New OPM memo on RTO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s easy to avoid and ignore younger staff when remote. It’s going to be a lot harder to not mentor now that we will see them 5 times a week. I personally don’t want to mentor but realize how with RTO that this will be a bigger part of my life. While I don’t want to return to work, most can agree that this is a benefit to the mission to receive and give mentoring in person.

Do you even have younger staff? There’s no one under 35 at my sub agency. We stopped being allowed to hire top college students in like 2010 ish and had to hire vets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"If an employee’s official duty station is more than 50 miles from any existing agency office, the agency should take steps to move the employee’s duty station to the most appropriate agency office based on the employee’s duties and job function."

What does this part mean? Can someone please translate?

I think it's meant to ferret out people who are getting paid DC rates but moved to like, Western PA during Covid and have been working remotely ever since. No more locality bump if you're not in the locality.

Of all the proposed legislation targeting feds, this aspect seems the least unjust.

As someone mentioned before, if they are fully remote, their pay is based on their home address. OPM has set up the localities for that.

Oh yes. And we fired those people who were living in PA collecting DC salaries. IT easily was able to ferret that out at least. They were fired a long time ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol. 30 days for IT to set up computers, phones, and offices for hundreds of thousands of workers. Meanwhile those same IT contractors have zero incentive to work hard.

More like 300 days, if you’re lucky. Probably more like 600.

Well at least IT will be in person now to do it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t mind going in to the office more. But this will significantly affect my kids. They’re in aftercare now, but we’ll be now utilizing it to the max resulting in really long days for them. And we’ll have to limit extracurriculars. I left big law and took a total mommy track job with the Feds for the lifestyle. I’m good at it, work hard, and wholeheartedly support my agency’s mission. I’m so tired and sad right now.

Yep. Not even sure how I'll manage the summer because camps are only like 9am-4pm at the most.

I was just about to sign up for summer camps but this whole uncertainly has throw it all off not knowing how much flexibility I will have. A strict RTO schedule would not only affect my productivity but also my spouse's who would be in charge of pretty much all morning routines and camp drop offs, and make my kids miserable as they need to spend more time at camp or after school. Everyone will be more exhausted, less productive, and spend less time together. Hooray!

Omg camps! lol. How is that even going to work?

I'm really struggling with this since it's sign up time NOW, and I don't even have confirmation where I'll be working (hoping a closer field site rather than HQ, but if the whole goal is to make us miserable and bring money into DC....) Word timing really.

[Anonymous]

Same! Camps are crazy and the schedule changes weekly.

Can we somehow make school hours extend to 3:30 now?!? This would change everything for all my employees. Most are in loudoun.

[Anonymous]

I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

I hired a college student for the summer who took the kids to/from camp and to/from outings and swim team when they weren’t in camp. With multiple kids, it ultimately ended up being cheaper and more flexible than camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

Yes, lots of aftercare. But also, we didn't take jobs where the commutes weren't possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

Yes I used to have like 90 waking minutes with my daughter a day. 7:30-8 when I dropped her at daycare after waking her up and feeding her and getting ready for work and then 6:15-7:15 when I would get home and feed her dinner before putting her to bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

Yes that’s exactly what parents did. Some families can flex schedules so one parent drops off and goes in later while the other goes in earlier and does end of the day pick up. Others get nannies, after school sitters or use family help. People do before and aftercare with summer camps and camp selection often was based on work needs not kid preferences. It was common for people to do some work from home in the evenings or early mornings on those occasions where not everything got completed during the work day. And lots of vacation leave gets sucked up by days off from school if you don’t have childcare that runs during periods when schools are closed.

People who had their kids in 2019 or before would be familiar with this. It’s just going back to pre Covid life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

I hired a college student for the summer who took the kids to/from camp and to/from outings and swim team when they weren’t in camp. With multiple kids, it ultimately ended up being cheaper and more flexible than camp.

How much did this cost you? Was it enough that you had to file taxes as an employer? I think we'll need some extra help but we don't make FT nanny $ even for the summer.

[Anonymous]

NTEU is saying we have to follow our agency’s orders. Doesn’t bode well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

I hired a college student for the summer who took the kids to/from camp and to/from outings and swim team when they weren’t in camp. With multiple kids, it ultimately ended up being cheaper and more flexible than camp.

How much did this cost you? Was it enough that you had to file taxes as an employer? I think we'll need some extra help but we don't make FT nanny $ even for the summer.

Same -- along with the possible reduction of federal benefits, this increase in costs in commuting and child care is really worrying us...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6?

Yes that’s exactly what parents did. Some families can flex schedules so one parent drops off and goes in later while the other goes in earlier and does end of the day pick up. Others get nannies, after school sitters or use family help. People do before and aftercare with summer camps and camp selection often was based on work needs not kid preferences. It was common for people to do some work from home in the evenings or early mornings on those occasions where not everything got completed during the work day. And lots of vacation leave gets sucked up by days off from school if you don’t have childcare that runs during periods when schools are closed.

People who had their kids in 2019 or before would be familiar with this. It’s just going back to pre Covid life.

Yes, pre-Covid, it was hiring sitters, trading favors with friends and juggling schedules with my spouse. It can suck, but it can be done, and has been done for generations. Or, you take the trade offs associated with living off of one income, which I also did for a number of years.

[Anonymous]

People who had their kids in 2019 or before would be familiar with this. It’s just going back to pre Covid life.

Except these services are less available, have shorter hours, and are more expensive.