I thought RTO was about increasing resignations?

[Anonymous]

I heard FCC is hiring too.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s because one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. DOGE and the anti-fed Types came in and did all their damage but meanwhile at certain agencies they were still trying to get certain work done and, oops, they need people to do it.

My former office which I won’t name hasn’t rolled back telework but I understand most people aren’t really complying fully but they can’t afford to lose more people so the politicals aren’t even touching it. They are trying to hire and having little success.

[Anonymous]

It was. My agency hired MAGAs into exclusive remote jobs that aren't available to anyone else. They want more people to retire so they can hire friends into remote roles. MAGA leadership is almost completely full-time telework which is disguised as "work travel" or networking.

[Anonymous]

Not only did my subagency lose too many people, our work load has drastically increased. It's a bad combo for burnout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Return to the office is about people who own buildings not losing money.

The commercial real estate business was really hurting when people were working at home and their buddies don’t want them to lose money.

I think CRE vacancies are still around 20-25% in DC. I go against biglaw people in my job and whenever we have zoom calls, they all are quite clearly at their houses. I don’t think Feds alone can save CRE.

CRE people are the most awful people I know. Like maybe not the ones doing the site administration but their owners/bosses for sure. The they and the predatory bankers are the worst people.

Not sure what any company owes them to keep paying them. Companies should love letting go of that expense.

[Anonymous]

I don't know who is still there propping up SSA but kudos to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard FCC is hiring too.

great thanks i actually might have some skill sets relevant to their mission

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard FCC is hiring too.

not really - only 3 openings 1 is intern. oh well.

[Anonymous]

My agency definitely isn't hiring.

[Anonymous]

The idea was always to try to get rid of slightly too many people, see what happens, then hire back if they need to or contract the work out. Its from the Elon/private industry playbook. Also RTO got rid of many older feds which they couldn't have easily done with a legal RIF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The idea was always to try to get rid of slightly too many people, see what happens, then hire back if they need to or contract the work out. Its from the Elon/private industry playbook. Also RTO got rid of many older feds which they couldn't have easily done with a legal RIF.

There are class actions brewing about RTO targeting the disabled. I imagine an age discrimination one will come out as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s because one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. DOGE and the anti-fed Types came in and did all their damage but meanwhile at certain agencies they were still trying to get certain work done and, oops, they need people to do it.

My former office which I won’t name hasn’t rolled back telework but I understand most people aren’t really complying fully but they can’t afford to lose more people so the politicals aren’t even touching it. They are trying to hire and having little success.

It’s this.
Our agency is important in carrying out work that the administration wants to do. But RTO got rid of a lot of people. Our lower level employees were already burnt out by the work and having 1-2 WFH days a week was the only real perk, and now even that is gone.
The effects vary by geographic location. Offices in the DC area continue to hold onto people because the employment market is so grim and few alternatives exist unless you move to another city. In other places, where the salary already didn’t come close to the actual COL and other jobs are available, those offices are struggling and aren’t staffed nearly enough.
And RTO are filling up offices that really need to be used for public facing activities (that the administration wants us to do) and constraining progress.
I have heard of some people finally getting reasonable accommodations to telework. Which is great because this time last year they wanted us in the office even in a full leg cast.

[Anonymous]

I don’t get the political-economic theory of RTO. Nobody benefits from RTO except commercial RE. But is commercial RE really so influential that they could compel an upending of a policy that’s been around since at least 2005, the violation of CBAs, a labor shortage at some agencies, etc etc.? Impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was. My agency hired MAGAs into exclusive remote jobs that aren't available to anyone else. They want more people to retire so they can hire friends into remote roles. MAGA leadership is almost completely full-time telework which is disguised as "work travel" or networking.

This. It's about replacing career civil servants with admin loyalists. Don't forget the loyalty check attached to every job application.

The true believers aren't going to get fired for failing to fully RTO, and they can collect paychecks while doing a terrible job because the true end-goal is to give away as much of the federal government to private industry as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was. My agency hired MAGAs into exclusive remote jobs that aren't available to anyone else. They want more people to retire so they can hire friends into remote roles. MAGA leadership is almost completely full-time telework which is disguised as "work travel" or networking.

This. It's about replacing career civil servants with admin loyalists. Don't forget the loyalty check attached to every job application.

The true believers aren't going to get fired for failing to fully RTO, and they can collect paychecks while doing a terrible job because the true end-goal is to give away as much of the federal government to private industry as possible.

This is the correct answer.