Reply to New OPM memo on RTO

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "New OPM memo on RTO"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't have school aged kids before telework so what did people do? Did people put their kids in before/aftercare/camps/school for 10 hours a day? How did people find time for extracurriculars if elementary kids are in aftercare until 5:30-6? [/quote]

My kids were not yet school aged when COVID started so they were still in daycare/preschool. But even before COVID DH and I both teleworked multiple days per week so that at least one of us was home. Usually the commuting spouse would do morning drop off since they had to head out anyway and then the teleworking parent would do pickup so the kids didn’t have to be there past 5.

I think a lot of parents of school aged kids teleworked at least hybrid before COVID. It’s not like March 2020 marked the invention of WAH. For those who need longer hours, they use aftercare, but staffing has gotten harder in the childcare sector so spots are limited with long waitlists. Or maybe if you’re lucky you can find a martial arts type place that has a van to do school pickup and take them to do activities.

I also think a lot of the parents were just not in the workforce or were underemployed. I guess this administration thinks that is preferable to go back to.

My kids a now in extracurriculars starting as early as 4:30/5. To keep them in we’d have to take leave some days, use carpools, stagger hours, not really sure yet … thankfully my DH’s private sector job has been remote since 2018 and his colleagues are scattered across the country with no office to go to, so I guess he would have to take on more of the kid shuffling at home if I go back 5 days (holding out hope my agency’s CBA holds). I would try to jump ship out of government quickly though if forced to commute 5 days/week.[/quote]

The schedule and juggling you describe is very normal. My husband is 5x/week and I am remote and do more juggling, but I can’t do it all while working during the day, so we have a nanny who helps after school with driving while I am working. Millions of people do this and it is not fun, but it is the norm. [/quote]

Millions of people do not have nannies who shuttle their kids around. This whole response is very “let them eat cake.”

And to people saying this is how it was done before and families managed, yes I agree. They managed because there was no other option. But now technology has advanced in a way that provides life improvements for employees and more efficiencies for employers (e.g. having people available after hours, when sick, on snow days, etc.). But we are going back in time because … it’s not fair to the people who have in-person jobs and because they want to demoralize us and make us quit. Those are *literally* the reasons that this administration has cited.

It’s like all of a sudden we’re being made to resort to faxes and inter office memos. Of course people managed before there was email, but then society advanced and it would be stupid to go backwards. Especially for the “reasons” this administration has cited.

And it’s not even just RTO. It’s the insinuation by the nation’s president that the federal workforce is lazy and has not been working hard the past 5 years. That’s insulting and frankly dangerous propaganda. Regardless of how you feel about telework, the entire demeanor of how it is being handled is sketchy as hell.[/quote]

There is a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed in the Federal workforce.  I am married to a Fed and he agrees.  Lots of hardworkers but also a lot of fluff and people just coasting.  Unfortunately, the coasters aren't going to be the ones cut through the process. They'll keep hanging on with their barnacles. [/quote]
Federal pay roll has been effectively flat since 1975. There is no fat.[/quote]

Sure there is.  Even on this forum there are people saying they can do their work in X and it stinks they have to be at their desk for 8hrs. If they're that efficient, they should take one someone else's job because guaranteed there are others who can do their work in less than an 8hr work day.
[/quote]

If you take your worldview from anonymous anecdotes on an Internet forum, I fear for your work outputs.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics