SEC RTO -- How'd the first pay period go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
In what way is your home set up better than in the office? Mine certainly isn’t, with high speed printing being the biggest thing I lack at home.

i... don't think i have ever printed anything in my 4 years at the SEC? There is literally nothing I need to print. Anyway, at home I'm alone, with only daylight and no fluorescent overhead lighting, and the temperature and the humidity are exactly as I want it. I have a fridge with water 15 feet away. I have fiber to the home, and 2 30in monitors with 2560x1440 resolution. i have an excellent video camera and headphone setup for meetings.

at the office I face a hallway with a lot of foot traffic, and I have two "new" 22" monitors from 2019 with 1440x1050 resolution. Those were my upgrade from 2016 18" monitors with 1280x1024 resolution. even though my office phone has a camera, webex and teams refuse to connect to it for conferencing. the in-office temp is 75 degrees on the north side of the building and 86 on the south side. the humidity is around 29%. I have to walk half a mile for food or coffee. there is nothing pleasant or efficient about working from the office.

The one good thing I can say about the office air handling is that the CO2 readings are consistently excellent unless one has more than two people in a closed door office for any period of time.

as for my office mate, I have no idea where they stay. They aren't sleeping at the office, or at least, are not sleeping in our shared office if they are. maybe they are in an airbnb or hostel?

Care to share what your CO2 readings in office have been and where/what days? Are you just reading in your office? Hallways? Anyplace else?

I'm totally curious about this but not enough to buy a CO2 monitor to use one time.

And FWIW I don't think RTO has been that big of a deal or that inconvenient - even as a covid cautious person who masks - but I'm positive that's the minority opinion by a lot.

[Anonymous]

First of all, I get the complaining about 8-2, but anything better wasn't really in the cards. Poor optics for the Administration; America is back to work, and can't have feds loafing around. Also, they just bought a brand-new building.

Second, Gary's a jerk. His RTO email and video message (truly WTF) was tone-deaf. Came off as gloating.

Third, RTO is purpose-less presence. Nobody is around. Just the same WebEx meetings, but now from your office.

Fourth, as the Union has pointed out, (a) you don't have to even have work core hours on in-office days, (b) an in-office day counts as in-office as long as you work 50% + 15 minutes of it in the office, and (c) it can be as short as 4 hours if you're on a Flex schedule and make up the hours on other days. So realistically, you can do something like 6am-10:30am if you're super covid-conscious even now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of all, I get the complaining about 8-2, but anything better wasn't really in the cards. Poor optics for the Administration; America is back to work, and can't have feds loafing around. Also, they just bought a brand-new building.

Second, Gary's a jerk. His RTO email and video message (truly WTF) was tone-deaf. Came off as gloating.

Third, RTO is purpose-less presence. Nobody is around. Just the same WebEx meetings, but now from your office.

Fourth, as the Union has pointed out, (a) you don't have to even have work core hours on in-office days, (b) an in-office day counts as in-office as long as you work 50% + 15 minutes of it in the office, and (c) it can be as short as 4 hours if you're on a Flex schedule and make up the hours on other days. So realistically, you can do something like 6am-10:30am if you're super covid-conscious even now.

There was a video message from GG?? Do tell. IDK how I missed that.

And yeah by the looks of the garage the few times I've walked past it, there are always people pulling out as early as 11 am and certainly many more people by noon/1 pm. And I'm guessing they didn't come in at 3-5 am to get their 8 hour day done. While I agree that it is presence without a purpose, I do appreciate the flexibilities it provides to those who are covid cautious for whatever reasons. You really don't even have to come in at 6 am to avoid hordes of people.

[Anonymous]

Not sure why GG is gloating. If he thinks most staff are spending anything more than 10 hours per PP in the office, he’s either delusional, naive, misinformed, or going through serious denial. The place is a ghost town. He “won” the RTO wars about as much as the US “won” in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[Anonymous]

I was sort of excited to see colleagues but it was a ghost town and after the first couple of hours of getting everything in running order and saying hi to the two people around, it was really creepy and pointless. It probably would have made more sense if they just forced everyone to come in on the same day once every pay period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was sort of excited to see colleagues but it was a ghost town and after the first couple of hours of getting everything in running order and saying hi to the two people around, it was really creepy and pointless. It probably would have made more sense if they just forced everyone to come in on the same day once every pay period.

I worked at an agency that required this and it was a logistical problem. No meeting rooms or parking available on that day, no written work getting done on that day - only meetings and socializing. People tended to put off their discussions until that day, which compounded the problem while making telework less effective.

I much prefer the arrangement we have, especially the flexibility to switch days if I'm trying to see someone specific in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was sort of excited to see colleagues but it was a ghost town and after the first couple of hours of getting everything in running order and saying hi to the two people around, it was really creepy and pointless. It probably would have made more sense if they just forced everyone to come in on the same day once every pay period.

I worked at an agency that required this and it was a logistical problem. No meeting rooms or parking available on that day, no written work getting done on that day - only meetings and socializing. People tended to put off their discussions until that day, which compounded the problem while making telework less effective.

I much prefer the arrangement we have, especially the flexibility to switch days if I'm trying to see someone specific in person.

Can’t they just rotate days with different areas? Like okay “Group A” these days “Group B” those days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was sort of excited to see colleagues but it was a ghost town and after the first couple of hours of getting everything in running order and saying hi to the two people around, it was really creepy and pointless. It probably would have made more sense if they just forced everyone to come in on the same day once every pay period.

I worked at an agency that required this and it was a logistical problem. No meeting rooms or parking available on that day, no written work getting done on that day - only meetings and socializing. People tended to put off their discussions until that day, which compounded the problem while making telework less effective.

I much prefer the arrangement we have, especially the flexibility to switch days if I'm trying to see someone specific in person.

Can’t they just rotate days with different areas? Like okay “Group A” these days “Group B” those days?

Exactly. My agency does this and it works well. Division A all comes in Tuesday, Division B on Wednesday, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was sort of excited to see colleagues but it was a ghost town and after the first couple of hours of getting everything in running order and saying hi to the two people around, it was really creepy and pointless. It probably would have made more sense if they just forced everyone to come in on the same day once every pay period.

I worked at an agency that required this and it was a logistical problem. No meeting rooms or parking available on that day, no written work getting done on that day - only meetings and socializing. People tended to put off their discussions until that day, which compounded the problem while making telework less effective.

I much prefer the arrangement we have, especially the flexibility to switch days if I'm trying to see someone specific in person.

Can’t they just rotate days with different areas? Like okay “Group A” these days “Group B” those days?

I guess but then you're back to not being in person with the people you need to see. Like if you're a lawyer, you don't need to be there to see all the other lawyers: you want to be there when your particular client is in. That's why it makes sense for people to pick their days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
In what way is your home set up better than in the office? Mine certainly isn’t, with high speed printing being the biggest thing I lack at home.

i... don't think i have ever printed anything in my 4 years at the SEC? There is literally nothing I need to print. Anyway, at home I'm alone, with only daylight and no fluorescent overhead lighting, and the temperature and the humidity are exactly as I want it. I have a fridge with water 15 feet away. I have fiber to the home, and 2 30in monitors with 2560x1440 resolution. i have an excellent video camera and headphone setup for meetings.

at the office I face a hallway with a lot of foot traffic, and I have two "new" 22" monitors from 2019 with 1440x1050 resolution. Those were my upgrade from 2016 18" monitors with 1280x1024 resolution. even though my office phone has a camera, webex and teams refuse to connect to it for conferencing. the in-office temp is 75 degrees on the north side of the building and 86 on the south side. the humidity is around 29%. I have to walk half a mile for food or coffee. there is nothing pleasant or efficient about working from the office.

The one good thing I can say about the office air handling is that the CO2 readings are consistently excellent unless one has more than two people in a closed door office for any period of time.

as for my office mate, I have no idea where they stay. They aren't sleeping at the office, or at least, are not sleeping in our shared office if they are. maybe they are in an airbnb or hostel?

Care to share what your CO2 readings in office have been and where/what days? Are you just reading in your office? Hallways? Anyplace else?

I'm totally curious about this but not enough to buy a CO2 monitor to use one time.

And FWIW I don't think RTO has been that big of a deal or that inconvenient - even as a covid cautious person who masks - but I'm positive that's the minority opinion by a lot.

alone in my office with the door closed, the readings are about 410. in a slightly larger office with three people for a closed-door meeting, it rose to about 600 over 30 minutes of talking. in a conference room with 8 people it rose to 550 by the end of an hour meeting.

anyway, the air exchange is good. but OMG the air is so dry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was sort of excited to see colleagues but it was a ghost town and after the first couple of hours of getting everything in running order and saying hi to the two people around, it was really creepy and pointless. It probably would have made more sense if they just forced everyone to come in on the same day once every pay period.

I worked at an agency that required this and it was a logistical problem. No meeting rooms or parking available on that day, no written work getting done on that day - only meetings and socializing. People tended to put off their discussions until that day, which compounded the problem while making telework less effective.

I much prefer the arrangement we have, especially the flexibility to switch days if I'm trying to see someone specific in person.

Can’t they just rotate days with different areas? Like okay “Group A” these days “Group B” those days?

I guess but then you're back to not being in person with the people you need to see. Like if you're a lawyer, you don't need to be there to see all the other lawyers: you want to be there when your particular client is in. That's why it makes sense for people to pick their days.

There has to be some ways to work it out. I know some agencies have instituted a “home week” where everyone comes in for a few days one week a month.

When people pick their days they choose to be there when no one else is there. It’s definitely a challenge to figure out, but people are unwilling to corporate in figuring it out and I worry it will force more in person because you know “one day a week isn’t going to help” can easily turn into “okay, then come in every other day.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I guess but then you're back to not being in person with the people you need to see. Like if you're a lawyer, you don't need to be there to see all the other lawyers: you want to be there when your particular client is in. That's why it makes sense for people to pick their days.

Gary's "community days" hobby horse fundamentally makes no sense. I don't usually have a pressing need to see in person the people in my own group - I need to see OTHER people in OTHER groups.

[Anonymous]

I'm more productive at home. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm more productive at home. Period.

Clearly agencies make policies based on your individual level of productivity.