just a covid lie meant to make you feel good about the bad decisions to lock up everyone in their homes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agency has very quantifiable work, and study after study has shown more productivity with telework.

no they (as in studies) don't

"Remote Workers actually aren't more Productive'
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-01-04/2024-year-employers-clamp-down-on-remote-work-not-so-fast

that was just a covid lie meant to make you feel good about the bad decisions to lock up everyone in their homes

I'm not PP, but my agency published efficiency reports and we've gone up since COVID. The amount of work done per employee is way up. I know my own worksheet shows an increase as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a fed with teenagers and I don’t begrudge younger parents flexibility but I think the cost of this is often to their coworkers who are doing their work while they are at afternoon ballet class, or kind of paying attention on a work call while driving. The rest of us would be better off if you were fully doing your job, which is much harder to manage and track remotely. I can’t stand Trump and am dreading most of the administration, except for the scaling back of telework. My coworkers and I are all for it.


If people are doing work while at a ballet class or driving, that's clearly not ok (unless they have permission- though not while driving!) and should be dealt with on an individual basis. I agree.

I agree as well, but have not ever experienced anyone at my agency doing anything like this. We have a very high workload, and it would be noticeable quickly.

You’ve never noticed anyone only being available from 9-3 and then sending an email at 9 pm to signal that they were working?

.

New poster - no, people in our office don’t do that - as the other PP says, maybe a 10 minute school pickup or similar but we can’t make up hours at night we didn’t work during the day.

I’m a fed who works at home. My kids have no school this week. I dropped them at camps at 9/9:30 and was online at 10. At 3 I w picked them up and stopped and ran an errand. I ran this by my boss ahead of time and took 3 hours of annual leave today. Based on child care I could find, if I didn’t work from home I would have needed a full 8 hours of leave today. Instead I was able to move our project forward.

You were being honest and took leave. I don’t know anyone who would take those three hours of leave. They would just say they worked a full day from home.

You can't be away from your desk for hours without anyone noticing. We use Teams and people do look for you.

Are federal employees not allowed to have teams on their phone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a fed with teenagers and I don’t begrudge younger parents flexibility but I think the cost of this is often to their coworkers who are doing their work while they are at afternoon ballet class, or kind of paying attention on a work call while driving. The rest of us would be better off if you were fully doing your job, which is much harder to manage and track remotely. I can’t stand Trump and am dreading most of the administration, except for the scaling back of telework. My coworkers and I are all for it.


If people are doing work while at a ballet class or driving, that's clearly not ok (unless they have permission- though not while driving!) and should be dealt with on an individual basis. I agree.

I agree as well, but have not ever experienced anyone at my agency doing anything like this. We have a very high workload, and it would be noticeable quickly.

You’ve never noticed anyone only being available from 9-3 and then sending an email at 9 pm to signal that they were working?

.

New poster - no, people in our office don’t do that - as the other PP says, maybe a 10 minute school pickup or similar but we can’t make up hours at night we didn’t work during the day.

I’m a fed who works at home. My kids have no school this week. I dropped them at camps at 9/9:30 and was online at 10. At 3 I w picked them up and stopped and ran an errand. I ran this by my boss ahead of time and took 3 hours of annual leave today. Based on child care I could find, if I didn’t work from home I would have needed a full 8 hours of leave today. Instead I was able to move our project forward.

You were being honest and took leave. I don’t know anyone who would take those three hours of leave. They would just say they worked a full day from home.

You can't be away from your desk for hours without anyone noticing. We use Teams and people do look for you.

Are federal employees not allowed to have teams on their phone?

But who cares?! Is the work getting done? Is the quality of the work acceptable? Is the employee responsive without any delays or issues?

If not, who cares where they are. I'd rather have an employee that provides quality and timely work than someone sitting in an office for 8 hours that needs constant monitoring, oversight, and reminders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a fed with teenagers and I don’t begrudge younger parents flexibility but I think the cost of this is often to their coworkers who are doing their work while they are at afternoon ballet class, or kind of paying attention on a work call while driving. The rest of us would be better off if you were fully doing your job, which is much harder to manage and track remotely. I can’t stand Trump and am dreading most of the administration, except for the scaling back of telework. My coworkers and I are all for it.


If people are doing work while at a ballet class or driving, that's clearly not ok (unless they have permission- though not while driving!) and should be dealt with on an individual basis. I agree.

I agree as well, but have not ever experienced anyone at my agency doing anything like this. We have a very high workload, and it would be noticeable quickly.

You’ve never noticed anyone only being available from 9-3 and then sending an email at 9 pm to signal that they were working?

.

New poster - no, people in our office don’t do that - as the other PP says, maybe a 10 minute school pickup or similar but we can’t make up hours at night we didn’t work during the day.

I’m a fed who works at home. My kids have no school this week. I dropped them at camps at 9/9:30 and was online at 10. At 3 I w picked them up and stopped and ran an errand. I ran this by my boss ahead of time and took 3 hours of annual leave today. Based on child care I could find, if I didn’t work from home I would have needed a full 8 hours of leave today. Instead I was able to move our project forward.

You were being honest and took leave. I don’t know anyone who would take those three hours of leave. They would just say they worked a full day from home.

You can't be away from your desk for hours without anyone noticing. We use Teams and people do look for you.

Are federal employees not allowed to have teams on their phone?

No use of personal electronics for security reasons. Not sure if it is the same everywhere but I can not use my personal phone for anything work related except in an emergency. Remember Hillary and the emails..we still live with heh after effects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a fed with teenagers and I don’t begrudge younger parents flexibility but I think the cost of this is often to their coworkers who are doing their work while they are at afternoon ballet class, or kind of paying attention on a work call while driving. The rest of us would be better off if you were fully doing your job, which is much harder to manage and track remotely. I can’t stand Trump and am dreading most of the administration, except for the scaling back of telework. My coworkers and I are all for it.


If people are doing work while at a ballet class or driving, that's clearly not ok (unless they have permission- though not while driving!) and should be dealt with on an individual basis. I agree.

I agree as well, but have not ever experienced anyone at my agency doing anything like this. We have a very high workload, and it would be noticeable quickly.

You’ve never noticed anyone only being available from 9-3 and then sending an email at 9 pm to signal that they were working?

.

New poster - no, people in our office don’t do that - as the other PP says, maybe a 10 minute school pickup or similar but we can’t make up hours at night we didn’t work during the day.

I’m a fed who works at home. My kids have no school this week. I dropped them at camps at 9/9:30 and was online at 10. At 3 I w picked them up and stopped and ran an errand. I ran this by my boss ahead of time and took 3 hours of annual leave today. Based on child care I could find, if I didn’t work from home I would have needed a full 8 hours of leave today. Instead I was able to move our project forward.

You were being honest and took leave. I don’t know anyone who would take those three hours of leave. They would just say they worked a full day from home.

You can't be away from your desk for hours without anyone noticing. We use Teams and people do look for you.

Are federal employees not allowed to have teams on their phone?

No use of personal electronics for security reasons. Not sure if it is the same everywhere but I can not use my personal phone for anything work related except in an emergency. Remember Hillary and the emails..we still live with heh after effects.

That's why most Feds carry 2 phones. Yes, I have Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, a VPN and Microsoft Office on my work phone. I can work from anywhere. Although for stuff other than meetings and email, it's extremely tedious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a fed with teenagers and I don’t begrudge younger parents flexibility but I think the cost of this is often to their coworkers who are doing their work while they are at afternoon ballet class, or kind of paying attention on a work call while driving. The rest of us would be better off if you were fully doing your job, which is much harder to manage and track remotely. I can’t stand Trump and am dreading most of the administration, except for the scaling back of telework. My coworkers and I are all for it.


If people are doing work while at a ballet class or driving, that's clearly not ok (unless they have permission- though not while driving!) and should be dealt with on an individual basis. I agree.

I agree as well, but have not ever experienced anyone at my agency doing anything like this. We have a very high workload, and it would be noticeable quickly.

You’ve never noticed anyone only being available from 9-3 and then sending an email at 9 pm to signal that they were working?

.

New poster - no, people in our office don’t do that - as the other PP says, maybe a 10 minute school pickup or similar but we can’t make up hours at night we didn’t work during the day.

I’m a fed who works at home. My kids have no school this week. I dropped them at camps at 9/9:30 and was online at 10. At 3 I w picked them up and stopped and ran an errand. I ran this by my boss ahead of time and took 3 hours of annual leave today. Based on child care I could find, if I didn’t work from home I would have needed a full 8 hours of leave today. Instead I was able to move our project forward.

You were being honest and took leave. I don’t know anyone who would take those three hours of leave. They would just say they worked a full day from home.

You can't be away from your desk for hours without anyone noticing. We use Teams and people do look for you.

Are federal employees not allowed to have teams on their phone?

No use of personal electronics for security reasons. Not sure if it is the same everywhere but I can not use my personal phone for anything work related except in an emergency. Remember Hillary and the emails..we still live with heh after effects.

That's why most Feds carry 2 phones. Yes, I have Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, a VPN and Microsoft Office on my work phone. I can work from anywhere. Although for stuff other than meetings and email, it's extremely tedious.

Chuckling at the idea of my office giving us all phones. No..we just have to be working with our laptops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agency has very quantifiable work, and study after study has shown more productivity with telework.

no they (as in studies) don't

"Remote Workers actually aren't more Productive'
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-01-04/2024-year-employers-clamp-down-on-remote-work-not-so-fast

that was just a covid lie meant to make you feel good about the bad decisions to lock up everyone in their homes

People are not more productive though. Your agency, unlike the groups that conducted the studies referenced in the aforementioned article, has a reason to say that productivity is up. If you consider that at baseline remote (not in office 3 days per week) is less productive and then layer on top of that the fact that many agencies only require employees to be available online for four hours during a standard 9-5 workday and it’s easy to see how abuse, for lack of a better word, could occur. I also don’t see how responding to teams messages during the workday indicates that someone is doing work outside or responding to teams messages. The Teams app can be downloaded onto a phone and used like any other messaging app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My agency has very quantifiable work, and study after study has shown more productivity with telework.

no they (as in studies) don't

"Remote Workers actually aren't more Productive'
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-01-04/2024-year-employers-clamp-down-on-remote-work-not-so-fast

that was just a covid lie meant to make you feel good about the bad decisions to lock up everyone in their homes

People are not more productive though. Your agency, unlike the groups that conducted the studies referenced in the aforementioned article, has a reason to say that productivity is up. If you consider that at baseline remote (not in office 3 days per week) is less productive and then layer on top of that the fact that many agencies only require employees to be available online for four hours during a standard 9-5 workday and it’s easy to see how abuse, for lack of a better word, could occur. I also don’t see how responding to teams messages during the workday indicates that someone is doing work outside or responding to teams messages. The Teams app can be downloaded onto a phone and used like any other messaging app.

what? responding to work messages is not working if it is done on a phone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a fed with teenagers and I don’t begrudge younger parents flexibility but I think the cost of this is often to their coworkers who are doing their work while they are at afternoon ballet class, or kind of paying attention on a work call while driving. The rest of us would be better off if you were fully doing your job, which is much harder to manage and track remotely. I can’t stand Trump and am dreading most of the administration, except for the scaling back of telework. My coworkers and I are all for it.


If people are doing work while at a ballet class or driving, that's clearly not ok (unless they have permission- though not while driving!) and should be dealt with on an individual basis. I agree.

I agree as well, but have not ever experienced anyone at my agency doing anything like this. We have a very high workload, and it would be noticeable quickly.

You’ve never noticed anyone only being available from 9-3 and then sending an email at 9 pm to signal that they were working?

.

New poster - no, people in our office don’t do that - as the other PP says, maybe a 10 minute school pickup or similar but we can’t make up hours at night we didn’t work during the day.

I’m a fed who works at home. My kids have no school this week. I dropped them at camps at 9/9:30 and was online at 10. At 3 I w picked them up and stopped and ran an errand. I ran this by my boss ahead of time and took 3 hours of annual leave today. Based on child care I could find, if I didn’t work from home I would have needed a full 8 hours of leave today. Instead I was able to move our project forward.

You were being honest and took leave. I don’t know anyone who would take those three hours of leave. They would just say they worked a full day from home.

You can't be away from your desk for hours without anyone noticing. We use Teams and people do look for you.

Are federal employees not allowed to have teams on their phone?

No use of personal electronics for security reasons. Not sure if it is the same everywhere but I can not use my personal phone for anything work related except in an emergency. Remember Hillary and the emails..we still live with heh after effects.

This is not fed-wide. Our agency permits access to Outlook/Teams/etc. on our personal phones.