What is your federal agency telling you re: RTO? (No other rants/comments!)

[Anonymous]

Commerce is coming down harder than any other agency I've seen so far, and none of us have any CBA protections. I have remote employees all of the country that would be impossible to replace. And we can't do the work without them.

I think they'll be fine. We're in a highly in-demand field where the private sector is still hiring remote workers. We all work with industry enough that we have a lot of connections to potential employers. But I don't know what we'd do without them. Career senior management is onboard with providing exemptions, but who knows what the political appointees will allow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Leaders are expected back. Rest is yet to be determined because of the CBA. They all have to come in at least once a week anyway, so I’m going to cancel our team day, and make at least one of my reports come in each day. I’ll have one to ones with each of them on different days instead of stacking them all in one team day, which I actually would prefer. I’d like them all back at least 2-3 times a week. I think 5 days a week with no less than. 40 hours in the office, is not sustainable for a lot of people and performance will suffer. I’m fine with letting people split time between home and office as long as they work core hours in the office. Will see what happens.

What you are describing (2-3 days on site) is what many many many of us have been doing. It’s great. And it’s gone now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Managers at the SEC must be really pissed tonight.

SEC manager here. Mainly just delighted for my staff attorneys that they are likely ok until '26; we very likely would have lost at least two high-performers in my branch more or less immediately if this went the other way.

Troll post? It goes against human nature to be cool with the idea of waking up and commuting to an empty building so that your subordinates can chill at home. Nice try.

This has been the experience of supervisors where I work for the past couple of years (supervisors are in office much more than BU staff). Everyone's been very graceful and professional about it because we understand that management comes with different responsibilities and we all took those jobs knowingly.

I don’t resent BU, but it does make me angry to have to come all the way to the office to supervise no one in person and meet with my staff on Teams, just as if I was home. It would be much more humane if they acknowledged how dumb that is and say we’ll go back when our teams go back because otherwise what is the point? Unless we’re going to be having a bunch of in-person-only senior strategy meetings every single day.

Oh I completely agree. I supervise someone five hours behind me, and shaping my commute around being available late on Teams for that is really stupid and irrational! I just think we need to keep our eyes on who's actually making the decisions and not resent the BU staff for benefiting more from the policies they're not responsible for.

[Anonymous]

Some of my meetings are 2+ hours each way, far enough that I’d be authorized to TDY if I chose to. As of now I just drive the four hours round trip, work 10-12 hour days and flex. If I need to be in to the office five days a week I’ll be either splitting those trips over two days (eight hours of driving time, eight hours of working time) or going TDY for the night. None of that saves the government money or makes my job more efficient.

[Anonymous]

What’s happening at DOJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:cfpb is sticking with our existing TW arrangements

That’s great for them, but seems unfair to others at different agencies.

don't be this guy. Things get better a bit at a time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s happening at DOJ?

I want to know this too, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s happening at DOJ?

Heard no substance yet. "You'll know when we know."

s- Non-lawyer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t begrudge anyone who is bargaining unit. Truly. I am not BU but not a supervisor so I don’t make that $. It stings to have all these extra expenses with commuting (parking being one of them).

I think people in the rest of the country don’t get how hard it is to commute here. No one I know outside the DMV commutes an hour and pay $25 a day to park their car.

I don’t live near a metro. Far from it. I’ve always had jobs near my house except current position which I was told I only had to be in once a week until now. I am very sad. It is going to cost $$$$ to be in. I have made those arrangements in December anticipating this but still I might get fired. I tried to appease them and still get fired. Ugh!

Commuting in the New York Metro, Bay Area, and LA is also very intense and expensive. I feel very bad for feds, but if you think you are being personally victimized by RTO please understand that the rest of America has been personally victimized by RTO for far longer than you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Managers at the SEC must be really pissed tonight.

SEC manager here. Mainly just delighted for my staff attorneys that they are likely ok until '26; we very likely would have lost at least two high-performers in my branch more or less immediately if this went the other way.

Troll post? It goes against human nature to be cool with the idea of waking up and commuting to an empty building so that your subordinates can chill at home. Nice try.

Not a troll post at all. This is going to be a huge challenge for me and my family and I will absolutely have to manage my resentment over the needless commuting time & etc. But I won't spend a moment resenting colleagues who benefit from CBA protections, and I honestly don't think this will create a manager/non-manager rift (at least within my Division and certainly not in my Office). As I said in the original post, my main reaction was relief that valued colleagues won't have to face this challenge just yet.

I believe my supervisors feel this way (maybe you are mine!) and I'm so grateful they are good people and good leaders. RTO will hurt them and I'm sorry they're dealing with it. I hope they don't quit.

I also think another shoe will drop and BU will go back before the end of the CBA.

Another supervisor who feels this way and I think this is 100% the sentiment of my fellow supervisors in my agency. We are all relieved our staff aren’t going to be dealing with a chaotic return without enough space. No resentment. At a minimum more time for them to prepare. And having everyone return at once would be terrible traffic for all of us!

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know about DOE?

[Anonymous]

How long does it take to rent a new building? Months I'd assume

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know about DOE?

Energy or Education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know about DOE?

Energy or Education?

Energy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leaders are expected back. Rest is yet to be determined because of the CBA. They all have to come in at least once a week anyway, so I’m going to cancel our team day, and make at least one of my reports come in each day. I’ll have one to ones with each of them on different days instead of stacking them all in one team day, which I actually would prefer. I’d like them all back at least 2-3 times a week. I think 5 days a week with no less than. 40 hours in the office, is not sustainable for a lot of people and performance will suffer. I’m fine with letting people split time between home and office as long as they work core hours in the office. Will see what happens.

What you are describing (2-3 days on site) is what many many many of us have been doing. It’s great. And it’s gone now.

I know. It’s not good.