Gov’t Contractors - End of Telework

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fed and I know some of my contractors are being told to come in full time. I am really concerned I'm going to lose some of my most experienced, brilliant team members who can easily retire or get a different job. I've told them that obviously they have to follow their employer's guidelines, but that as far as I'm concerned they've been doing exceptional work in our current hybrid setup.

I am a fed contractor and am actively applying for other jobs. My agency takes months to onboard, so good luck to them finding a replacement.

Huge brain drain from the government and contractors. Putin really got a return on his investment, it could take decades to undo the damage to the military.

So absurd. Biden could have tackled the obvious issue of remote workers and empty buildings but he didn’t. He just ignored it and so many other issues. To blame this situation on Trump is rich. Covid has been over for 2 plus years and still federal employees are remote. Another problem Trump is inheriting from Biden.

Being able to hire PhDs remotely isn't an issue. There isn't a problem with remote work.

Not following. People are bleating about being told to come in. Remote won’t cut it anymore. You will need to show up in person (fed or contractor) OR the government will have to sell buildings or end leases. I am agnostic but the status quo for the last 2 plus years is enormously wasteful. And Biden did nothing about it.

The government has already sold buildings and ended leases.

It's why my DH started telecommuting half a week back in 2006. There are currently three people sharing the same office and / cubicle.

Who are you people who think remote work / telecommuting started in 2020?
And that the federal government hasn't already sold the buildings and stopped the leasing?

All that was done under Obama to save money during the Great Recession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then they can get a job there. Or move back.

While 1-2 days/week telework is reasonable, living in Florida isn't.

Who tf do you think you are? And why should You decide what’s “reasonable.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then they can get a job there. Or move back.

While 1-2 days/week telework is reasonable, living in Florida isn't.

Who made you in charge of determining what's reasonable and what's not?

Not poster, but I am a taxpayer, therefore I pay your salary. You understand that, don't you?

I love this grandiose statement, "I pay your salary." Government workers are taxpayers too. You understand that, don't you?

Also, just so you know, only about 8% of all Federal spending goes to Federal salaries (both military and civilian). That whack out of your paycheck that is "paying my salary" is actually mostly paying for other things, such as entitlements (SS, Medicare, interest on debt, etc). Maybe you should direct your attention to those things, since you are such a strident steward of your tax dollars.

+1. Also, for all the “Johnny Taxpayers”, you’ve been sending people to Washington who’ve rung up a $36T bill for goods and services they deemed necessary over the past few decades…so you haven’t exactly been paying the bill. You’ve short-paid by about $100K/per family member, but not your fault, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then they can get a job there. Or move back.

While 1-2 days/week telework is reasonable, living in Florida isn't.

Who made you in charge of determining what's reasonable and what's not?

Not poster, but I am a taxpayer, therefore I pay your salary. You understand that, don't you?

Feds are also taxpayers. You contribute a minuscule amount to their salary and it is prob equivalent to what they contribute.

No post your tax rate, deductions, payouts like SS so I can come t on those. Since I get to be concerned about whether you’re contributing your fair share. And getting too much of a payout.

[Anonymous]

What defense contractors are doing this? The one I work for is not and made it clear that are schedules are staying as is. We go into the office when we need to. Government doesn’t need contractors to quit too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My question is aren’t there people who were established as remote prior to Covid changes - are they also being forced to come back in? What if they lived far when they were hired for a remote position?

yes- contractors have been remote for at least a decade or more. I don't know of a single contractor that is being forced to return to the office.

[Anonymous]

And this kind of thing, it seems to me, runs counter to the narrative that Trumpers are going to hurt the DC region's economy by cracking down on federal workers.

Newsflash, forcing people -- whether contractors or federal employees -- to live and work in the DC area will be GREAT for the local economy.

I bet no-one is happier with Trump RTO orders than DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. I work downtown and would love to see some of these boarded-up storefronts occupied by thriving businesses again.

[Anonymous]

We will lose all our best people. This is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And this kind of thing, it seems to me, runs counter to the narrative that Trumpers are going to hurt the DC region's economy by cracking down on federal workers.

Newsflash, forcing people -- whether contractors or federal employees -- to live and work in the DC area will be GREAT for the local economy.

I bet no-one is happier with Trump RTO orders than DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. I work downtown and would love to see some of these boarded-up storefronts occupied by thriving businesses again.

Better widen the roads, then, the traffic was already horrible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fed and I know some of my contractors are being told to come in full time. I am really concerned I'm going to lose some of my most experienced, brilliant team members who can easily retire or get a different job. I've told them that obviously they have to follow their employer's guidelines, but that as far as I'm concerned they've been doing exceptional work in our current hybrid setup.

I am a fed contractor and am actively applying for other jobs. My agency takes months to onboard, so good luck to them finding a replacement.

Huge brain drain from the government and contractors. Putin really got a return on his investment, it could take decades to undo the damage to the military.

So absurd. Biden could have tackled the obvious issue of remote workers and empty buildings but he didn’t. He just ignored it and so many other issues. To blame this situation on Trump is rich. Covid has been over for 2 plus years and still federal employees are remote. Another problem Trump is inheriting from Biden.

Being able to hire PhDs remotely isn't an issue. There isn't a problem with remote work.

Not following. People are bleating about being told to come in. Remote won’t cut it anymore. You will need to show up in person (fed or contractor) OR the government will have to sell buildings or end leases. I am agnostic but the status quo for the last 2 plus years is enormously wasteful. And Biden did nothing about it.

There is a WSJ article today about the amount of space owned by the GSA that is functionally obsolete. It can't be used without serious investment even if they wanted to use it.

The GSA manages a massive portfolio of federal buildings, consisting of 370 million square feet nationwide. But many have been poorly maintained due to lack of funding, and are sitting empty or underused, the GSA testified before Congress in 2023. Some massive government buildings are empty or uninhabitable, said one former GSA official. Many others were built in the 1970s and have lacked the proper maintenance for decades.

Take the former GSA regional headquarters in L’Enfant Plaza. The nearly 1 million-square-foot office building is the largest property the GSA is looking to shed. It is in a prime Washington, D.C., location. But it has stood empty since 2018, due to its need for extensive renovations that would cost about $184.8 million, per a report put together by the GSA in September of 2021.

Did anyone catch that there is also an EO to beautify government buildings?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/promoting-beautiful-federal-civic-architecture/

“… to submit to me within 60 days recommendations to advance the policy that Federal public buildings should be visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage in order to uplift and beautify public spaces and ennoble the United States and our system of self-government.”

This seems like an odd initiative for a president elected by people who want to “drain the swamp,” relocate employees out of DC, and save taxpayer dollars.

The cynical part of me thinks that Trump will always be a real estate investor at heart and this is a ploy to somehow drive up commercial building costs surrounding the government buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We will lose all our best people. This is ridiculous.

No you won't. Either they come back or you promote your other people, and train new hires. This is literally how it has always worked.

If you want to work in Florida, there are gov't contractors based in Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will lose all our best people. This is ridiculous.

No you won't. Either they come back or you promote your other people, and train new hires. This is literally how it has always worked.

If you want to work in Florida, there are gov't contractors based in Florida.

I don't think you understand. We can't magic highly trained engineers out of thin air. There aren't a glut of PEs anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And this kind of thing, it seems to me, runs counter to the narrative that Trumpers are going to hurt the DC region's economy by cracking down on federal workers.

Newsflash, forcing people -- whether contractors or federal employees -- to live and work in the DC area will be GREAT for the local economy.

I bet no-one is happier with Trump RTO orders than DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. I work downtown and would love to see some of these boarded-up storefronts occupied by thriving businesses again.

DC is constantly trying to use feds to "improve" parts of DC, and it never works. Feds have short lunch breaks, long commutes, and little spending money. They don't shop in DC, they brownbag it from home.

Also, if you are in the downtown core, you already have about as many feds as you're going to get. Most of us have been moved to more distant parts of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry, but people knew this was going to happen when Covid hit. How is this a surprise to anybody? It was never going to be permanent.

I recall having discussions here warning people not to move out to far-flung areas because of remote work. And some people did? That is on them. Were they still getting locality pay if they’re based out of Washington DC but they moved to a cheaper state (legit q).

This is a reasonable stance for a return-to-office mandate in 2021. It's 2025. It's been FIVE YEARS. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that if everything was fine with remote work in 2023 and 2024 at your place of employment, that it would still be in 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a family member who works for a defense company, she is over the moon that some of the leches in her organization will be given their pink slips soon. She does their work already anyway, so no loss there.

And this really isn’t about your family member