New OPM memo on RTO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you people saying you are going to cart your laptop back and forth - just DONT. Personally, I have back pain and can't do this. They are just going to have to deal that if I am not in the office, they aren't getting any work out of me. I am not lugging my computer equipment back and forth on the metro.

Heck I’m not even taking my work IPhone home. I hope my industry enjoys everything taking 2x as long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's almost 5pm. We were all told to report on Monday and figure out seating arrangements at that time. Oh well folks, the writings are on the wall for some of us. There are only 29 seats for a staff of 50+. I guess we all will be cozy in conference rooms.

Wow your agency is doing the MOST. Do they think they’ll get a gold star for exceeding what’s required?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

Most of us have childcare. PP doesn’t represent most feds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Telework can be provided for weather-related emergencies, office closures, and other situations where telework serves a compelling agency need.”

So we do have to bring laptops home everyday? Worst of all worlds.

I have a desktop in the office and a laptop for TW. Did you always work on a laptop?

Lots of places only give you a laptop and docking station at the office.

Usually you just bring your laptop home if there is a chance of inclement weather. That’s what I did when I was in a similar work situation about a decade ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

RTO is the equivalent of forcing the use of a fax machine. You had to commute and put your kids in aftercare- congratulations! 🎉. Happy for you! 🥹.

None of that is necessary now. We have the technology to do our work from home and save the government a ton of money and it’s time to move on.

My husband will stay remote regardless but “I did it the old way” is a Neanderthal mentality. We don’t have to inconvenience ourselves for people who don’t understand that I don’t need to be in a cubicle in a rat infested building in order to be productive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

I was hired fully remote last year and I turned down another non-fed fully remote offer. You can think it was temporary, but some of us made recent employment decisions on the basis of being told explicitly that it wasn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

RTO is the equivalent of forcing the use of a fax machine. You had to commute and put your kids in aftercare- congratulations! 🎉. Happy for you! 🥹.

None of that is necessary now. We have the technology to do our work from home and save the government a ton of money and it’s time to move on.

My husband will stay remote regardless but “I did it the old way” is a Neanderthal mentality. We don’t have to inconvenience ourselves for people who don’t understand that I don’t need to be in a cubicle in a rat infested building in order to be productive.

Nah, it’s more the hand-wringing and crying that it’ll be next to impossible to work in-person if you have young kids. When many of us did just that without *any* TW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Telework can be provided for weather-related emergencies, office closures, and other situations where telework serves a compelling agency need.”

So we do have to bring laptops home everyday? Worst of all worlds.

I have a desktop in the office and a laptop for TW. Did you always work on a laptop?

Lots of places only give you a laptop and docking station at the office.

Usually you just bring your laptop home if there is a chance of inclement weather. That’s what I did when I was in a similar work situation about a decade ago.

I won’t though. why should I? I can catch up on industry developments with some articles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

I was hired fully remote last year and I turned down another non-fed fully remote offer. You can think it was temporary, but some of us made recent employment decisions on the basis of being told explicitly that it wasn't.

We hired people totally remotely for years now. The whole "can't rely on this", we hired people who live in other states. I do expect most of them to quit and I don't blame them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

RTO is the equivalent of forcing the use of a fax machine. You had to commute and put your kids in aftercare- congratulations! 🎉. Happy for you! 🥹.

None of that is necessary now. We have the technology to do our work from home and save the government a ton of money and it’s time to move on.

My husband will stay remote regardless but “I did it the old way” is a Neanderthal mentality. We don’t have to inconvenience ourselves for people who don’t understand that I don’t need to be in a cubicle in a rat infested building in order to be productive.

Nah, it’s more the hand-wringing and crying that it’ll be next to impossible to work in-person if you have young kids. When many of us did just that without *any* TW.

Well pin a rose on your nose!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

RTO is the equivalent of forcing the use of a fax machine. You had to commute and put your kids in aftercare- congratulations! 🎉. Happy for you! 🥹.

None of that is necessary now. We have the technology to do our work from home and save the government a ton of money and it’s time to move on.

My husband will stay remote regardless but “I did it the old way” is a Neanderthal mentality. We don’t have to inconvenience ourselves for people who don’t understand that I don’t need to be in a cubicle in a rat infested building in order to be productive.

Nah, it’s more the hand-wringing and crying that it’ll be next to impossible to work in-person if you have young kids. When many of us did just that without *any* TW.

I know this is difficult for you to understand but not everything in the world is about you.

I know you probably resent the fact that remote workers enjoy more time with their families and just doing the things they love to do while being totally productive at work. It’s actually a positive for my children and society that they can come home from school, open the door, and find me there, working but still able to kiss them hello and ask them about their day.

Once you realize that life can be so much better and that you can get the same or even more work done, of course you don’t want to go back to commuting, packing sad lunch, and smelling your cubicle neighbor’s farts all day. Don’t let your base jealousy make you dumb. Try to want better for other people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

Please stop with this. My husband teleworked 3 days a week pre-covid and we are 40 miles from his office. His agency has been allowing this for 15+ years. He would gladly go back 2 days a week, but the requirement to go full time really is archaic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

RTO is the equivalent of forcing the use of a fax machine. You had to commute and put your kids in aftercare- congratulations! 🎉. Happy for you! 🥹.

None of that is necessary now. We have the technology to do our work from home and save the government a ton of money and it’s time to move on.

My husband will stay remote regardless but “I did it the old way” is a Neanderthal mentality. We don’t have to inconvenience ourselves for people who don’t understand that I don’t need to be in a cubicle in a rat infested building in order to be productive.

Nah, it’s more the hand-wringing and crying that it’ll be next to impossible to work in-person if you have young kids. When many of us did just that without *any* TW.

Telework is not new. I’ve been able to telework for 20 years as a fed. So excuse me if I signed my kid up for a sport that starts at 5 on the day I am allowed to telework because my day would be well over by that point.

What I didn’t have was paid maternity leave. Do I begrudge my newer, younger cws for getting a benefit I would have loved to have? No, it’s called progress. Good for them that they don’t have to burn their annual leave to care for their newborn and come back to nothing and then scramble when you infant inevitably gets sick on day two of daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like that it has been radio silence so far today, apparently from all departments and agencies. It feels like they're going to drop something awful right at COB.

That’s the expectation. They have until 5pm and I suspect most agencies need all of that time to get it figured out and to be able to address as many questions as they can in the communication (e.g. what happens to remote people beyond 50 miles, medical accommodations, hired under a remote agreement, etc).

I bet a LOT of people will stay online late today! I feel bad for supervisors who are going to be inundated.

From my sources in our director's office, the email that will come out today is just going to say: "We got the EO and OPM memos. We plan to comply. Further directions to come later." You are very unlikely to get anything meaningful today. There is so much to sift thru, from CBA obligations, to real estate, to IT support, to people who were hired remote, etc. It's not happening today.

I read the EO to permit what you're describing. It only requires agencies to revise their telework plans to comply with the EO by 5 p.m. It doesn't require them to transmit anything to employees other than the text of the EO and a statement that the agency intends to comply with it.

On the other hand, if all they have to send us is those two things, why wait until the end of the day?

This is essentially the email that Treasury sent out this morning. It stated that Treasury is still evaluating how the EO will apply to its employees. It also noted that employees will receive notice before any changes in their telework or remote work status are implemented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a child care center and our phone is ringing off the hook today.

This makes me want to cry.

Many of us are planning on working 6-2:30 or 7-3:30 so we can spend more time with our kids. Typically my work would hate that (I work with California) but I dgaf.

DH drops the kids off in the morning and I'll get off work earlier to get them.

How do you think the rest of us raised our children? This is why so many of us non-Feds just can't get on board with all this upset. 100% teleoworkforce was never ever the goal. It was temporary and I can't understand how so many people didn't understand that.

You again.