RTO:Traffic is atrocious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people don't want to pay for childcare like everyone else did before covid, they want to pocket the extra money and also live far out to pocket even more money!

We have childcare*, but two parents commuting every day means we will have to find a daycare with even longer hours. And pretty much impossible to have dinner together as a family.

* People like to throw around accusations of parents not having childcare, but I literally don't know anyone who was working from home while taking care of a young child.

Hahaha how many times was I on a Zoom call and heard a baby crying

There could have been another caregiver (parent, grandparent, nanny) taking care of the baby in the house. Plenty of people have that type of arrangement. If you suspected that your co-worker had no childcare, that's reportable because it's against the rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people don't want to pay for childcare like everyone else did before covid, they want to pocket the extra money and also live far out to pocket even more money!

We have childcare*, but two parents commuting every day means we will have to find a daycare with even longer hours. And pretty much impossible to have dinner together as a family.

* People like to throw around accusations of parents not having childcare, but I literally don't know anyone who was working from home while taking care of a young child.

Plenty also only need intermittent childcare and don't know what to do.

We're dual feds. DH is often called to crises out of town. Normally I work 6-3:30 and get the kids from school, dh takes them to school. What can I do when he's out of town? Just take 2.5-3 hours of annual leave a day? There isn't an option for before school care that you pay per day and I don't need it daily. It's also currently full.

Schools just aren't set up for working parents and previously our works took the full brunt of that. Now both school and work are unfriendly to everyone. I like working in the office, but the complete lack of any flexibility is killing me.

Yes but this isn’t a new problem. Intermittent childcare has always been a need and has never been available.

Right. And the new inflexible policy (intended to punish and traumatize feds) now means that instead of the worker being able to continue working from home with a sick kid, they have to take sick leave and do no work.

How is that a good thing for government efficiency?

Back in the late 90s my parents left my siblings and I home alone when we were sick starting when we were 10. There is a pretty narrow window when you have to stay home with a sick child who is self sufficient and doesn’t need you.

A whole 10 years is not a “narrow window” (and I’m not leaving my 13 year old home sick either.) Even when my younger kid was sick there was time to work during naps and in the AM and evening when the other parent was home.

You missed my point. A sick child under 7 is not self sufficient and you need to take care of them while working. A child who is 7, 8, or 9 is fairly self sufficient and you theoretically don’t need to check in on them as much and disrupt the workday. A sick child under 7 should be watched and taken care of and you shouldn’t be working while taking care of a sick baby, toddler, or preschooler.

Kids thise ages need cared for, so do teens.

Then take the day off.

[Anonymous]

Even in my 6 bedroom house with a full time nanny, sometimes you can hear my child crying through the walls on Zoom. That’s not really an indicator that there’s no childcare….I’m on camera all the time so no one suspects otherwise, but ridiculous to think so and I certainly wouldn’t care if a coworker needed to take care of their kids in afterschool hours if they made up the time later in the evening or the morning, which many of my coworkers do.

[Anonymous]

It’s been great to RTO. Just leave earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people don't want to pay for childcare like everyone else did before covid, they want to pocket the extra money and also live far out to pocket even more money!

We have childcare*, but two parents commuting every day means we will have to find a daycare with even longer hours. And pretty much impossible to have dinner together as a family.

* People like to throw around accusations of parents not having childcare, but I literally don't know anyone who was working from home while taking care of a young child.

Plenty also only need intermittent childcare and don't know what to do.

We're dual feds. DH is often called to crises out of town. Normally I work 6-3:30 and get the kids from school, dh takes them to school. What can I do when he's out of town? Just take 2.5-3 hours of annual leave a day? There isn't an option for before school care that you pay per day and I don't need it daily. It's also currently full.

Schools just aren't set up for working parents and previously our works took the full brunt of that. Now both school and work are unfriendly to everyone. I like working in the office, but the complete lack of any flexibility is killing me.

Yes but this isn’t a new problem. Intermittent childcare has always been a need and has never been available.

Right. And the new inflexible policy (intended to punish and traumatize feds) now means that instead of the worker being able to continue working from home with a sick kid, they have to take sick leave and do no work.

How is that a good thing for government efficiency?

Back in the late 90s my parents left my siblings and I home alone when we were sick starting when we were 10. There is a pretty narrow window when you have to stay home with a sick child who is self sufficient and doesn’t need you.

A whole 10 years is not a “narrow window” (and I’m not leaving my 13 year old home sick either.) Even when my younger kid was sick there was time to work during naps and in the AM and evening when the other parent was home.

You missed my point. A sick child under 7 is not self sufficient and you need to take care of them while working. A child who is 7, 8, or 9 is fairly self sufficient and you theoretically don’t need to check in on them as much and disrupt the workday. A sick child under 7 should be watched and taken care of and you shouldn’t be working while taking care of a sick baby, toddler, or preschooler.

Kids thise ages need cared for, so do teens.

** need to be cared for
(why would you drop the infinitive?)

[Anonymous]

The benefit of RTO is that you can do way less work. Instead of judging solely on performance and productivity you get credit for showing up. Now when I go into the office I accomplish very little and this seems to be consistent with most people. They’ve let high performing staff leave over RTO so I assume this means showing up in person is THE most important thing.

From a common sense perspective I don’t understand any of this and assume it will eventually change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny bc this thread appears to have been started by a non-Fed who is upset that the feds RTOing mean more traffic.

My DH is a Fed who has always been in the office and he absolutely is complaining about the traffic. RTO has wider regional effects.

Yes as someone said it was a non fed who started the thread.
People who can work from home absolutely should be allowed to. It's better for the environment and for teachers, health care and service workers and other industries who need to be on the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people don't want to pay for childcare like everyone else did before covid, they want to pocket the extra money and also live far out to pocket even more money!

We have childcare*, but two parents commuting every day means we will have to find a daycare with even longer hours. And pretty much impossible to have dinner together as a family.

* People like to throw around accusations of parents not having childcare, but I literally don't know anyone who was working from home while taking care of a young child.

Plenty also only need intermittent childcare and don't know what to do.

We're dual feds. DH is often called to crises out of town. Normally I work 6-3:30 and get the kids from school, dh takes them to school. What can I do when he's out of town? Just take 2.5-3 hours of annual leave a day? There isn't an option for before school care that you pay per day and I don't need it daily. It's also currently full.

Schools just aren't set up for working parents and previously our works took the full brunt of that. Now both school and work are unfriendly to everyone. I like working in the office, but the complete lack of any flexibility is killing me.

Yes but this isn’t a new problem. Intermittent childcare has always been a need and has never been available.

Right. And the new inflexible policy (intended to punish and traumatize feds) now means that instead of the worker being able to continue working from home with a sick kid, they have to take sick leave and do no work.

How is that a good thing for government efficiency?

Back in the late 90s my parents left my siblings and I home alone when we were sick starting when we were 10. There is a pretty narrow window when you have to stay home with a sick child who is self sufficient and doesn’t need you.

A whole 10 years is not a “narrow window” (and I’m not leaving my 13 year old home sick either.) Even when my younger kid was sick there was time to work during naps and in the AM and evening when the other parent was home.

You missed my point. A sick child under 7 is not self sufficient and you need to take care of them while working. A child who is 7, 8, or 9 is fairly self sufficient and you theoretically don’t need to check in on them as much and disrupt the workday. A sick child under 7 should be watched and taken care of and you shouldn’t be working while taking care of a sick baby, toddler, or preschooler.

nobody said you can work a normal 8 hours with a sick small child. But you can absolutely work during naps, with the TV on, and in the evenings and mornings when the other parent is home. I and many other feds did this when we had reasonable WFH policies specifically because we are dedicated to our jobs. But now that there is no WFH we just go completely off line and take sick leave. How is that a good thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people don't want to pay for childcare like everyone else did before covid, they want to pocket the extra money and also live far out to pocket even more money!

We have childcare*, but two parents commuting every day means we will have to find a daycare with even longer hours. And pretty much impossible to have dinner together as a family.

* People like to throw around accusations of parents not having childcare, but I literally don't know anyone who was working from home while taking care of a young child.

Plenty also only need intermittent childcare and don't know what to do.

We're dual feds. DH is often called to crises out of town. Normally I work 6-3:30 and get the kids from school, dh takes them to school. What can I do when he's out of town? Just take 2.5-3 hours of annual leave a day? There isn't an option for before school care that you pay per day and I don't need it daily. It's also currently full.

Schools just aren't set up for working parents and previously our works took the full brunt of that. Now both school and work are unfriendly to everyone. I like working in the office, but the complete lack of any flexibility is killing me.

Yes but this isn’t a new problem. Intermittent childcare has always been a need and has never been available.

Right. And the new inflexible policy (intended to punish and traumatize feds) now means that instead of the worker being able to continue working from home with a sick kid, they have to take sick leave and do no work.

How is that a good thing for government efficiency?

Back in the late 90s my parents left my siblings and I home alone when we were sick starting when we were 10. There is a pretty narrow window when you have to stay home with a sick child who is self sufficient and doesn’t need you.

A whole 10 years is not a “narrow window” (and I’m not leaving my 13 year old home sick either.) Even when my younger kid was sick there was time to work during naps and in the AM and evening when the other parent was home.

In 5 years they're legally an adult and you're not comfortable leaving them home sick? Yikes.

why would I leave my sick child at home if I didn’t have to? I’m sure I could but I actually care about my kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fed here. I too am fed up with listening to people complain about RTO. We’ve (we meaning the non remote people) all been 50% since 2022. Still a massive change to go to 100% with zero telework even in dire situations. I think the lack of emergency telework is the hardest. Yet even though we’re back 100%, my still remote coworkers are complaining the loudest. They need to read the room. They don’t even have to go in yet and they’re complaining to people who are in! They won’t even have long commutes.

Just stop complaining people. Just push the misery down and do your jobs.

True. being silent and pushing the misery down is definitely the way to make change!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny bc this thread appears to have been started by a non-Fed who is upset that the feds RTOing mean more traffic.

Laughing. As a non Fed that was in office full time minus spring 2020 (and know many were in office then too!), I hate the additional commute time and crowded metro. It’s stressful.

Hybrid was a great thing for the area and offered awesome flexibility for families. The spite move to make everyone report to office - even if that wasn’t required pre-COVID - is exhausting.

Also y’all forgot how to drive 😆

[Anonymous]

The traffic is worse on the weekends too. I've noticed it for the last month. Of course cherry blossoms don't help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s noticeable watching the neighbors all get in their cars and drive away at 7:30am. The neighborhood finally has less dog walkers all day long. There are some benefits.

Yes.

We left at 7:10 yesterday, and traffic in our area was light.

Can you try leaving a few minutes earlier each day until you hit the sweet spot? It might only be a 15 minute difference.

I suspect traffic will improve slightly as folks settle in to working and commuting, and start to rediscover things like sligging, metro and carpooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The restaurants, coffee shops, and flower vendors are starting to flourish again. There are some great things happening, too. I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

Not everything is bad….
- My house is clean since no one is there during the day.

-I am walking more and eating better since I am not snacking at home 24/7 (I bring my own lunch)

-I am working less. 8hrs vs 10hrs at home. They are getting what they are paying for.

Separating work life from home life is always a good thing. Boundaries are important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many people don't want to pay for childcare like everyone else did before covid, they want to pocket the extra money and also live far out to pocket even more money!

We have childcare*, but two parents commuting every day means we will have to find a daycare with even longer hours. And pretty much impossible to have dinner together as a family.

* People like to throw around accusations of parents not having childcare, but I literally don't know anyone who was working from home while taking care of a young child.

Plenty also only need intermittent childcare and don't know what to do.

We're dual feds. DH is often called to crises out of town. Normally I work 6-3:30 and get the kids from school, dh takes them to school. What can I do when he's out of town? Just take 2.5-3 hours of annual leave a day? There isn't an option for before school care that you pay per day and I don't need it daily. It's also currently full.

Schools just aren't set up for working parents and previously our works took the full brunt of that. Now both school and work are unfriendly to everyone. I like working in the office, but the complete lack of any flexibility is killing me.

Yes but this isn’t a new problem. Intermittent childcare has always been a need and has never been available.

Right. And the new inflexible policy (intended to punish and traumatize feds) now means that instead of the worker being able to continue working from home with a sick kid, they have to take sick leave and do no work.

How is that a good thing for government efficiency?

Back in the late 90s my parents left my siblings and I home alone when we were sick starting when we were 10. There is a pretty narrow window when you have to stay home with a sick child who is self sufficient and doesn’t need you.

A whole 10 years is not a “narrow window” (and I’m not leaving my 13 year old home sick either.) Even when my younger kid was sick there was time to work during naps and in the AM and evening when the other parent was home.

You missed my point. A sick child under 7 is not self sufficient and you need to take care of them while working. A child who is 7, 8, or 9 is fairly self sufficient and you theoretically don’t need to check in on them as much and disrupt the workday. A sick child under 7 should be watched and taken care of and you shouldn’t be working while taking care of a sick baby, toddler, or preschooler.

Kids thise ages need cared for, so do teens.

** need to be cared for
(why would you drop the infinitive?)

Have you ever met someone from the Midwest?