Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 14:00     Subject: Not enough office space: safe from RTO?
Anonymous wrote:I really dont understand why people on this thread think building out work space is hard.

My old company we decided to bring our call center in house. The guy in charge with Facilities guy literally drove to a few places, got some quotes. I was on approval team.

He showed us, we approved, he pretty much had 30 cubes up and running in two weeks. You do realized those seats people sat pre-covid are still there? My old firm gave up a floor and guess what it is still empty. They could just release it.

My old town in 1990s had a shortage of office buildings. Macys bought A&S dept store from Bankruptcy and lease on the A&S just stopped near my house. Macy's did not want it as a store already close by. They converted converted it to an office building in a few weeks. All finished space with bathrooms, was a back office so mainly cubes.

Companies are now in the cloud so no need data centers. Companies got rid of gyms and cafeterias. It is just wif and cubes and desks.


No. Some agencies have now spent YEARS downsizing office space and setting up 3-1 hoteling workstations. The idea was for 1or 2 days per week for each employee, not 5. They also don't have money to order anything or lease new office space.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 13:54     Subject: Not enough office space: safe from RTO?
Anonymous wrote:I really dont understand why people on this thread think building out work space is hard.

My old company we decided to bring our call center in house. The guy in charge with Facilities guy literally drove to a few places, got some quotes. I was on approval team.

He showed us, we approved, he pretty much had 30 cubes up and running in two weeks. You do realized those seats people sat pre-covid are still there? My old firm gave up a floor and guess what it is still empty. They could just release it.

My old town in 1990s had a shortage of office buildings. Macys bought A&S dept store from Bankruptcy and lease on the A&S just stopped near my house. Macy's did not want it as a store already close by. They converted converted it to an office building in a few weeks. All finished space with bathrooms, was a back office so mainly cubes.

Companies are now in the cloud so no need data centers. Companies got rid of gyms and cafeterias. It is just wif and cubes and desks.


hi J1 J2 J3 guy, how many jobs you working now? moved into gov contracting construction?

anyway, it's super easy in a private company to just yolo some office space together with a credit card and some skunkworks. But there are a whole bunch of actual laws around procurement and spending and contracting for federal agencies, and it turns out just yolo-ing it runs afoul of a lot of those laws. ALSO, a lot of the landlords with empty space in DC have the problem that they are nearly bankrupt and can't actually afford to pay the agents that hold the listings even if someone like the federal gov shows up with a pen to sign a lease, nor can they afford to pay to bring the spaces up to compliance with whatever will be put there. Will the federal gov decide to foot those bills (completely upfront) too? Could be a huge windfall for the leasing agents and the landlords, but it definitely wouldn't be legal.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 13:54     Subject: Not enough office space: safe from RTO?
Anonymous wrote:I really dont understand why people on this thread think building out work space is hard.

My old company we decided to bring our call center in house. The guy in charge with Facilities guy literally drove to a few places, got some quotes. I was on approval team.

He showed us, we approved, he pretty much had 30 cubes up and running in two weeks. You do realized those seats people sat pre-covid are still there? My old firm gave up a floor and guess what it is still empty. They could just release it.

My old town in 1990s had a shortage of office buildings. Macys bought A&S dept store from Bankruptcy and lease on the A&S just stopped near my house. Macy's did not want it as a store already close by. They converted converted it to an office building in a few weeks. All finished space with bathrooms, was a back office so mainly cubes.

Companies are now in the cloud so no need data centers. Companies got rid of gyms and cafeterias. It is just wif and cubes and desks.


I would not do that because I would be breaking a bunch of laws involving both procurement and spending.

That may or may not stop someone else from doing it, of course.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 13:53     Subject: Re:Not enough office space: safe from RTO?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My office hasn’t released anything about RTO yet, and I assume it is based on the fact that there isn’t space for everyone. They also haven’t polled us to see if we are quitting, so I don’t even understand how they would make a plan. I guess they have to assume we are all coming in and they will have to acquire more space and docking stations. Haven’t a clue where that would be.


Two butts one seat is answer. My company did two to cube when short of space. And two per office. Lots of folks quit as did not like it problem solved.


LOL, cute. My last agency was already 3 to a double cube, pre covid. Current agency is 2 to an office now, and it's a tight fit.

Ever watch x-files and look at Mulder's giant basement office, that he's supposedly banished to? People would fight each other for that kind of office.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 13:48     Subject: Not enough office space: safe from RTO?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We got rid of some office space during pandemic, remote employees have changed office location, although most remote employees are remote locally. Basically, some employees change teleworking status (before Covid) to remote status, with SF 50 duty station changed too.

There is no funding to get more office space (flat funding, majority of funding goes to employees' salary; while salary/other costs increase annually, there is not even enough money to fill every vacancy).


How do you know this? If you know this much about employee locations and office square footage - you SHOULD be in a position to impact this. Look for more office space, do hotel desks etc etc.


I am not this poster but anyone who is friends with a few higher ups in their organization can get gossip like this It's not rocket science.


Unions also have access to a lot of this information.


+1, I know that kind of thing because it's in the union's presentation to members.
But the PP saying SES can't just get office space is also true. Just because you see where the money is, doesn't mean you can change where it is.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 13:46     Subject: Re:Not enough office space: safe from RTO?
Anonymous wrote:My office hasn’t released anything about RTO yet, and I assume it is based on the fact that there isn’t space for everyone. They also haven’t polled us to see if we are quitting, so I don’t even understand how they would make a plan. I guess they have to assume we are all coming in and they will have to acquire more space and docking stations. Haven’t a clue where that would be.


Two butts one seat is answer. My company did two to cube when short of space. And two per office. Lots of folks quit as did not like it problem solved.