Any other agencies increasing telework flexibilities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

DP but even little kids don’t need to be constantly minded. They can be trained to entertain themselves for an hour or two between 3:30 and when parents finish working. That is not neglect.

A lot of families were hurt by RTO not because of needing actual childcare, but because of transportation issues.

Yeah no thanks. Leaving at 2 so you can “work” from 3:30-4:30 while caring for your young kids is not feasible.

Exactly. These people aren’t working. They’re taking the afternoon off, on the clock, to watch their kids. It’s not fair and has effectively ruined telework for everyone else.

If kids are in middle school or high school and had bus service available, no one would blink about them being home alone. What is the difference between them being home alone while a parent works at the office and them minding themselves while a parent sits in a room in the house with the door closed and WORKS.

So many of you are just sour grapes losers. OR-maybe more likely- you are someone who cheats every chance you get so you can't conceive that there are many people who can do these things and not abuse the privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

DP but even little kids don’t need to be constantly minded. They can be trained to entertain themselves for an hour or two between 3:30 and when parents finish working. That is not neglect.

A lot of families were hurt by RTO not because of needing actual childcare, but because of transportation issues.

But that’s their own fault. Nobody is forcing these people to live hours away from the office. Most people bought homes pre-pandemic and have plenty of equity to move closer to work. They’re just too lazy, holding onto that 2% rate when they should realistically move and let somebody else enjoy that house. And that’s what it is, a house. It’s not a HoMe or a “forever home” or some other BS that’s been sold by realtors since 2020 to get people to overpay for housing.

Live near where you work, with an easy commute. This is the #1 rule for finding housing and how to live a life without being stressed out. Too many people moved far away when they were only on a telework agreement (not remote) and now they’re complaining about their own poor decisions.

Ignoring that many people can’t afford to live close to work and don’t have a 100k free a year to throw at private schools for 2 kids….

All of this is likely temporary. You’d be a fool to give up a low rate mortgage in a good school district for this administration. In the coming years telework will likely be reintroduced. Even a day or two a week is a game changer. It’s one thing to commute in 5 days a week and another thing 3 days.

Also consider that not everyone plans to work for their current employer forever. It would be stupid to relocate closer in and then end up changing jobs with a commute the opposite direction or no commute at all.

+1

This is unsustainable. You cannot have low pay, unimpressive benefits, and crappy working conditions and yet continue to attract a competent workforce. And the Trump administration is not making the kinds of aggressive cuts to government services that they promised, so we will continue to need higher staffing levels to manage the workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

DP but even little kids don’t need to be constantly minded. They can be trained to entertain themselves for an hour or two between 3:30 and when parents finish working. That is not neglect.

A lot of families were hurt by RTO not because of needing actual childcare, but because of transportation issues.

But that’s their own fault. Nobody is forcing these people to live hours away from the office. Most people bought homes pre-pandemic and have plenty of equity to move closer to work. They’re just too lazy, holding onto that 2% rate when they should realistically move and let somebody else enjoy that house. And that’s what it is, a house. It’s not a HoMe or a “forever home” or some other BS that’s been sold by realtors since 2020 to get people to overpay for housing.

Live near where you work, with an easy commute. This is the #1 rule for finding housing and how to live a life without being stressed out. Too many people moved far away when they were only on a telework agreement (not remote) and now they’re complaining about their own poor decisions.

Ignoring that many people can’t afford to live close to work and don’t have a 100k free a year to throw at private schools for 2 kids….

All of this is likely temporary. You’d be a fool to give up a low rate mortgage in a good school district for this administration. In the coming years telework will likely be reintroduced. Even a day or two a week is a game changer. It’s one thing to commute in 5 days a week and another thing 3 days.

Also consider that not everyone plans to work for their current employer forever. It would be stupid to relocate closer in and then end up changing jobs with a commute the opposite direction or no commute at all.

+1

This is unsustainable. You cannot have low pay, unimpressive benefits, and crappy working conditions and yet continue to attract a competent workforce. And the Trump administration is not making the kinds of aggressive cuts to government services that they promised, so we will continue to need higher staffing levels to manage the workload.

I think you’re right. Many people are leaving or have left for the exact reason of RTO. Telework likely to quietly return as is the easiest change to make.

[Anonymous]

My spouse at FDA now has 50% telework

[Anonymous]

My agency just told everyone the bearings will continue until morale improves. No full days of telework. I’ve lost amazing employees, and for some reason can’t seem to get the problem children to move on. They’re doing a heck of a job destroying things!

As far as split schedules go they are useless for those of us that don’t need to be home before and after school. And for those that DO need to be home before and after school, I have real concerns about whether or not they’re actually working. It’s a grueling day commuting two ways and then logging back in?? Why would I stretch my day out to 12 hours plus?!!! We need to let people have a day or two at home every pay period , at the very least—people are taking so much leave and are unavailable because we aren’t meeting them halfway. I’m just so disheartened by all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

Well considering their kids are in before and after care, it sounds like they are school aged and not being supervised all day. Relax, most parents don’t want to work and care give. We did that during COVID and it was awful.

However, a school day is generally ~7 hours. With the bus, our kids are out of the house 8:15-4:00. With no commute and 2 parents teleworking, we were able to stagger hours and our kids didn’t have to spend extra time in childcare. I used to work 7:30-4. DH would work 8:30-5. Occasionally we’d mix things around if one of us had a meeting/deadline/doctor’s appt or whatever.

The beauty of telework is being able to flex your schedule. I would often get up and work like 5-7 am, get the kids off to school, and then work 830 or 9 to 3 or 330 pm. Kids get home at 4 so I never needed before or after care. I'd do something similar on days I had doctors appointments or school events or whatever, but started even earlier in the morning so I didn't even need to take any leave unless I left town. My agency got so much work out of me. People are just jealous of that kind of flexibility is what it comes down to.

Right. as long as you are being reasonable with the flexing and not refusing to meet after 3pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

Well considering their kids are in before and after care, it sounds like they are school aged and not being supervised all day. Relax, most parents don’t want to work and care give. We did that during COVID and it was awful.

However, a school day is generally ~7 hours. With the bus, our kids are out of the house 8:15-4:00. With no commute and 2 parents teleworking, we were able to stagger hours and our kids didn’t have to spend extra time in childcare. I used to work 7:30-4. DH would work 8:30-5. Occasionally we’d mix things around if one of us had a meeting/deadline/doctor’s appt or whatever.

The beauty of telework is being able to flex your schedule. I would often get up and work like 5-7 am, get the kids off to school, and then work 830 or 9 to 3 or 330 pm. Kids get home at 4 so I never needed before or after care. I'd do something similar on days I had doctors appointments or school events or whatever, but started even earlier in the morning so I didn't even need to take any leave unless I left town. My agency got so much work out of me. People are just jealous of that kind of flexibility is what it comes down to.

Right. as long as you are being reasonable with the flexing and not refusing to meet after 3pm.

This is a management issue, not a telework issue. I’ve never heard of a worker refusing late meetings when there is a genuine reason for them— time zone issues, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse at FDA now has 50% telework

Is your spouse a doctor?

Are non-doctors getting routine telework?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My spouse at FDA now has 50% telework

Is your spouse a doctor?

Are non-doctors getting routine telework?

I know a lot of FDA workers and it appears many are 50% telework- not all are doctors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

Well considering their kids are in before and after care, it sounds like they are school aged and not being supervised all day. Relax, most parents don’t want to work and care give. We did that during COVID and it was awful.

However, a school day is generally ~7 hours. With the bus, our kids are out of the house 8:15-4:00. With no commute and 2 parents teleworking, we were able to stagger hours and our kids didn’t have to spend extra time in childcare. I used to work 7:30-4. DH would work 8:30-5. Occasionally we’d mix things around if one of us had a meeting/deadline/doctor’s appt or whatever.

The beauty of telework is being able to flex your schedule. I would often get up and work like 5-7 am, get the kids off to school, and then work 830 or 9 to 3 or 330 pm. Kids get home at 4 so I never needed before or after care. I'd do something similar on days I had doctors appointments or school events or whatever, but started even earlier in the morning so I didn't even need to take any leave unless I left town. My agency got so much work out of me. People are just jealous of that kind of flexibility is what it comes down to.

Right. as long as you are being reasonable with the flexing and not refusing to meet after 3pm.

This is a management issue, not a telework issue. I’ve never heard of a worker refusing late meetings when there is a genuine reason for them— time zone issues, etc.

If you leave at 3 you’re going to get left off a lot of projects and conversations that happen within normal work hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

DP but even little kids don’t need to be constantly minded. They can be trained to entertain themselves for an hour or two between 3:30 and when parents finish working. That is not neglect.

A lot of families were hurt by RTO not because of needing actual childcare, but because of transportation issues.

Yeah no thanks. Leaving at 2 so you can “work” from 3:30-4:30 while caring for your young kids is not feasible.

Exactly. These people aren’t working. They’re taking the afternoon off, on the clock, to watch their kids. It’s not fair and has effectively ruined telework for everyone else.

This, even if true, is NOT why telework was “ruined”, and we all know that.

+1. They want people to quit, that's all it is. They don't care about TW and they certainly didn't care about it during Trump 1. All the evidence you need that they don't care whether people TW or not is that ICE is hiring remote workers. That's right, the agency they like is hiring remote workers. They want to make things unpleasant for people in the other agencies so people will quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

Well considering their kids are in before and after care, it sounds like they are school aged and not being supervised all day. Relax, most parents don’t want to work and care give. We did that during COVID and it was awful.

However, a school day is generally ~7 hours. With the bus, our kids are out of the house 8:15-4:00. With no commute and 2 parents teleworking, we were able to stagger hours and our kids didn’t have to spend extra time in childcare. I used to work 7:30-4. DH would work 8:30-5. Occasionally we’d mix things around if one of us had a meeting/deadline/doctor’s appt or whatever.

The beauty of telework is being able to flex your schedule. I would often get up and work like 5-7 am, get the kids off to school, and then work 830 or 9 to 3 or 330 pm. Kids get home at 4 so I never needed before or after care. I'd do something similar on days I had doctors appointments or school events or whatever, but started even earlier in the morning so I didn't even need to take any leave unless I left town. My agency got so much work out of me. People are just jealous of that kind of flexibility is what it comes down to.

Right. as long as you are being reasonable with the flexing and not refusing to meet after 3pm.

Meetings can be scheduled during core hours. It’s not my job to accommodate your inefficiency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

Well considering their kids are in before and after care, it sounds like they are school aged and not being supervised all day. Relax, most parents don’t want to work and care give. We did that during COVID and it was awful.

However, a school day is generally ~7 hours. With the bus, our kids are out of the house 8:15-4:00. With no commute and 2 parents teleworking, we were able to stagger hours and our kids didn’t have to spend extra time in childcare. I used to work 7:30-4. DH would work 8:30-5. Occasionally we’d mix things around if one of us had a meeting/deadline/doctor’s appt or whatever.

The beauty of telework is being able to flex your schedule. I would often get up and work like 5-7 am, get the kids off to school, and then work 830 or 9 to 3 or 330 pm. Kids get home at 4 so I never needed before or after care. I'd do something similar on days I had doctors appointments or school events or whatever, but started even earlier in the morning so I didn't even need to take any leave unless I left town. My agency got so much work out of me. People are just jealous of that kind of flexibility is what it comes down to.

Right. as long as you are being reasonable with the flexing and not refusing to meet after 3pm.

This is a management issue, not a telework issue. I’ve never heard of a worker refusing late meetings when there is a genuine reason for them— time zone issues, etc.

If you leave at 3 you’re going to get left off a lot of projects and conversations that happen within normal work hours.

Depends on your agency. At mine, core hours are 9:30 to 3:30, and the majority of employees go for the 7:00 am to 3:30 pm workday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, and it is terrible. We had been going in 2x a week and 1x a week, respectively, so one parent was always home to walk the dog and pick up kids. Now our children are in beforecare as well as aftercare and we have a dog walker so we can be on Zoom or Teams meetings all day in our offices.

So who watched your kids while you were teleworking? You can’t supervise kids who belong in daycare and work at the same time. So you either ripped off the taxpayer with illegal childcare, or neglected your kids.

Well considering their kids are in before and after care, it sounds like they are school aged and not being supervised all day. Relax, most parents don’t want to work and care give. We did that during COVID and it was awful.

However, a school day is generally ~7 hours. With the bus, our kids are out of the house 8:15-4:00. With no commute and 2 parents teleworking, we were able to stagger hours and our kids didn’t have to spend extra time in childcare. I used to work 7:30-4. DH would work 8:30-5. Occasionally we’d mix things around if one of us had a meeting/deadline/doctor’s appt or whatever.

The beauty of telework is being able to flex your schedule. I would often get up and work like 5-7 am, get the kids off to school, and then work 830 or 9 to 3 or 330 pm. Kids get home at 4 so I never needed before or after care. I'd do something similar on days I had doctors appointments or school events or whatever, but started even earlier in the morning so I didn't even need to take any leave unless I left town. My agency got so much work out of me. People are just jealous of that kind of flexibility is what it comes down to.

Right. as long as you are being reasonable with the flexing and not refusing to meet after 3pm.

This is a management issue, not a telework issue. I’ve never heard of a worker refusing late meetings when there is a genuine reason for them— time zone issues, etc.

It's a telework issue in that I'm not available after I leave the building unless I can telework. Be flexible with me so that I can be flexible with you.
I work 6:30 to 3:00 because I'm on calls that start at 7 a.m. I can't also join your 4 p.m. meeting unless something gives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My agency just told everyone the bearings will continue until morale improves. No full days of telework. I’ve lost amazing employees, and for some reason can’t seem to get the problem children to move on. They’re doing a heck of a job destroying things!

As far as split schedules go they are useless for those of us that don’t need to be home before and after school. And for those that DO need to be home before and after school, I have real concerns about whether or not they’re actually working. It’s a grueling day commuting two ways and then logging back in?? Why would I stretch my day out to 12 hours plus?!!! We need to let people have a day or two at home every pay period , at the very least—people are taking so much leave and are unavailable because we aren’t meeting them halfway. I’m just so disheartened by all of this.

NP. My agency is headquartered in the suburbs and most of us have very short commutes. Split schedules would not be an issue since most of us have under 15 min commutes. My issue is that there's been a lot of issues with my kids' public school schedule and it's always last minute. Since Thanksgiving every week there's "aftercare cancelled for today! Kids should just go home their regularly scheduled way." (wtf school?? The regular is that she goes to aftercare!) Or that school is ending early after the holiday party, make sure to pick your kids up. I have the leave and I don't mind using it, but work minds.

Work is unhappy I can't be on meetings later, but I would gladly be on meetings if telework was allowed. I can't be on 7am meetings and also be on 5pm meetings. I used to do this when telework was allowed, but no way am I working 11 hour days in the office to accommodate that without telework.