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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

If I respond to five teams messages over the course of an hour while at my child’s swim practice and do nothing else then I wouldn’t consider that to be a hour of work. If I respond to five teams messages over two hours and do nothing else I also don’t consider that to be the equivalent of two hours of work.

[Anonymous]

I've talked to a few co-workers about this push for RTO and its so interesting. Some think nothing will change and some are afraid for their jobs (remote workers). I think it would be naive to think they will do nothing...

But I sure wish we had more clarity. For them to announce this now and then we have to wait for details - is just ... anxiety provoking. But maybe that is what they want.

[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

DP but my agency has quantifiable production metrics that have gone up with telework. The numbers don’t lie. Quality audits and correction rates have not changed from in-person work.

It’s impossible to assess the government work as a whole since it varies so incredibly much.

[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?

DP, but most people at my agency (myself included) do not have agency phones. We are also not allowed to work anywhere accept our alternate duty station and they do monitor IP addresses. I am literally tethered to my lap top. It would immediately apparent if I or anyone in a similar position was MIA for a while, especially on any sort of routine basis.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, except not accept

[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.

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

This is why any sort of widespread statements about fed employees is meaningless. Each agency has such different workloads, tech, quantifiable metrics, independent vs collaborative work, local vs geographically spread out employees, etc.

Decisions need to be made by people familiar with a particular agency/component. Not a couple billionaires cosplaying as a federal agency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

If I respond to five teams messages over the course of an hour while at my child’s swim practice and do nothing else then I wouldn’t consider that to be a hour of work. If I respond to five teams messages over two hours and do nothing else I also don’t consider that to be the equivalent of two hours of work.

I'm sorry you want -- in the name of efficiency -- to micromanage the content of employee's teams messages, the typing speed of employees (to calculate the total work time), and the location of that messaging? You don't manage anyone, do you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've talked to a few co-workers about this push for RTO and its so interesting. Some think nothing will change and some are afraid for their jobs (remote workers). I think it would be naive to think they will do nothing...

But I sure wish we had more clarity. For them to announce this now and then we have to wait for details - is just ... anxiety provoking. But maybe that is what they want.

It is exactly what they want. So you can choose to give it to them or not.

[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?

DP, but most people at my agency (myself included) do not have agency phones. We are also not allowed to work anywhere accept our alternate duty station and they do monitor IP addresses. I am literally tethered to my lap top. It would immediately apparent if I or anyone in a similar position was MIA for a while, especially on any sort of routine basis.

Same. We’re not supposed to even use public WiFi. I guess other agencies have different rules.

[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?

DP, but most people at my agency (myself included) do not have agency phones. We are also not allowed to work anywhere accept our alternate duty station and they do monitor IP addresses. I am literally tethered to my lap top. It would immediately apparent if I or anyone in a similar position was MIA for a while, especially on any sort of routine basis.

Same. We’re not supposed to even use public WiFi. I guess other agencies have different rules.

I only got a work phone when I moved into a position that required me to be responsive all of the time (e.g., weekends, after hours, holidays). I don't clock those hours because that's just aggravating the HR people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've talked to a few co-workers about this push for RTO and its so interesting. Some think nothing will change and some are afraid for their jobs (remote workers). I think it would be naive to think they will do nothing...

But I sure wish we had more clarity. For them to announce this now and then we have to wait for details - is just ... anxiety provoking. But maybe that is what they want.

It is exactly what they want. So you can choose to give it to them or not.

Great point. Takes deep breaths....

[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 am talking about my specific work

[Anonymous]

Well, since I have already worked an hour on my day off today, I think that if we RTO 5 days a week, I'm not checking in during "vacation."

[Anonymous]

The SEC isn't fee funded in any significant capacity right? I mean I know there are fines etc but in recent years we are also an agency that shuts down so doesn't seem like we have the funds to stay open if rest of govt closes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fully remote out of state and will return to DC if ordered. My agency would have to reimburse me for packing/moving, lodging/per diem, and closing costs for buying a new house. My agency might have to beg Congress for more funds if enough of us come back.

For a Federal position?? Are you a doctor or something?

Not at all, it's in all the remote agreements at my agency. Might cost the agency $100k to move a GS7 admin from LA to DC.