For Feds, who monitors return to work?

[Anonymous]

My large department is running IT reports against our time cards. They can tell where you logged in from. Timecard fraud is a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:coming in the office should come with a pay raise

Did you take a paycut when you were WFH?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:some places it is kept track of when you badge in and out.

+1

Swipe in to facility.

I worked for a big defense contractor back in the day. This was bullet proof evidence to catch timecard fraud. On occasion we would also request our customer (DOD Facility) for badge information regarding the same employees as they said they were at customer site. You would be shocked how many folks were caught lying about being on customer sites.

[Anonymous]

My supervisor doesn't care, as long as I complete everything within deadlines.

My agency? Probably running these badging in reports.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The managers. Our policy is an email when you start the day. We are supposed to add the location as part of the return to the office.

Eg. I'm starting my day and working the full tour of duty from the office today.

Been a fed for 10+ yrs and this sounds craxy to me! So infantilizing.

This really is not uncommon or onerous. My DH has been doing it for six years (in his agency that has always been primarily remote.) it is an extremely low effort way for a manager (and team) to know who is available on any given day, particularly when the culture supports a lot of flexibility and variance in when people work.

Wouldn't a manager just assume you are available on a scheduled work day?

Manager Joe, I am working today. I will breathe oxygen. I will take my required 30 minutes lunch break. I will sign off at the end of my day.

I don't get this objection. We are talking about an organization that supports fully remote work as well as extremely flexible work schedules. It asks for an email/chat message at the start of a workday. And even THAT is too much "control" for some people?

A manager wants to know who is online and working that day. They want to touch base with their employees once a day that they don't see in person more than 4 times per year. It takes ten seconds.

I think you should assume people are working unless they report otherwise. It’s an utterly useless way of “touching base.”

+1. This seems really inefficient. We have a team calendar where people indicate if the days they are off so everyone knows whether a particular person is available that day.

How is entering something on a calendar more efficient than sending a chat message/email? And what if your work environment is flexible enough that you may not know in advance which days you'll be working?

I'll also note that this message is to the whole small team. It functions much more as a "good morning!" like you would say to someone if you walked by their office in the morning. It creates a sense of connection on the team. Nobody has every objected. And the chat runs all day with exchanges about work stuff and normal small chat.

My last office did this, and it was exactly how you describe it. No one cared who was logging in earliest or whatever. It was just a small way of staying connected as a team. Sometimes folks would add small talk or mention an interesting meeting they’d be in that day. Our boss made it clear this was not about tracking people, and no one got in trouble for forgetting to do it. I really don’t understand the objection.

Having an ongoing group chat for casual discussions is a great idea.
Requiring everyone to check in every morning is stupid and a sign of poor and defensive leadership.

It is so interesting that people think this is so awful. This is a close collaborative team that has been doing this everyday for years before the pandemic. Nobody has ever objected or even mentioned among themselves that it was a problem or issue. (And while they do have some quibbles with upper management, people like this manager and stay on her team for a long time.)

You’re strangely defensive. I am a new poster and also had a boss do this once and absolutely hated it. It is infantilizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The managers. Our policy is an email when you start the day. We are supposed to add the location as part of the return to the office.

Eg. I'm starting my day and working the full tour of duty from the office today.

Been a fed for 10+ yrs and this sounds craxy to me! So infantilizing.

This really is not uncommon or onerous. My DH has been doing it for six years (in his agency that has always been primarily remote.) it is an extremely low effort way for a manager (and team) to know who is available on any given day, particularly when the culture supports a lot of flexibility and variance in when people work.

Wouldn't a manager just assume you are available on a scheduled work day?

Manager Joe, I am working today. I will breathe oxygen. I will take my required 30 minutes lunch break. I will sign off at the end of my day.

I don't get this objection. We are talking about an organization that supports fully remote work as well as extremely flexible work schedules. It asks for an email/chat message at the start of a workday. And even THAT is too much "control" for some people?

A manager wants to know who is online and working that day. They want to touch base with their employees once a day that they don't see in person more than 4 times per year. It takes ten seconds.

I think you should assume people are working unless they report otherwise. It’s an utterly useless way of “touching base.”

+1. This seems really inefficient. We have a team calendar where people indicate if the days they are off so everyone knows whether a particular person is available that day.

How is entering something on a calendar more efficient than sending a chat message/email? And what if your work environment is flexible enough that you may not know in advance which days you'll be working?

I'll also note that this message is to the whole small team. It functions much more as a "good morning!" like you would say to someone if you walked by their office in the morning. It creates a sense of connection on the team. Nobody has every objected. And the chat runs all day with exchanges about work stuff and normal small chat.

My last office did this, and it was exactly how you describe it. No one cared who was logging in earliest or whatever. It was just a small way of staying connected as a team. Sometimes folks would add small talk or mention an interesting meeting they’d be in that day. Our boss made it clear this was not about tracking people, and no one got in trouble for forgetting to do it. I really don’t understand the objection.

Having an ongoing group chat for casual discussions is a great idea.
Requiring everyone to check in every morning is stupid and a sign of poor and defensive leadership.

It is so interesting that people think this is so awful. This is a close collaborative team that has been doing this everyday for years before the pandemic. Nobody has ever objected or even mentioned among themselves that it was a problem or issue. (And while they do have some quibbles with upper management, people like this manager and stay on her team for a long time.)

You’re strangely defensive. I am a new poster and also had a boss do this once and absolutely hated it. It is infantilizing.

+1. Also let's be real we all know defensive PP is actually the manager.