Spinoff from another thread...who is allowed to telework at your agency/company

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is my legal office in a govt. agency. It is ridiculous, as much of work is measurable and could be done more efficiently elsewhere (we sit it cubicles).

Cubicles and no teleworking? Ugh, where is that?

Are cubicles worse than office sharing? At least you have limited privacy in a cube.

Cubicles are the worst. At my agency only GS-15s or supervisory 14s have offices.

I'd KILL for a cubicle. We work in one of the new open collaborative workspaces. Basically, it looks like a call center in Bangladesh. Supervisors and SESs have mini offices, but everyone else sits in huge open bays, including non-supervisory GS-15s. ZERO privacy. A cubicle sounds like a dream come true.

I stand corrected - cubicles are not the worst. Open collaborative workspaces are the worst. At least my cubicle has tall walls, and I telework once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the benefits of telecommuting. You're cut off from the information flow and you have no external motivation to work, not to mention it being pretty lonely. Unless you have a long commute, I don't get it.

What century do you live in? How am I cut off from the information flow when it's all taking place on the computer? And how does the external motivation to work disappear when you're in a home office? You have all the same incentives to produce whether in your home or work office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at Interior and no one is allowed to telework. Not even if there's a blizzard or if you're on bed rest and have to take leave without pay.

Allowed to telework at interior.

+1. I don't know where the first Interior poster works, but sorry, that's your own office's policy. Many other bureaus/offices w/in DOI can telework.

I'm the first poster from Interior who said I couldn't teleowork. It's true that most of the rest of DOI teleworks, just my Office isn't allowed. It's severely impacted our hiring and retention of employees since we were all previously allowed telework. I think it's sad that telework is 100% up to the supervisor with no encouragement from upper management.

The disparate treatment within an agency with regard to similar positions really ticks me off. HR will never take this issue on however.

[Anonymous]

I'm a manager at the EPA and I am highly supportive of telework for my group. We have a motivated, highly educated work force with amazing expertise at EPA which we want to keep so we give what perks we can. Telework is one perk that we can give right now. It's more work for me personally day to day but long term it's a survival strategy. I work with people to help them be as productive as they can be and still have some work/life balance. Most of the Agency is like this, with telework at least one day a pay period the norm and often more than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh pp, which agency is this? The only point to setting that up is to encourage people to stay home and telework.

I'm 12:37. No telework.

They claim it was done to foster collaboration. Really, it was cost savings, think of all the money they saved on walls, doors, dividers, etc. I like the organization I work for, but hate this facility with an undying passion.

Wasn't it Tangherlini that was responsible for that bullsh*t?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh pp, which agency is this? The only point to setting that up is to encourage people to stay home and telework.

I'm 12:37. No telework.

They claim it was done to foster collaboration. Really, it was cost savings, think of all the money they saved on walls, doors, dividers, etc. I like the organization I work for, but hate this facility with an undying passion.

Wasn't it Tangherlini that was responsible for that bullsh*t?

Yeah, but my understanding was that Dan T. and GSA expected more teleworking with this new system... so I'm wondering if the no-telework/open-floor poster is not at GSA but somewhere else (and awful).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is my legal office in a govt. agency. It is ridiculous, as much of work is measurable and could be done more efficiently elsewhere (we sit it cubicles).

Cubicles and no teleworking? Ugh, where is that?

Are cubicles worse than office sharing? At least you have limited privacy in a cube.

Cubicles are the worst. At my agency only GS-15s or supervisory 14s have offices.

I'd KILL for a cubicle. We work in one of the new open collaborative workspaces. Basically, it looks like a call center in Bangladesh. Supervisors and SESs have mini offices, but everyone else sits in huge open bays, including non-supervisory GS-15s. ZERO privacy. A cubicle sounds like a dream come true.

I stand corrected - cubicles are not the worst. Open collaborative workspaces are the worst. At least my cubicle has tall walls, and I telework once a week.

We have some nasty attitude time cheaters who should be put in open collaborative workspaces. Much harder to pretend you're a nice, smart, hardworking employee in that kind of workspace.