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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]During the pandemic all these downtown businesses got lavish bailouts like PPP, etc. And now years later they still want even more subsidies? The world has moved on and nobody with a computer needs to commute anymore. Time for these laggards to adjust, or else we should also bring back the horse and carriage industry - fair is fair.[/quote]

Let me try this..

"During the pandemic these downtown workers got extreme flexibilities to stay at home and even got checks in the mail from the government with no strings attached.  And now years later they still want these benefits?  The world has moved on and there is no need to stay separated at home anymore.  Time for people to adjust, or else we should all keep movie theaters and restaurants and churches closed- fair is fair."[/quote]

Here, lets try this:

Workers in the US and around the world have effectively shown that they can successfully work from home.  It isn't employees responsibility to support failing businesses who refuse to change their business model to reflect the changes.  Likewise, some people have immune compromised family members and forcing them back into the office, can greatly impact that family members health.  If an employee is under preforming, they should be terminated.[/quote]

NP. I disagree with your premise. WFH 100% was an extreme struggle in the beginning, then we limped along and eventually got better at it. But then as time wore on, it got harder again. [b]New employees came on and basically crashed and burned. They had no contacts, couldn't reach people, couldn't get their work done and didn't integrate well. People just don't network well remotely.[/b] Almost 4 years later, about 30% of our office is new hires since 2020. We don't have adequate fed collaboration tools. And the ones we do have? They're FOIAable. Who wants new reporters reading every chat they wrote to coworkers?

[b]Fed managers also have pretty much no tools to get their employees to get their work done remotely. I did put people on PIPs but it was a full time job. Whereas in person PIPs are much easier to manage. Fed managers can't see if their employees are working. We often have long term deliverables. Bob says he's working SO hard (and even shows a few docs/pages complete)! But then completely drops the ball and you don't find out until certain drafts are due. [/b]

So to say that feds should RTO, it's not the same as private sector RTO. Private sector can fire very easily. [/quote]

np, I see what you are saying and i don't disagree with some of it but... [b]training new staff is your job, not mine.[/b] why should i spend two hours every day just because you didn't plan your job correctly? Your entire second paragraph is, again, your job too. The fact you are unable to handle your staff, shouldn't be my problem. you need to move on from "i have to SEE you to MANAGE you" approach. Those days are done and gone. [/quote]

Actually it's not. Welcoming new staff is everyone's job. I even assign different tasks to each one of my employees to train the new employee on. This lets them all meet the new employee too. Most of what my new hires struggle with is meeting contacts (needed for their jobs) in other divisions. I don't manage those other divisions and can't force them to play well in the sandbox.[/quote]

So then make a RTO plan that is based on actual need, not just some arbitrary schedule that is clearly being swayed by external economic interests.

For instance, we have new hires onboarding on X date. We need 2 people on-site from X date - X date for training/mentoring and we will be doing a large group all hands meeting on X date.

My DH is private sector at a large organization and this is how his office works. He actually doesn’t mind the days he goes in because he knows he will see people he works with and there is a defined reason to be in-person. It’s a nice break from being at home and isn’t just forced RTO because the powers that be need him to buy a sandwich. In fact his office usually caters lunch and even sends packaged snacks/treats home, which obviously government can’t do. But this goes more to the point that private sector RTO is not comparable to fed gov RTO in that benefits and perks are better with private offices.

The thing most people are objecting to is the broad spectrum everyone must be in office 2-3 days/week regardless of work tasks, and then sitting in a cubicle (or small office if you’re lucky) in some old decrepit federal building just to call into a Teams meeting you could have taken from the comfort of your nice home office seems punitive and like it’s about something beyond accomplishing job duties.

During the pandemic my agency actually asked for volunteers to handle certain in-office workloads (that we knew truly could not be done virtually) and we had sufficient coverage. Those people went on to be given monetary awards, which is 100% appropriate. Everyone was ok with it because it wasn’t an arbitrary across the board decision.[/quote]

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