Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 08:17     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:OP it's not worth posting on this forum on this issue. It's just taken over by people telling you feds are lazy or whatever.

Any reasonable person with any familiarity with the system would agree that no one expected TW to become much more restrictive than it was pre-Covid. That's it.


I agree. But I agree with you OP. And fwiw we have already lost talented people to new jobs w hybrid schedules.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 08:12     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
It’s great to be back at the office. We were beginning to feel like recluses. Such a great feeling to get up and get out! The traffic is fine. Make a coffee to go and listen to the radio on the way in and out. It helps to decompress the day. It’s a mind set.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 07:38     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
OP it's not worth posting on this forum on this issue. It's just taken over by people telling you feds are lazy or whatever.

Any reasonable person with any familiarity with the system would agree that no one expected TW to become much more restrictive than it was pre-Covid. That's it.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 06:57     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Maybe women or men should “lean out” if they have young kids and can’t handle full time work,

Not a coincidence that when the dual income household started home prices quickly doubled and things such as lawn service, take out food, maids, cable TV, two car households, vs auto d on a plane started as well as private school, child care, summer camps, Starbucks, on line shopping, joining gyms, paying to have hair hi lighted.

Somehow people on two incomes manage to make less than people on one income if they have kids.

Having it all is a lie



Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 06:50     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The fight against telework is like the fight against allowing women into the workplace in the first place. There were ups and downs, some industries worse than others, forward progress and occasional backward progress, but in the end, you can’t put the cat back into the bag. I’m not saying that full remote work for everyone whose job can support it is the future, but some level of remote work, probably a hybrid arrangement, is likely to become the norm over the next 5-10 years. Covid was a rapid accelerant on the change, and now there’s a bit of backlash to how rapid the change was, but over time it will normalize.

Unfortunately for those of us who work for the federal government, our dear leader and his cronies have realized that, although in a less obviously offensive way, turning back the clock of progress will force some people to quit, which is their ultimate goal. There’s no notion of fairness, efficiency, or cost-savings here — it’s purely a tactic to force people, particularly those who have already seen how they can be just as effective, more efficient, and happier with some level of telework (whether a few days a pay period or more), to quit.
The party is over. The employees were not just as effective or more efficient. We had a good run at it for 5 years but now it’s over.


My coworkers are sharing desks and conference rooms and being assigned to locations without wifi. To the extent this has anything to do with efficiency, the point is to make things less efficient.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 06:39     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The fight against telework is like the fight against allowing women into the workplace in the first place. There were ups and downs, some industries worse than others, forward progress and occasional backward progress, but in the end, you can’t put the cat back into the bag. I’m not saying that full remote work for everyone whose job can support it is the future, but some level of remote work, probably a hybrid arrangement, is likely to become the norm over the next 5-10 years. Covid was a rapid accelerant on the change, and now there’s a bit of backlash to how rapid the change was, but over time it will normalize.

Unfortunately for those of us who work for the federal government, our dear leader and his cronies have realized that, although in a less obviously offensive way, turning back the clock of progress will force some people to quit, which is their ultimate goal. There’s no notion of fairness, efficiency, or cost-savings here — it’s purely a tactic to force people, particularly those who have already seen how they can be just as effective, more efficient, and happier with some level of telework (whether a few days a pay period or more), to quit.
The party is over. The employees were not just as effective or more efficient. We had a good run at it for 5 years but now it’s over.


You can't paint a broad brush like that. My office had concrete work productivity metrics, measured both individually and collectively on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis. Yet we are recalled to the office, only to have the same figures. It's literally a waste of money for the employer and a waste of time for the employee.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 06:27     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:The fight against telework is like the fight against allowing women into the workplace in the first place. There were ups and downs, some industries worse than others, forward progress and occasional backward progress, but in the end, you can’t put the cat back into the bag. I’m not saying that full remote work for everyone whose job can support it is the future, but some level of remote work, probably a hybrid arrangement, is likely to become the norm over the next 5-10 years. Covid was a rapid accelerant on the change, and now there’s a bit of backlash to how rapid the change was, but over time it will normalize.

Unfortunately for those of us who work for the federal government, our dear leader and his cronies have realized that, although in a less obviously offensive way, turning back the clock of progress will force some people to quit, which is their ultimate goal. There’s no notion of fairness, efficiency, or cost-savings here — it’s purely a tactic to force people, particularly those who have already seen how they can be just as effective, more efficient, and happier with some level of telework (whether a few days a pay period or more), to quit.
The party is over. The employees were not just as effective or more efficient. We had a good run at it for 5 years but now it’s over.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 06:01     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
The fight against telework is like the fight against allowing women into the workplace in the first place. There were ups and downs, some industries worse than others, forward progress and occasional backward progress, but in the end, you can’t put the cat back into the bag. I’m not saying that full remote work for everyone whose job can support it is the future, but some level of remote work, probably a hybrid arrangement, is likely to become the norm over the next 5-10 years. Covid was a rapid accelerant on the change, and now there’s a bit of backlash to how rapid the change was, but over time it will normalize.

Unfortunately for those of us who work for the federal government, our dear leader and his cronies have realized that, although in a less obviously offensive way, turning back the clock of progress will force some people to quit, which is their ultimate goal. There’s no notion of fairness, efficiency, or cost-savings here — it’s purely a tactic to force people, particularly those who have already seen how they can be just as effective, more efficient, and happier with some level of telework (whether a few days a pay period or more), to quit.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 05:55     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those who insist on terminating TW are usually old men, people without children, or those who never did much childrearing. This generation of parents actually wants to spend time with their kids, we want to be able to cook a home cook meal several times a week, and see them after work for more than an hour, we don't want to be shitty/absent parents. TW simply gives us two hours of our lives back (at least!), time we can dedicate to our families and not commuting.

We are the generation that deeply understands why birthrates are going down. A society that refuses to support parents is doomed, young people will look at us and say "hard pass".


I’m a teacher and can’t stay at home. I rather resent the notion that I’m a “shitty/absent parent” because of my job.


Do you work 8-9 hour days and commute 4 hours a day? Do you perhaps have some leave you can use over the summer or holidays?
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 05:54     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those who insist on terminating TW are usually old men, people without children, or those who never did much childrearing. This generation of parents actually wants to spend time with their kids, we want to be able to cook a home cook meal several times a week, and see them after work for more than an hour, we don't want to be shitty/absent parents.


In previous generations a lot of parents felt the same way and solved the problem with part time work or a stay at home parent.


Sure but now that isn’t necessary due to technology.

Think about what you’re suggesting. You would rather someone NOT work at all or work fewer hours than use their laptop at home instead of an office.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 05:16     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:Those who insist on terminating TW are usually old men, people without children, or those who never did much childrearing. This generation of parents actually wants to spend time with their kids, we want to be able to cook a home cook meal several times a week, and see them after work for more than an hour, we don't want to be shitty/absent parents. TW simply gives us two hours of our lives back (at least!), time we can dedicate to our families and not commuting.

We are the generation that deeply understands why birthrates are going down. A society that refuses to support parents is doomed, young people will look at us and say "hard pass".


I’m a teacher and can’t stay at home. I rather resent the notion that I’m a “shitty/absent parent” because of my job.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 04:10     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
The economy stopped working for single-earner families when women joined the workforce in the seventies, and pay rates stagnated with the much larger supply of workers. I expect there's a lesson learned in there somewhere but I'm no economist. Bottom line, we can no longer afford a work-life balance. Maybe jobsharing could fix this?
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 02:20     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those who insist on terminating TW are usually old men, people without children, or those who never did much childrearing. This generation of parents actually wants to spend time with their kids, we want to be able to cook a home cook meal several times a week, and see them after work for more than an hour, we don't want to be shitty/absent parents.


In previous generations a lot of parents felt the same way and solved the problem with part time work or a stay at home parent.


My husband was an 8 year old latch key kid and in the summer staring at age 8 was left home alone with his 5 year old sister and 1 year old brother. Not like that, but I was also left home alone for hours at a time staring at age 4. These days that’s illegal. The town I live in has no buses either so even if it were legal my kids can’t get home from school safely on their own. Forcing people to leave the workforce or reduce income when they were previously successfully performing their jobs remotely seems pointless
Anonymous
Post 05/06/2025 23:58     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Anonymous wrote:Those who insist on terminating TW are usually old men, people without children, or those who never did much childrearing. This generation of parents actually wants to spend time with their kids, we want to be able to cook a home cook meal several times a week, and see them after work for more than an hour, we don't want to be shitty/absent parents.


In previous generations a lot of parents felt the same way and solved the problem with part time work or a stay at home parent.
Anonymous
Post 05/06/2025 22:22     Subject: Five weeks in. RTO is literally killing me!
Those who insist on terminating TW are usually old men, people without children, or those who never did much childrearing. This generation of parents actually wants to spend time with their kids, we want to be able to cook a home cook meal several times a week, and see them after work for more than an hour, we don't want to be shitty/absent parents. TW simply gives us two hours of our lives back (at least!), time we can dedicate to our families and not commuting.

We are the generation that deeply understands why birthrates are going down. A society that refuses to support parents is doomed, young people will look at us and say "hard pass".