Anonymous wrote:I will concede that there are certainly jobs that are conducive to telework. Perhaps some are even done better from home. However, as a general trend, I find it utterly annoying that everyone is insisting that their job can be done from home. I have colleagues who insist that they have flexible schedules and their managers are not opposed to them working from home, yet employees who are actually in the office are picking up the slack on a lot of stuff just by the virtue of being there. "oh can you place FedEx this for me?" or "I have someone dropping off some paperwork, can you please put it on my desk?" No, Karen, I don't give a rats ass about it and will not be your secretary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:S S A cuts telework. This is being done so people will quit or retire. The administration wants to hire contractors at low pay.
Anyone forced to give up telework and are now financially strapped, file an Intentional Infilction of Emotional Distress Suit against Saul and Gruber. These two monsters nerd removed A S A P. Call Congress and ask for thier removal. No confidence

I would also consider promissory estoppel and don't forget to cite to the 2nd restatement of torts.

Anonymous wrote:S S A cuts telework. This is being done so people will quit or retire. The administration wants to hire contractors at low pay.
Anyone forced to give up telework and are now financially strapped, file an Intentional Infilction of Emotional Distress Suit against Saul and Gruber. These two monsters nerd removed A S A P. Call Congress and ask for thier removal. No confidence

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't the Patent and Trademark Office greatly curtail or eliminate much of its telework several years ago? I'm pretty sure it did so.
So, it's not a new trend. But I agree with the PP saying it hurts federal hiring. Fewer and fewer people who are qualified for these SSA or PTO jobs are going to want to apply if there is no option for telework. Reducing or taking away flexibility -- not the way to go if the agencies want to hire and keep people today. It's sad because these agencies perform vital work.

Not true at all. The telework program still exist.

Anonymous wrote:I work in Woodlawn in frontline management. My component (operations), is losing telework. I don’t think that the legal staff is losing theirs but I am not certain. The field offices that deal with the public AND the backend payment centers (where I work) are directly affected.

Morale was already low but this is the nail in the coffin.

We were told by the Associate Commissioner that there were NO metrics that could track if telework was a success. They did say that waiting time increased for the public facing staffs.

So others are being punished basically because the newly appointed Commissioner doesn’t like telework at all. He doesn’t understand the internal problem with operations is chronic understaffing. We are rapidly losing people due to retirement and we don’t replace them due to funding. Our volume of work keeps increasing because the number of disabled and retired applicants keeps growing.

Without telework we’re not going to attract the best applicants and people will leave for other jobs.

The union also dropped the ball by allowing the upper management to decide how to run the telework program.

Anonymous wrote:Who is going to apply for the SSA attorney advisor jobs with no telework?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do folks think this is the new trend for federal agencies? I hope they don’t abolish it.

They should. I know people who "telework" who go grocery shopping, take kids to medical appointments and one who went Christmas shopping. It's a sham. You have a job and it should be performed at your office!

Our agency showed that teleworkers were more productive and had better quality on average. Those that began teleworking had higher production than in when in the Office. I telework. If I go to a kid’s medical appointment I use my sick leave which is allowed which is the same as if I were in the Office. If I use mid-day Flex to run an errand (also allowed), I make up the hours later in the day/week or weekends and if I can’t I use my leave.

All of my friends who are NOT Feds telework— in IT, software, lawyers, etc. It is commonplace in 2019. I think 95% of workers in my HHI neighborhood telework at least part of the week, many full-time.

How did they do that? Seriously curious.

My SSA component tracks the number of cases we process at telework vs in office, and the number that are found to have quality issues performed in both places. It’s not surprising you do more work with fewer errors when you aren’t in a cube with people talking and interrupting you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is going to apply for the SSA attorney advisor jobs with no telework?

No one. And I say this as an SSA attorney. The big draw is the flexibility and telework. Without it, morale will tank and retention will be a huge issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seemed odd to me that they cut the program entirely rather than curtail it for individuals with productivity issues. Alternatively, perhaps the jobs in that division are public facing and don't lend themselves well to teleworking but one wonders why that was not readily ascertainable prior to launching the pilot program.

From a fed manager's perspective and from what I see attending management meetings throughout my department, it's very hard to curtail things for some employees (those with productivity issues) but not others. They file grievances, fake EEOs and even sometimes get lawyers. Even when you have ironclad evidence, it's still very difficult and you basically can't ever fire someone. It would be great to have a more dynamic hiring and firing system, but it doesn't exist.

PP here and if there is enough management support to cut telework en masse presumably there is enough support to implement some form of a disciplinary system with respect to telework. I mean, I get that in your situation maybe senior management doesn't care or is too lazy but here senior management is clearly on board with making changes by axing telework for this subset of people. They could just as easily come up with some measure by which if people fall behind they lose telework for six months or a year or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do folks think this is the new trend for federal agencies? I hope they don’t abolish it.

They should. I know people who "telework" who go grocery shopping, take kids to medical appointments and one who went Christmas shopping. It's a sham. You have a job and it should be performed at your office!

Our agency showed that teleworkers were more productive and had better quality on average. Those that began teleworking had higher production than in when in the Office. I telework. If I go to a kid’s medical appointment I use my sick leave which is allowed which is the same as if I were in the Office. If I use mid-day Flex to run an errand (also allowed), I make up the hours later in the day/week or weekends and if I can’t I use my leave.

All of my friends who are NOT Feds telework— in IT, software, lawyers, etc. It is commonplace in 2019. I think 95% of workers in my HHI neighborhood telework at least part of the week, many full-time.

How did they do that? Seriously curious.