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re: Have you been to a govt office? And you think they actually do work from home????
Posted on 12/6/24 at 7:33 am to trinidadtiger
Posted on 12/6/24 at 7:33 am to trinidadtiger
Had to deal with the VA. Spent about 9 months back and forth on the phone (at least 15 calls), obviously wfh, where things were supposedly being escalated. Things went nowhere. Fortunately located near a relevant VA office, walked in and actually got a real person and problem resolved.
Turns out large part of the problem was institution of new systems that don’t reference historical information. There’s a ton of IT issues that need to be cleaned up.
Re. wfh, if the agency is customer facing (SS, IRS, VA,…) they need to be in the office, no exceptions.
Turns out large part of the problem was institution of new systems that don’t reference historical information. There’s a ton of IT issues that need to be cleaned up.
Re. wfh, if the agency is customer facing (SS, IRS, VA,…) they need to be in the office, no exceptions.
This post was edited on 12/6/24 at 7:36 am
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Posted on 12/6/24 at 7:35 am to Mandtgr47
quote:
I bet you can't. Any way to beat the system right?
Everybody...
EVERYBODY knows that WFH basically means doing the minimum amount you think your boss will accept as a "full day's work" and screwing off the rest of the time.
And for those who say, "O.k., but the same thing applies to working in office," yeah, but the difference is that someone is at least vaguely aware of what you're doing while you're in an office. You could be out of the country "working" from home and no one would know. If your office situation is such that you could be working out, having sex, cooking, mowing grass, playing tennis, selling girl scout cookies with your 9 year old, etc. while in your office and no one would know, then you might have an argument. Otherwise, there is simply more accountability and oversight in an office setting.
I suppose there are exceptions (there always are), but those exceptions probably all pertain to employees who are highly bonus/commission incentivized or who have unusually specific metrics of output. Which applies to zero government employees that I am aware of.
Everybody else is goofing off to some degree more than they would in the office, and everybody knows it.
This post was edited on 12/6/24 at 7:36 am
Posted on 12/6/24 at 7:37 am to concrete_tiger
quote:
What about people that work in excel or photoshop all day, or any role where there is no face to face time?
Sounds like they should be contract, not employees.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 7:38 am to RFK
quote:
My cousin is a lawyer for the department of energy. They are still on COVID WFH protocol for some reason.
He’s played 2 hours of tennis after lunch every day for the last 4 years.
There’s no way you’ll get him back in the office.
Well, hopefully real soon he'll be able to play tennis all day every day, then.
Tell him that he enjoyed not being in the office so much the taxpayers decided to go him one better, and he is welcome.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 7:52 am to trinidadtiger
quote:
You have been in govt offices, even when required many dont show up. When they do they make you wait while they finish texting their boyfriend and then are pissed when they have to address you.
That's a managerial problem more than an employee problem. The lack of a profit motive in the public sector means it happens more often (lack of profit motive means a lessened sense of urgency to deal with these issues), it also means employees are more likely to get promoted to management due to seniority than actual management/leadership skills (regardless of the online courses they have to watch/run-in-the-background). That said, this sort of thing happens in the private sector as well.
My wife works in the private sector doing pilot re-scheduling for a worldwide shipping company. She was telling me just this morning about a guy who was refusing to answer his phone last night because he knew it was the manager-on-duty calling to ask about a specific thing. When asked, his response was "I don't want to answer it, I have an hour before it needs to be done." (ie: an hour left that they have to notify the pilot of the change) This is a slack-arse who has already been "talked to" by management about sleeping at his desk.
Because of his inactions, others are having to cover the work he's missing and screwing up. It's incredibly demoralizing to bust your arse to do a good job only to be "rewarded" by having to catch the slack of those who suck at their job and a feckless management won't do shite about it. There's a profit motive in the private sector which acts as a limit on that sort of allowance, but it doesn't always work.
To bring this back to the WFH federal employees, (as I've said in another thread) if they can do their job from home then they don't need to be in/around DC. If enough in an office/agency/department are doing WFH then that group doesn't need to be housed in DC (ie: they need to be decentralized by moving them well into the heartlands of the country). If their workload shows they are being productive, fine. If not, DOGE them out.
This post was edited on 12/6/24 at 7:53 am
Posted on 12/6/24 at 8:14 am to RFK
quote:
My cousin is a lawyer for the department of energy. They are still on COVID WFH protocol for some reason.
He’s played 2 hours of tennis after lunch every day for the last 4 years.
In my experience, lawyers that work for most agencies see themselves as too important to discipline. So if he has to return to the office, then he'll probably disappear for around 2.5 hours during lunch.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 8:39 am to trinidadtiger
I’m employed by the government. I run 2 county level offices. My employees and I are in the office 5 days a week. Even during Covid when we had the choice. I can’t wait til those wfh have to come back. It’s gonna be glorious!
Just an example
I asked a wfh state level specialist an email question two weeks ago….still no word!
Just an example
I asked a wfh state level specialist an email question two weeks ago….still no word!
Posted on 12/6/24 at 8:56 am to trinidadtiger
For highly technological companies with people who solely perform their work on phones and specific systems, working from home can work as long as companies are willing to fire those that are not manning the phones and systems appropriately.
For the past six years, I started my retirement job of doing taxes for one of the major tax preparer services. With their technology, they know exactly how many people I am helping and virtually know what I am doing the entire time I am being paid and how well I am doing it.
But, with the government, we all have experienced how bad their systems are and know how hard it is to be fired from a government job.
For the past six years, I started my retirement job of doing taxes for one of the major tax preparer services. With their technology, they know exactly how many people I am helping and virtually know what I am doing the entire time I am being paid and how well I am doing it.
But, with the government, we all have experienced how bad their systems are and know how hard it is to be fired from a government job.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 8:57 am to trinidadtiger
Have worked in both environments and there are similarities and differences...much depends upon the entity's purpose....profit versus service - role one is employed to contribute - distance between the customer and employee and so forth
Have been around terrific public service folks and lousy ones and can say same about those in the private sector as well as non-profits
Have been around terrific public service folks and lousy ones and can say same about those in the private sector as well as non-profits
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:14 am to trinidadtiger
quote:
Have you been to a govt office?
I've been to the DVR recently. I saw Shaneequa with her 4 inch long nails, hair extensions , gold hoop earrings and lashes so long she could fly away, completely ignoring me at the counter while somehow managing to scroll through Snapchat and TikTok on her phone even with the nails.
quote:
you think they actually do work from home????
Hell no I don't. The WFH crowd at Gov jobs that are actually willing to work, need to be moved to the office to replace all the people who don't do anything. Win/win.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:17 am to trinidadtiger
quote:
Have you been to a govt office? And you think they actually do work from home
Jokes on you, they dont work from the office either. At least there is less traffic for us working folk this way.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:18 am to concrete_tiger
quote:
What about people that work in excel or photoshop all day, or any role where there is no face to face time? Whats the point of putting a car on the road for that?
I work from home 4 days a week. I supervise a group of 30 and all we do is respond to emails and I sit in pointless Teams meetings and research regulations to help answer questions. There is not a single reason I, or my team, need to be in the office
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:23 am to AUauditor
quote:
With their technology, they know exactly how many people I am helping and virtually know what I am doing the entire time I am being paid and how well I am doing it.
If this is true, I have no problem with that except for one thing.
It seems like it might be less efficient to monitor that.
I can get at least a decent idea of who is goofing off in an office just by taking a 60 second stroll down a hallway with a glance into the breakroom every once in a while.
The technology you mentioned might give you everyone's time and engagement at a glance, and if that's true, that's great. But if you have to go looking for it for too long it still gets to be less efficient than employers and employees being under the same roof.
Plus, it only works if pretty much 100% of the expected production is online/in the system.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:23 am to Lugnut
quote:
I asked a wfh state level specialist an email question two weeks ago….still no word!
Did you follow up?
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:24 am to Wally Sparks
Yes. Yesterday. Said would get back with me
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:26 am to trinidadtiger
All Trump needs to do is say "since everyone is working from home, then there is no reason the headquarters needs to be in DC."
You will turn them all on themselves because the lower level people want WFH and the higher ups want the DC influence.
You will turn them all on themselves because the lower level people want WFH and the higher ups want the DC influence.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:28 am to trinidadtiger
I had to wait one time for the receptionist to finish paying for an ebay item.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:48 am to oldtrucker
Let's accept the number of 17% of Federal employees who are working in their offices. That leaves 83% who are working out of their homes. Let's be generous & say 50% of those employees are actually working or 40+%. That leaves another 40+% who aren't working, full time or otherwise. How many millions are being wasted? Then many are saying that 17% is high, as it includes security personnel who cover all the government buildings. Many more millions??? Govt. matching health plan monies? Sub track those monies saved from those let go...even more millions? And this is just one small part of Federal dollars that can be saved.
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:51 am to Keltic Tiger
quote:
Let's accept the number of 17% of Federal employees who are working in their offices. That leaves 83% who are working out of their homes. Let's be generous & say 50% of those employees are actually working or 40+%. That leaves another 40+% who aren't working, full time or otherwise. How many millions are being wasted? Then many are saying that 17% is high, as it includes security personnel who cover all the government buildings. Many more millions??? Govt. matching health plan monies? Sub track those monies saved from those let go...even more millions?
See how smart you are?
You just left all these people who absolutely cannot fathom why this would be a top priority for DOGE in your intellectual dust.
How does it feel to be such a genius?
Posted on 12/6/24 at 9:51 am to oldtrucker
quote:
I had to wait one time for the receptionist to finish paying for an ebay item.
Bitch.
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