RTO EO is up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Got an email from our leadership this morning that they aren’t changing any policies on telework. We’ve been 4 days per pay period. Heard from a colleague that OGC told them the CBA trumps the EO. They also got beat up last budget cycle over lease costs and they don’t want to go ask for more money for enough office space for everyone to be in office full time.

4 days in office or 4 days telework?

4 days in office

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad I got my popcorn early.

Does it turn you on when other people’s lives are upended?

Drama llama? RTO is hardly an upending - have some perspective

I haven’t been complaining too much about this, mostly because I’ve felt very lucky to be a remote worker and knew it would end someday, but don’t minimize it but saying it doesn’t upend things. I’ll spend 2ish less hours/day with my kids, who are young and still want to spend time with me. My young kids routine is going to change quite a bit (only one parent at home in the morning, most likely) which will be stressful and require adjustment. I haven’t yet figured out a way to keep the exercise routine I’ve had for 2+ years that has greatly improved my physical and mental health, and see my kids at all on those days. And we have a dog who does not enjoy being alone all day.

These are all the problems of privilege, and I recognize that. They still create stress and disruption.

One thing for sure - I’m cutting back to working 40 hours per week!

Cry
Me a River

So you don’t support families? Why would you want parents unnecessarily spending 2 fewer hours with their kids in order to sit alone on Teams calls?

Why don’t you support technology and want to take advantage of the efficiencies it brings? Do you also want us using fax machines?

You had better never:
- Use Amazon or have anything delivered
- go to a restaurant
- Go to a doctor’s office or hospital
- Gas station
- Grocery store
- send children to school or daycare

Or anywhere that requires people to leave their homes to be at your service.

Because if you do, by your own admission you don’t support families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This comes down to trust. Teleworkers are saying: trust us, we’re being productive at home and not watching the kids/watching TV/taking a nap/taking a walk, etc. The new administration is saying it no longer trusts them.

Like you can’t watch Netflix on your phone or take a long coffee break, lunch break (or two) while you’re in the office? The point of ending telework, terminating remote work agreements, Schedule F, etc. is to get federal employees to quit or in the alternative empower political appointees to fire them for any reason. If a teleworker isn’t getting their work done at home it’s unlikely they will get it done in the office. Regardless of where such an employee works it’s the employees manager who should be responsible for holding them accountable.

Punishing productive employees who do good work is not great for the overall health of an organization.

It’s a hell of a lot easier when you’re in your own house with nobody else to see it, but then, you knew that already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This comes down to trust. Teleworkers are saying: trust us, we’re being productive at home and not watching the kids/watching TV/taking a nap/taking a walk, etc. The new administration is saying it no longer trusts them.

Like you can’t watch Netflix on your phone or take a long coffee break, lunch break (or two) while you’re in the office? The point of ending telework, terminating remote work agreements, Schedule F, etc. is to get federal employees to quit or in the alternative empower political appointees to fire them for any reason. If a teleworker isn’t getting their work done at home it’s unlikely they will get it done in the office. Regardless of where such an employee works it’s the employees manager who should be responsible for holding them accountable.

Punishing productive employees who do good work is not great for the overall health of an organization.

No it's not. All of these pages are just chock full of people defending WFH by saying it gives them time to do chores, workout, cook dinner, pick up kids, go to practices etc. NEVER is the WFH argument presented as more productive time to work.

Well, many of the posts are indeed saying that, but what they really mean is saving commute time, chores, workout, picking up kids, etc. They just don’t say the quiet part out loud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the Trump administration's position is that people who are not committed to their jobs need to start looking. They use willingness to be in person as a measure of that. It's an imperfect measure, to be sure, but there aren't a lot of good measures to be had. Performance reviews are not reliable and also there isn't anything the administration can do to fix that. But they can try to get people back in the offices.

They also want to revitalize the business districts that relied on people coming to work. Good or bad, we will all be better off for thriving brick and mortar businesses and less Chinese Amazon products.

I don't think it's a bad thing to shake this up. Change is hard. We may need to move to a smaller place to make it work. I don't know, but I try to understand the motivations for things and believe there is some good here.

I am not sure why you think that when people have less available time (because they are commuting once again) that they will use that time to go to a brick and mortar store, rather than ordering online. I sure wouldn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This comes down to trust. Teleworkers are saying: trust us, we’re being productive at home and not watching the kids/watching TV/taking a nap/taking a walk, etc. The new administration is saying it no longer trusts them.

Like you can’t watch Netflix on your phone or take a long coffee break, lunch break (or two) while you’re in the office? The point of ending telework, terminating remote work agreements, Schedule F, etc. is to get federal employees to quit or in the alternative empower political appointees to fire them for any reason. If a teleworker isn’t getting their work done at home it’s unlikely they will get it done in the office. Regardless of where such an employee works it’s the employees manager who should be responsible for holding them accountable.

Punishing productive employees who do good work is not great for the overall health of an organization.

No it's not. All of these pages are just chock full of people defending WFH by saying it gives them time to do chores, workout, cook dinner, pick up kids, go to practices etc. NEVER is the WFH argument presented as more productive time to work.

Well, many of the posts are indeed saying that, but what they really mean is saving commute time, chores, workout, picking up kids, etc. They just don’t say the quiet part out loud.

That's not actually true. Quite a few of us have mentioned being available after hours for people in different time zones, or working late as needed to avoid delays. If I have to start commuting 4.5 hours a day, I'm not going to stay in the office and miss the last train home for the convenience of someone in the Pacific. Flexibility goes both ways - I appreciated being a remote hire who doesn't make that commute, and I try to use the convenience of WFH to make work go more smoothly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This comes down to trust. Teleworkers are saying: trust us, we’re being productive at home and not watching the kids/watching TV/taking a nap/taking a walk, etc. The new administration is saying it no longer trusts them.

If it's about trust, why no exemptions for those who have jobs where performance can be measured? The way our telework agreement was already set up for example was complete x cases per day and if you don't, THEN the telework agreement is voided. There's really ZERO reason to call us into the office other than to make my life miserable and I guarantee you I will be less productive. When there is backlog, I don't want to hear about it, I will be sitting in traffic instead of taking on extra hours to work through it.

[Anonymous]

Why do some people hate fed workers so much? I work in the private sector and I will never work in the public sector because career progression is slow and the waves are not very competitive in my field. These guys are just doing their work like everyone else and some of you are hating on these people why?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad I got my popcorn early.

Does it turn you on when other people’s lives are upended?

Drama llama? RTO is hardly an upending - have some perspective

I haven’t been complaining too much about this, mostly because I’ve felt very lucky to be a remote worker and knew it would end someday, but don’t minimize it but saying it doesn’t upend things. I’ll spend 2ish less hours/day with my kids, who are young and still want to spend time with me. My young kids routine is going to change quite a bit (only one parent at home in the morning, most likely) which will be stressful and require adjustment. I haven’t yet figured out a way to keep the exercise routine I’ve had for 2+ years that has greatly improved my physical and mental health, and see my kids at all on those days. And we have a dog who does not enjoy being alone all day.

These are all the problems of privilege, and I recognize that. They still create stress and disruption.

One thing for sure - I’m cutting back to working 40 hours per week!

Cry
Me a River

So you don’t support families? Why would you want parents unnecessarily spending 2 fewer hours with their kids in order to sit alone on Teams calls?

Why don’t you support technology and want to take advantage of the efficiencies it brings? Do you also want us using fax machines?

Of course I do. I have a family. I have a full time job I commute to every day. I have 4 kids. 2 of them in top 25 colleges, 2 in HS. I think my support of my family has been just stellar. You need to grow up.

There’s the rub. You’re jealous of any families to have a flexibility to make their lives easier that you didn’t get to have. And it’s weird that you’re not merely indifferent to whether Feds have to RTO. You are trying to insist that their lives won’t be upended as if you know the personal family/employment situation of every fed returning to office. Like why do you care one way or another? It’s so fake to pretend you are someone who cares about families but the totally act like you know better than families what their lives are like.

I am glad I’m not petty like you. I had to take unpaid leave after my kids are born, but I’m glad there is now paid parental leave. If suddenly paid parental leave went away, I would have sympathy and understand that was making life unnecessarily harder for families.

+1. The bitterness of these people at what others have is not a good look. Reminds me of the old Soviet tale of a genie that gives two men each a wish. The first asks for a cow. The second man then responds, “kill my neighbor’s cow.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad I got my popcorn early.

Does it turn you on when other people’s lives are upended?

Drama llama? RTO is hardly an upending - have some perspective

I haven’t been complaining too much about this, mostly because I’ve felt very lucky to be a remote worker and knew it would end someday, but don’t minimize it but saying it doesn’t upend things. I’ll spend 2ish less hours/day with my kids, who are young and still want to spend time with me. My young kids routine is going to change quite a bit (only one parent at home in the morning, most likely) which will be stressful and require adjustment. I haven’t yet figured out a way to keep the exercise routine I’ve had for 2+ years that has greatly improved my physical and mental health, and see my kids at all on those days. And we have a dog who does not enjoy being alone all day.

These are all the problems of privilege, and I recognize that. They still create stress and disruption.

One thing for sure - I’m cutting back to working 40 hours per week!

Cry
Me a River

So you don’t support families? Why would you want parents unnecessarily spending 2 fewer hours with their kids in order to sit alone on Teams calls?

Why don’t you support technology and want to take advantage of the efficiencies it brings? Do you also want us using fax machines?

You had better never:
- Use Amazon or have anything delivered
- go to a restaurant
- Go to a doctor’s office or hospital
- Gas station
- Grocery store
- send children to school or daycare

Or anywhere that requires people to leave their homes to be at your service.

Because if you do, by your own admission you don’t support families.

That’s not what PP said at all. The jobs you listed cannot, by their very nature be done at home. That is different than a job that can be done WFH but is forced back to the office for no justifiable reason except to cause employee attrition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This comes down to trust. Teleworkers are saying: trust us, we’re being productive at home and not watching the kids/watching TV/taking a nap/taking a walk, etc. The new administration is saying it no longer trusts them.

If it's about trust, why no exemptions for those who have jobs where performance can be measured? The way our telework agreement was already set up for example was complete x cases per day and if you don't, THEN the telework agreement is voided. There's really ZERO reason to call us into the office other than to make my life miserable and I guarantee you I will be less productive. When there is backlog, I don't want to hear about it, I will be sitting in traffic instead of taking on extra hours to work through it.

My performance is very closely tracked on multiple metrics. Which is how I have definitive proof I've been more productive at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do some people hate fed workers so much? I work in the private sector and I will never work in the public sector because career progression is slow and the waves are not very competitive in my field. These guys are just doing their work like everyone else and some of you are hating on these people why?!?

Because they've been fed a line by their overlords and need to regurgitate it to satisfy a need to feel like they are part of the 'in-group.'

Or they are just bitter, sad people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do some people hate fed workers so much? I work in the private sector and I will never work in the public sector because career progression is slow and the waves are not very competitive in my field. These guys are just doing their work like everyone else and some of you are hating on these people why?!?

Because they've been fed a line by their overlords and need to regurgitate it to satisfy a need to feel like they are part of the 'in-group.'

Or they are just bitter, sad people.

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This comes down to trust. Teleworkers are saying: trust us, we’re being productive at home and not watching the kids/watching TV/taking a nap/taking a walk, etc. The new administration is saying it no longer trusts them.

Like you can’t watch Netflix on your phone or take a long coffee break, lunch break (or two) while you’re in the office? The point of ending telework, terminating remote work agreements, Schedule F, etc. is to get federal employees to quit or in the alternative empower political appointees to fire them for any reason. If a teleworker isn’t getting their work done at home it’s unlikely they will get it done in the office. Regardless of where such an employee works it’s the employees manager who should be responsible for holding them accountable.

Punishing productive employees who do good work is not great for the overall health of an organization.

It’s a hell of a lot easier when you’re in your own house with nobody else to see it, but then, you knew that already.

Hmm.. does your employer know you’re goofing off on DCUM during work hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad I got my popcorn early.

Does it turn you on when other people’s lives are upended?

Drama llama? RTO is hardly an upending - have some perspective

I haven’t been complaining too much about this, mostly because I’ve felt very lucky to be a remote worker and knew it would end someday, but don’t minimize it but saying it doesn’t upend things. I’ll spend 2ish less hours/day with my kids, who are young and still want to spend time with me. My young kids routine is going to change quite a bit (only one parent at home in the morning, most likely) which will be stressful and require adjustment. I haven’t yet figured out a way to keep the exercise routine I’ve had for 2+ years that has greatly improved my physical and mental health, and see my kids at all on those days. And we have a dog who does not enjoy being alone all day.

These are all the problems of privilege, and I recognize that. They still create stress and disruption.

One thing for sure - I’m cutting back to working 40 hours per week!

Cry
Me a River

So you don’t support families? Why would you want parents unnecessarily spending 2 fewer hours with their kids in order to sit alone on Teams calls?

Why don’t you support technology and want to take advantage of the efficiencies it brings? Do you also want us using fax machines?

You had better never:
- Use Amazon or have anything delivered
- go to a restaurant
- Go to a doctor’s office or hospital
- Gas station
- Grocery store
- send children to school or daycare

Or anywhere that requires people to leave their homes to be at your service.

Because if you do, by your own admission you don’t support families.

That is such a straw man argument. Those jobs have to be done in person. If there were parts of the job that could be done remotely and were then taken away I would understand them being upset.

Even in-person workers have their own unique benefits that they’ve built family life around. Like shift work (healthcare), school breaks and summers off (teachers), or overtime pay (e.g. a lot of hourly jobs), etc. The reality is some jobs have more flexibility than others, which is why parents usually make career decisions in conjunction with one another.

If suddenly employers were just doing things to take away those flexibilities for in-person workers away for no business reason beyond “we want employees to be miserable and quit,” then yeah I would have empathy. It’s frankly weird that you claim to be supportive of families, yet also appear to rejoice (or at the very least have schadenfreude) at their job circumstances being changed in the hopes of making them quit.