Teleworking: Temporary setback or death spiral? | Federal News Network

I know you cape for everything Trump does but for those of us that are in federal service there's been no ambiguity as far as where he stands on telework. The article specifically spoke about the SSA but my broader point was his disposition on teleworking. He made across the board cuts on teleworking despite the fact that OPM specifically has this measure in place for inclement weather, disruptions and get this....pandemics.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/814543505/in-reversal-trump-administration-now-urges-agencies-to-allow-telework

SSG (Join to see) - Actually that is your interpretation. I like to look at news items objectively vs a point of view that someone wants me to repeat in public. On RP some people label that as being a Trump supporter for some reason. I think of it as being fair. So lets start at the beginning, how do we know POTUS even knows about this issue? He was never quoted. In fact, was never interviewed on it and I don't see any Cabinet level officials even mentioning it. the NTEU says Trump administration and so do the politicians and articles and automatically this trivial issue is #1 on the personal agenda of President Trump. Kind of comedic how that works. I tend to think all that is political nonsense and this has more to do with lower level managers and Trump knows nothing or almost nothing about it.

At any rate, I sometimes share transit with IRS employees, so I know some things about their work arrangements and they were very happy with their telework options prior to the virus outbreak. Notice the article only takes one quote from the IRS and that is it for the IRS. IRS has people that are working from home 95% of their time and they fly into their respective IRS offices maybe every few months or maybe every so many weeks. They can live anywhere in the country though.....which is far more expansive than what private employers offer. Good luck with that type of telework arrangement via private employer. Thats just the IRS, whom the NTEU should represent since they are part of the Treasury Dept. and so I would presume the NTEU knows about these folks but they are not even mentioned.

The problem you run into which the article only briefly mentions. Is availability of laptops, ability of ISP's (some live in very rural areas) and other components of VPN to carry the traffic of large numbers of people. As you probably have heard during the virus outbreak there have been complaints about everyone being on at once. Hence the new directive to make this new way of work be the disaster recovery go to AND it be periodically tested. What the article implies about folks working with classified information is complete BS. You can work in classified information and work at home, you just need special equipment. Works the same way as it does for DoD, your given special equipment, CAC card, and a few more security items to prevent hacking into your local system. Maybe they meant like the top 5-10% eyes only classified material....beats me they were not clear in the article. Now I say that because there are two types of classified information. Classified information such as DoD deals in which is what most RP readers know. The second type of classified information is that which surrounds personal information and the Privacy Act. So IRS deals in one type of classified information and DoD deals in another type. IRS folks can probably all work at home if they had the infrastructure in place to support it. Some DoD folks might be challenged due to highly classified stuff.

Bottom line is some Federal workers have an excellent telework environment that very few in private industry have. I am sure there are other departments where it is very limited and again I think the concern is the work getting done or lack of work getting done that concerns the managers.

If an employee isn't pulling their weight when working from home that's a disciplinary or performance issue. I know colleagues that admit they find working from home more difficult than being in the office. In my opinion that's just low self discipline. However just because Joe Mcfukstik can't perform doesn't mean that his shortcomings should affect how I do my job. Bureaucracies serve a function. There are pros and cons and and while innovation and efficiency should be promoted, the government should not be ran as a private enterprise would be.

And yet there are NTEU workers that work 90-95% from home and only periodically fly into the office. Not mentioned in the article but good luck finding a private employer that will go beyond one day of telework a week.

Of course not. For those positions that are telework eligible it makes sense to have people work from home. It eases traffic significantly and I'm thinking saves the government from leasing and maintaining all that office space.

SSG (Join to see) some of our DOD employees for the same amount of work done at home or in the office, ZERO!

CW5 Jack Cardwell - Bingo! Effectiveness of any telework program is measured by worker productivity and performance metrics. If performance does not change or gets worse (less work gets done when you telework). It is really obvious and shows up in the metrics. My guess is and it is implied in the article, less work is getting done among those that telework. That is an issue that needs to be fixed and managements revocation of the telework looks like they are trying to fix it in specific areas. Oh and I can guarantee you this. This is ONLY Happening at some government agencies, others are expanding telecommutting.