Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's killing me is the lack of flexibility. My kids just can't stop getting sick. They're old enough that they could nap/watch TV (they're lethargic while sick) and I could telework.

Instead, I'm just taking full days of leave. Work is piled sky high at work due to this and also because so many people quit. Unsustainable.

Man Up. My Mom had a job, my wife's mom had a job. We went to school sick all the time. I dont recall a single time my Mom or Dad took off cause I was sick.

I do recall once the nurse called my Mom at work and said there is a problem as I am sick, my Mom said sounds like your problem.

No school is OK with this in 2025.

I teach in a Title 1 school and many parents don't answer calls from school. The sick kid is returned to the classroom until dismissal. It happens nearly every week in my grade level.

Your school needs to keep them isolated. Not ok you do that and make the rest of us sick.

I agree but the "nurse" will not allow students to stay in her office due to "privacy concerns." She said that students come in to take meds and students might overhear medical details about other students. If nobody is on their way to pick the student up, they send them back to class. We've complained but nothing has ever been done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What did you do pre 2020? People commuted to the office every day. Kids went to daycare. Parents came home, made dinner, helped with homework. It’s life.

I was teleworking two days a week like the majority of government employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did you do pre 2020? People commuted to the office every day. Kids went to daycare. Parents came home, made dinner, helped with homework. It’s life.

I was teleworking two days a week like the majority of government employees.

The majority of fed employees were not teleworking two days per week before 2020. I've seen a discussion about this recently, and I think it was like 20% of feds were teleworking pre-Covid. I'm happy to be wrong though. Please show me the numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did you do pre 2020? People commuted to the office every day. Kids went to daycare. Parents came home, made dinner, helped with homework. It’s life.

I was teleworking two days a week like the majority of government employees.

The majority of fed employees were not teleworking two days per week before 2020. I've seen a discussion about this recently, and I think it was like 20% of feds were teleworking pre-Covid. I'm happy to be wrong though. Please show me the numbers.

I thought the stat I saw was something like 61% are in jobs not eligible for TW. But perhaps PP meant the majority of those in jobs eligible for TW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RTO has been great on productivity though. People can’t just hide out in Zoomland as easily. People can see the files stacking up. Everyone knows who’s cranking out stuff.

+1 From a supervisor level, RTO has been terrific. With WFH, employees were hard to track down with all their dog walks, gym breaks, grocery runs, household chores, and kid activities. The work is starting to move again.

Troll. I find that hard to believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:RTO has been great on productivity though. People can’t just hide out in Zoomland as easily. People can see the files stacking up. Everyone knows who’s cranking out stuff.

Again, this is the opposite of what’s true for Feds.

[Anonymous]

The majority of fed employees were not teleworking two days per week before 2020. I've seen a discussion about this recently, and I think it was like 20% of feds were teleworking pre-Covid. I'm happy to be wrong though. Please show me the numbers.


I thought the stat I saw was something like 61% are in jobs not eligible for TW. But perhaps PP meant the majority of those in jobs eligible for TW.

Yes, exactly. My spouse works in a Government lab, so clearly they are not performing that work in our house. I write legal decisions, so I can do that from home two days a week with no issue, and had been since 2013.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's killing me is the lack of flexibility. My kids just can't stop getting sick. They're old enough that they could nap/watch TV (they're lethargic while sick) and I could telework.

Instead, I'm just taking full days of leave. Work is piled sky high at work due to this and also because so many people quit. Unsustainable.

Man Up. My Mom had a job, my wife's mom had a job. We went to school sick all the time. I dont recall a single time my Mom or Dad took off cause I was sick.

I do recall once the nurse called my Mom at work and said there is a problem as I am sick, my Mom said sounds like your problem.

No school is OK with this in 2025.

I teach in a Title 1 school and many parents don't answer calls from school. The sick kid is returned to the classroom until dismissal. It happens nearly every week in my grade level.

Your school needs to keep them isolated. Not ok you do that and make the rest of us sick.

I agree but the "nurse" will not allow students to stay in her office due to "privacy concerns." She said that students come in to take meds and students might overhear medical details about other students. If nobody is on their way to pick the student up, they send them back to class. We've complained but nothing has ever been done.

At my kid's school you need to put down multiple people who can pick up. Say they call mom and she doesn't pick up. then they call dad, grandma, a neighbor. Basically I had to give multiple names who would pick up your child if sick/needed to.

One child's parents didn't pick up (typical they both would not answer and are wealthy and have a nanny) and the nurse finally send the kid back with a mask on. Then the nurse wrote an email to the parents saying it cannot happen again and they must send over 2 other adults who know and have permission to pick up. Kid got sick again and someone picked the kid up. My kids are at a Title 1 school too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The traffic; the schedule; the hardship on my family (my kids!!). This is just awful.

How can trump do this to us?? I mean, just WHY??!?

My spouse has been RTO 4 days since early 2022 and 3 days since 2021.

Be grateful you have a job. I know people who were laid off and our of work for months, one 12 months and had to take whatever they could get.

If you are unhappy look for a new role or move closer in. We have a small house that is close to work. We did not move to a bigger one far away during Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:RTO has been a disaster for us, productivity is down because people were using those extra non commuting hours to work extra. Now most are just doing the standard 8 hours and not one minute more.

On the plus side, I no longer feel guilty of i don't finish up my work by the end of the day, quitting time is quitting time and now I have a clear demarcation of hours that are my time. No more working unpaid overtime, no more working on weekends here and there.

I'm also using sick leave more because I don't want to go into the office sick, and I have an invisible autoimmune disorder which makes it easier for me to catch viruses, with everyone else coming into work half sick. It is what it is.

Of course I am looking for a remote position on my lunch break, so time to get back to the search!

Maybe for off the clock people Govt drones and the non-exempt people dont every work over time. They do save on commute. But you dont get more work

[Anonymous]

There was no work life balance before 2020. We were all exhausted and stressed to the brink with the madness of commuting. And now life is much harder and more expensive. And it’s 2025…we are going backwards for no reason. Bring back telework for anyone who has a job that can telework. It’s good for everyone. For society as a whole.

[Anonymous]

And the whole be grateful for a job thing is so mean. No need to say that at all. People who have jobs already know this. And no it isn’t easy to just “go look for another job”. Be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did you do pre 2020? People commuted to the office every day. Kids went to daycare. Parents came home, made dinner, helped with homework. It’s life.

I was teleworking two days a week like the majority of government employees.

I telecommuted 3 days a week for a decade before Covid came on the scene in 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was no work life balance before 2020. We were all exhausted and stressed to the brink with the madness of commuting. And now life is much harder and more expensive. And it’s 2025…we are going backwards for no reason. Bring back telework for anyone who has a job that can telework. It’s good for everyone. For society as a whole.

there was tons of work life balance pre -2020. I would think you have to go back to pre 1990 at earliest to have no work life balance Most people under 60 have never worked a real work week in their life. It was horrible at work in the 1970s and 1980s. Most have never seen it pre computers and automation where you were processing massive amount of work by being at work 12-13 hours a day with no breaks with people cursing and blowing smoke in your fact in a suit and tie or business suit with pantyhose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The traffic; the schedule; the hardship on my family (my kids!!). This is just awful.

How can trump do this to us?? I mean, just WHY??!?

My spouse has been RTO 4 days since early 2022 and 3 days since 2021.

Be grateful you have a job. I know people who were laid off and our of work for months, one 12 months and had to take whatever they could get.

If you are unhappy look for a new role or move closer in. We have a small house that is close to work. We did not move to a bigger one far away during Covid.

What about you, PP? What is your work schedule like? Are you also in the office 4-5 days a week?