Senior Feds Sharing Offices

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of America shares office space. It is rare to have your own office.

Then they wonder why America hates them

It’s not because of our offices, please. They only have private or dual offices because the buildings are super old and predated cubicles. Most of the places with offices are not desirable in any meaningful way.

[Anonymous]

At my agency they’re moving everyone that isn’t a GS-15 supervisor (read: GS-14 supervisors and GS-15 non supervisors (mostly attorneys and PhD economists)) into small cubicles. Colleagues with 25+ years of experience who have had offices, even window offices, for years will join the most junior staff in the cubicle farm. We’re expecting resignations and retirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my agency they’re moving everyone that isn’t a GS-15 supervisor (read: GS-14 supervisors and GS-15 non supervisors (mostly attorneys and PhD economists)) into small cubicles. Colleagues with 25+ years of experience who have had offices, even window offices, for years will join the most junior staff in the cubicle farm. We’re expecting resignations and retirements.

Should clarify that when I say “we’re expecting” I mean myself and the colleagues I chat with about it. No idea what the decision makers think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my agency they’re moving everyone that isn’t a GS-15 supervisor (read: GS-14 supervisors and GS-15 non supervisors (mostly attorneys and PhD economists)) into small cubicles. Colleagues with 25+ years of experience who have had offices, even window offices, for years will join the most junior staff in the cubicle farm. We’re expecting resignations and retirements.

Probably the intent. Private industry even highly paid tech have had open office for years. In Big Tech (Google, Meta, Amazon, etc.), the most common cutoff for a dedicated private office is Vice President (VP) or higher.

[Anonymous]

lol! Do you have to share a secretary, too!?!? The indignity! Seriously though...there are maxed out supervisory 15's at my agency who are sitting in the bullpen with everyone else. Zero telework.

[Anonymous]

When I worked at the Pentagon, I used to share a cube with my Colonel boss. We were just crammed in whereever they could find space.

[Anonymous]

in my agency 14s with enough agency seniority get offices to themselves. as a new 14 i got an officemate. current news is that all 14s will have to double up in a year as we lose more space.

[Anonymous]

I don't think sharing an office is that bad. Being in open space is a different story.

[Anonymous]

A lot of people here that have clearly never had their own office. Once you’ve had it you realize how crappy it is to go back to shared workspace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of America shares office space. It is rare to have your own office.

This. It's not really economical for space, unless you work in some place where you constantly meet face to face with clients and need the privacy. All federal offices I have worked in had cubicles for most employees, except managers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people here that have clearly never had their own office. Once you’ve had it you realize how crappy it is to go back to shared workspace.

We’re telling you to eat humble pie.
It won’t kill you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people here that have clearly never had their own office. Once you’ve had it you realize how crappy it is to go back to shared workspace.

We’re telling you to eat humble pie.
It won’t kill you.

I’m not OP.

I’m telling you that you don’t know what you’re missing because you’ve never had it.

Agree it won’t kill anyone. Doesn’t mean there aren’t some quasi-Stockholm syndrome comments here.

[Anonymous]

Cube farm resident here. Back in the 1990s I had an office with a door and a window and guest chairs. Annoying, but I've gotten used to lots of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people here that have clearly never had their own office. Once you’ve had it you realize how crappy it is to go back to shared workspace.

I mean everyone understands how awesome it would be to have own office. No one likes the shared spaces. But on the list of things to hate about a job, it’s just not up there for most people, and quitting in protest only works if you can retire — many places beyond govt have shared space and worse open floor plans.

[Anonymous]

A significant number of people change clothes in their offices. The last time I worked someplace with predominantly cubes, they had to provide little wardrobes in the cubes and a certain number of locking offices to use as changing rooms, because the restrooms couldn't accommodate.