Doubt this will impact agencies...

[Blue Steel]

Lazy people are lazy no matter where they are. Working from home when you are already unproductive will only precipitate lesser productivity…

For the ones who are lazy, I’d guess they’re only less productive doing actual paycheck required work. More productive in trading stocks and shopping at Home Depot for home reno projects.

 

[Irrelevant]

Sure they do. Just like all the kids that stayed home during covid and learned as much as they did going to school…

Well I'll be. I would have guessed that you of all people shrap, with your rugged rural old-timey lifestyle (minus the 'vet and suburban rambler) would have seen the value in kids staying how and being kids again, after all, "never let schooling get in the way of your education"

 

[Blue Steel]

A typical work day in the office

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Well I'll be. I would have guessed that you of all people shrap, with your rugged rural old-timey lifestyle (minus the 'vet and suburban rambler) would have seen the value in kids staying how and being kids again, after all, "never let schooling get in the way of your education"

View attachment 358760

Your a hands on parent and obviously a good parent. Lots of kids needed school to learn and as an escape from the hell that's their home life.
Your children will prosper either way because you and your wife are attentive parents.

 

[rogerthat]

Well I'll be. I would have guessed that you of all people shrap, with your rugged rural old-timey lifestyle (minus the 'vet and suburban rambler) would have seen the value in kids staying how and being kids again, after all, "never let schooling get in the way of your education"

View attachment 358760

Exactly. How else is a boy going to learn how to stuff Cheeto eaters into the bed of a pickup truck whole?

 

[brymoore]

Your a hands on parent and obviously a good parent. Lots of kids needed school to learn and as an escape from the hell that's their home life.
Your children will prosper either way because you and your wife are attentive parents.

Are we talking about home schooling now?

Vaccines next?

 

[Treeshark]

I don’t think it’s fair to come to any sort of conclusions on home schooling (or work from home) by analyzing the Covid online school period- two very different things.

I won’t dispute that it was harmful overall to learning, but in fairness the school districts did not have ample time to build a robust online curriculum. I think by-in-large they did the best they could with the time available (ours did anyway)

 

[SAJ-99]

I enjoy how this thread turned into a WFH or RTO debate, which completely misses the point. The lawyers will have fun with that.

As has been pointed out...
1) In a Voluntary RIF, the people that quit are never the lazy slackers. They are the people most able to find another job or closest to retirement. Say goodbye to knowledge and efficiency.
2) Having gone through a couple of these in the corporate world, the positions are typically refilled in 24 months. I doubt this will be much different.
3) the entire point of this is the $100B cost saving estimate. They need to find budget reductions in order to make 2017 tax cuts permanent. I would guess once those are permanent, the hiring will restart (hence the 8months time frame). In the end, if we are lucky it will be net to $0. Like most political/government actions, I figure it will most likely it will cost taxpayers.

 

[SAJ-99]

It's interesting for sure but so confusing, they want all the feds back in the office but just saw an article that the goal is to reduce federal office space by up to 50%?

Wonder if the admin is going to push for the states to take over certain functions and cut the federal responsibility. Who knows...

One thing is for sure, this isn't a buyout they saw in the 90's. Seems awfully familiar to what Twitter went through.

Might be something to that office space reduction. Those are under long term contracts but I doubt that will stop the Admin. Again, lawyers will make more money.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Are we talking about home schooling now?

Vaccines next?

The post you quoted might be the only definitively true statement on this thread.

 

[El Jason]

Prior to Covid, my administrative work had to be done at an office. Not only did I have to spend 40-50 minutes per day driving to and from, I was also faced with constant disruption to my work with questions and folks wanting to chat.

When everyone began working from home, I was able to get far more work done, plus I saved the gas and commute time.

Some of you sound like you have experienced things differently. I don’t know your company or your work environment so I’ll take your word for it.

We have support staff that work from home about 50% of the time. The good workers get their work done. The bad ones don’t. It doesn’t and wouldn’t matter if they were sitting at their kitchen table or in a cubicle.

I’m all for making a better work environment for folks, which I think hybrid or WFH may do, given the right employee.

 

[Blue Steel]

Might be something to that office space reduction. Those are under long term contracts but I doubt that will stop the Admin. Again, lawyers will make more money.

View attachment 358766

Thought I heard several months ago that there's a legal requirement for Federal agencies to sell of un-used property (office space).


Edit: Biden apparently just recently kicked the rock down over the hill:

Underutilized federal office space under scrutiny, as Biden signs slate of bills | Federal News Network

Members of the Public Buildings Reform Board say they see a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to reshape the federal government’s real estate footprint.

federalnewsnetwork.com

Biden signs legislation that includes provisions targeting inefficient federal office space utilization

The new law requires space occupancy standards that can draw federal employees back to the office, while other reforms aim to cut waste, consolidate space and boost federal building security.

www.facilitiesdive.com

>>>>Last Friday, President Joe Biden signed a slew of bills targeting underutilized office space as part of a water infrastructure bill. The omnibus package includes the FASTA Reform Act, which extends the tenure of the PBRB through December 2026.

The PBRB was originally scheduled to sunset in May 2025. The extension gives the board more time to identify underutilized federal buildings, and recommend that GSA sell or offload them. <<<<

 

[elkantlers]

Like 100% of the people I ran in to hunting on weekdays in the last 4 years worked from home. Y’all gotta go back to work now. Make Mon-Fri hunting great again.

You put that on a hat, and I'll buy one.

 

[schmalts]

Working from home doesn’t mean you’re spending half your time skiing, hunting, etc.

On the flip side it doesn't mean you aren't either. Let's be honest, there is both sides of this. Some job duties are better spent in office and some not.

 

[Bonasababy]

I don’t think it’s fair to come to any sort of conclusions on home schooling (or work from home) by analyzing the Covid online school period- two very different things.

I won’t dispute that it was harmful overall to learning, but in fairness the school districts did not have ample time to build a robust online curriculum. I think by-in-large they did the best they could with the time available (ours did anyway)

Same here.

The biggest problems were people who did not have any or did not have good internet connections at home.

This is probably not unique anywhere in rural america, but here guess who has fought against public funding to expand internet to rural areas?

A hint--they tend to see things through orange tinted glasses these days.

I will say I draw a different line for schoolwork. There's a number of reasons kids need to be together with teachers and each other--some of them don't even involved traditional school learning. Every kid is different--I know some (including two of my own) who thrived with online coursework, including college level classes--I also know others (including one of my own) who really needed to be at school for the most effective learning experience.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

I'm really just excited to see how all this plays out down the road. Mini snow globe Rome was built in a day but Rome was not. It might be disastrous or it might be great. At least some kind of effort to curb government spending is being tried that actually has a chance to have an affect. It's been a week, departments need evaluated and combed through and have needed to be since after WW2. I wish the federal funding freeze was not so broad, as it affects my wife and current projects they have going on that need to be done before the water comes. It's going to be interesting to see where this goes.

 

[brymoore]

On the flip side it doesn't mean you aren't either. Let's be honest, there is both sides of this. Some job duties are better spent in office and some not.

I was talking about white collar jobs and not blue collar manufacturing type stuff. Widgets aren’t going to get made with an empty factory.

My company’s thoughts on why we should work together in the office is to develop teams and future leadership. I’m not sure if they are right or not. My wife likes my paycheck so I go with the flow.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Same here.

The biggest problems were people who did not have any or did not have good internet connections at home.

This is probably not unique anywhere in rural america, but here guess who has fought against public funding to expand internet to rural areas?

A hint--they tend to see things through orange tinted glasses these days.

I will say I draw a different line for schoolwork. There's a number of reasons kids need to be together with teachers and each other--some of them don't even involved traditional school learning. Every kid is different--I know some (including two of my own) who thrived with online coursework, including college level classes--I also know others (including one of my own) who really needed to be at school for the most effective learning experience.

Starlink. Thats all.

 

[Bonasababy]

Prior to Covid, my administrative work had to be done at an office. Not only did I have to spend 40-50 minutes per day driving to and from, I was also faced with constant disruption to my work with questions and folks wanting to chat.

When everyone began working from home, I was able to get far more work done, plus I saved the gas and commute time.

Some of you sound like you have experienced things differently. I don’t know your company or your work environment so I’ll take your word for it.

We have support staff that work from home about 50% of the time. The good workers get their work done. The bad ones don’t. It doesn’t and wouldn’t matter if they were sitting at their kitchen table or in a cubicle.

I’m all for making a better work environment for folks, which I think hybrid or WFH may do, given the right employee.

Agree--some folks obviously don't think supervisors have ways to measure whether someone is being productive or not.

My wife just retired after working from home for over 20 years. Her employer knew when she was logged in to work, had remote measures of performance, and paid out production incentives to those who were the most productive. Saved her employer untold dollars over demanding they all be in an office!

An interesting metric observation--they had the same performance incentives for employees at my wifes work before many were sent home to telecommute as they did beforehand. The employer found a large increase in productivity--and had to pay out a lot more in incentives--after many worked from home. That extra cost was more than balanced out by the employer being able to shrink the number of employees they had doing the work my wife did--fewer employees were needed to get the same job done than when they all worked in an office!

 

[Treeshark]

At least some kind of effort to curb government spending is being tried that actually has a chance to have an affect.

That would not be a bad thing. I am a bit concerned that this is really more of an effort to “own” certain groups of people to score political points and less about actually saving the country money. We are about to find out I guess.