Biden wants RTO
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Anonymous
I don’t know about a presidential candidate, but the house republicans voted to send all feds back to office at pre-pandemic levels. I’m sure with a Republican house, a Republican potus would oblige. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/house-republicans-vote-require-federal-workers-return-to-the-office.aspx |
Anonymous
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Another thing no one is talking about is the effect that RTO will have on real estate values and development. People moved further away from DC, homes are being built to satisfy that demand for more affordable places to live and raise a family. New business sprung up in places that were deserted a few years ago.
Say feds need to RTO back to 2020 levels—what happens to those outer burbs and developments (that tend to vote for republicans)? The economics of WFH are not simple and saying we need to keep DC dry cleaners in business at the expense of other communities and families, is not a good look. Productivity is up despite the usual anti-WFH people claiming it’s not. I’m happy to go into the office, because I bought my house near the beltway a long time ago when it was more affordable. The commute still sucks, but I make an okay wage and I don’t have kids in daycare. I don’t see how junior employees with kids can make it work anymore. Costs for childcare and education are just astronomical and wages are not increasing for feds. Feds had an effective 1.5% pay CUT last year after inflation. They don’t need another hit. I just don’t get it all.[/quote] Fed WFH made housing much more expensive in places far beyond the beltway, where non feds, or even feds who work in facilities in those areas cannot afford homes in those areas--ask me how I know. So now housing is expensive close to DC and all up and down the east coast and possibly beyond. This change has only benefited feds who work from home. I know, that is all who you care about, but other people have other concerns. It is not all about you.[/quote] Housing prices going up in areas where you already own land is not a bad thing. Those people have been selling out, developing, and making bank—not the feds who are buying the housing. But you can thank them for the increased services your area is getting due to the increased tax base, maybe you could vote for politicians that support building affordable units with any new development. That model has worked in many places. Long commutes because of unaffordable housing has been the norm for a while, sounds like you thought you were immune?[/quote] why would people with bigger paychecks bring more services to an area? The two do not correlate at all. The people who work at the "services" now cannot afford a home in thea area, a separate issue.[/quote] Government Services like more police, firefighters, teachers, hospitals etc??? Hellloooo in there. The things taxes pay for that make places easier to live in?[/quote] These places were not empty before govies came to live in them, if the govies were not living in the homes they bought, others would be living in them. So what you saying doesn't make any sense. [/quote] Yeah, they were. The amount of development I’ve seen an hour outside of DC in Va is staggering. New housing everywhere. With it, more jobs and services. [/quote] Ha ha you don't know what new housing developments do to a community, they do not add to a community coffers, in fact, [b]they require schools to be built, more water/untility services to be built and maintained, more roads,[/b] etc. Not saying housing developments are bad, people needs places to live, but dual income households on DC locality pay moving anywhere and everywhere makes old and new home expensive, without adding value to a community.[/quote] This is bad? Sounds like a lot of jobs! And services! Brought to you buy the US taxpayers to boot. People who buy houses generally pay property taxes, you know?[/quote] Well, the problem is more of a community planning one - new housing requires all this infrastructure, but doesn't pay for it, and land gets bought up WAY too fast to site more elementary schools, etc. But I don't think this is a problem on the demand side, people need places to live, this has to do with zoning and permitting and comprehensive planning. This is pretty outside the RTO discussion. [/quote] It’s not actually since this entire conversation was about the impact of WFH on other communities besides DC. Development is not inherently bad, and as you say, a lot depends o. The way a local government responds. You may not like the people coming out your way but overall, it’s having a positive impact on your local coffers, not the other way around. Rent is likely higher, I will concede that, but the landlords are happy. Taking that away, so the PP can have free daycare and subsidized childcare in DC isn’t going to sit well with people. |
Anonymous
| I think that both Ds and Rs need to think about this. I 100 percent admit that I personally would be replaceable. However, even at our current in-office levels, we are literally bleeding auditors, and I cannot do my work without them. |
Anonymous
+100 Capitalism! It will sort itself out, right? |
Anonymous
Who gets 39 days of leave? I thought the max was 5 weeks. |
Anonymous
The PP was including sick leave. I’m a fed with 15+ years and I have almost no leave saved up. I had kids before maternity leave was a thing and it out be deep into a hole. It took many years to make it up and take an actual vacation. I take about 2 weeks a year and a handful of sick days. |
Anonymous
Edit—it put me deep into a hole- |
Anonymous
Are you joking? The R front runner never thought COVID was a problem in the first place. Get real. |
Anonymous
On top of that you don't accumulate the max annual leave (26 days) until after 15 years of service. I won't hit that until I'm 45! I also used up my leave balance for my last kid the year before paid leave, and WFH has helped me dig out of the hole instead of staying negative for normal life stuff. It means medical and dental appointments only require an extra 30 minutes tacked on for travel, rather than a full half day, and when kids are sick, my spouse and I can split shifts and still work half a day to make sure neither if us misses critical stuff. RTO is ironically going to mean I'll spend less total time working because of these normal life things. Right now I have the leave for it, so that's fine, but fewer work hours means less work gets done, more meetings get canceled, etc. |
Anonymous
You just never know how folks will govern once they’re actually in charge. All of the Covid stimulus was under that R front runner. Who would have known that Biden would be so hostile to federal workers? |
Anonymous
R's aren't totally unfriendly to their federal employees when in office. I mean the pandemic remote posture was during Trump and he gave fed employees raises that were higher than under Obama. Wasn't a big deal under GW Bush either. I do hope Democrats don't think they can just dump on fed employees and continue to get their vote because that just won't happen. |
Anonymous
Yes, he was desperately trying to prevent the economy from crashing, which would look terrible for him. He also put in agency leaders that were trying to destroy the federal government from within. |
Anonymous
I have limited sympathy for municipalities suffering from less activity because they partly brought it upon themselves by encouraging everyone to stay home for so long. Plenty of other areas re-opened schools and workplaces fall of 2020 but that was seen as too dangerous here, even with masks. But that was still at a time where folks weren't so used to WFH (I for one did not like it). The longer it went on, the more we adapted and questioned why we needed to go in so much. |
Anonymous
Having to go to an Office where you worked regularly until an unprecedented global pandemic is… hostile!? Lol. Ok. |
Anonymous
| This is why feds have a bad rep. |