The return to the workplace is something that should’ve been corrected under the last administration once COVID ended. Instead, people that stayed home and worked in their pajamas while watching The View and soap operas got spoiled. The mess was left for the new administration to get right, another campaign promise being delivered.
JGKAMIN wrote:
that is one opinion i guess.... it doesn't gel with the reality i know to be fact based on 4 years of Working mostly from home on a team that also mostly works from home but... those that feel the way you do will never be convinced it isn't true... if a position or job is performance based on deliverables it is easy to track workload and output... my week is 75% on teams calls dealing with people all over the world... doing this from an arbitrary location in a government building does not benefit anyone. i will still be on teams calls 75% of the time with people all over the world...
except now the government has to pay for all the expenses of that... furniture, internet, lighting, heating, tp in the bathroom, cleaning crew, office supplies, the list goes on... it costs approx. 10k per year per employee MORE to sit in a government building to work... me working from home saves tax payers money.
in a addition, it puts me in a room full of other people, sitting feet from me with nothing but a cloth wall divider and a TON of noise and distraction... people walking by my cubical that just want to say hi, conversations feet away that detract from the call i am on even with head phones, someone just popping over to ask a "quick" question that turns in to a 30 minute convo that could have been a chat msg or email...
As for watching the view or any other programing, you tube, typing on CB chat etc... returning to the office doesn't change that... i can stream anything i want aside from port content from my government computer at my desk...
i routinely work well past 40 hours a week from home, most weeks 50 hours is the norm. if i have to go to the office... i am in when i am in and out when i am out... after exactly 8 hours... currently if someone needs something after hours or i need to log in late or early to accommodate a different time zone (again state department deals with people all over the world) it is a non issue and i do it... because i just have to walk to different room and log in... when i have to go to the office to help someone... it will wait until the next day and only during my scheduled time...
None of that even gets into the impact on families... work from affords much better home life balance... i can deal with home issues while working, let an ac repair guy in, take my lunch break for a dr apt, these things in the past required me to take time away from the office, add the commute time and now the gov lost 1/2 a day at least of productivity out of me. when i am done working i can go make dinner for my family to be ready when they get home instead of spending 2 hours in DC gridlock traffic and grabbing take out.
