Reply to DMV Feds only - is your agency still struggling with WFH policy?

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[quote=Anonymous]To answer OP’s question, my office within my agency isn’t struggling.  We are required to come in once weekly, but sometimes staff comes in two or three times a week depending on whether there are meetings with members of the public or other events to attend off campus.

For example, I’ll do a full day in town once a week, but maybe come in for a few hours another day, too, if there’s something going on.  A lot of my work depends on networking so I come in as needed. When I’m in, I often work more than 8 hours because I have to go out and socialize or attend functions “after work” etc.

Meetings with colleagues are usually on Teams and more productive since we can more efficiently collaborate on work product with our computers in front of us.  The chit chat and socialization comes during days in (which is fine, but is a time suck that should be limited) and we have plenty of social gatherings after work so people tend to want to be in office in those days.

The most irritating thing is trying to account for time and attendance — am I in the office if I’m in town to attend an event? Or is that remote? Am I teleworking a full day at home if I leave home for a few hours to meet a stakeholder for coffee? It’s just accounting not management, so I do my best.  Tracking hours for salaried professionals is stupid anyway.

We’ve had maximum flexibility and it works well for our team.  It might not work well for every team out there, but most of our work is done independently and the things that require coordination are easily accomplished remotely. I hear we may be required to come in 2x per week and that would probably work for us too.

3x is pushing it given the inefficiencies of time and costs to employees. I know I personally need 2-3 days of quiet focused time every week—in my case, that is best achieved at home, often early in the morning and late at night.  Others get that at the office assuming too many people aren’t in at the same time.  I also appreciate the flexibility to get in enough daylight and exercise to keep my stress low so I don’t have a health crisis that turns into lots of sick leave—it’s a real concern and managers are underestimating the savings there.

It’s not like we have a ton of wasted space so I don’t think we need to change much.  Our offices are tiny boxes and we have no communal space. I think it would be good to repurpose the space into more meeting space and hot desk situations, but there’s a generational divide on that.  Some of the older staff really like paper files—bordering on hoarding.[/quote]

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