Fed Employees - Telework Gripe, Care to Commiserate?

[dietcoke]

I've been a fed for almost 10 years, been teleworking 3 days/week for 4 years. Telework is being (nearly) eliminated for my position nationwide as of 3/2/2020. I'm going from 3 days/week to 1 day/per pay period... so essentially 12 days a month to 2 days a month.  Whoopty do. My commute is 1 hour each way.

I'm so disappointed. Teleworking has greatly improved my life. I started exercising and have lost and kept off 70 pounds for the last few years, literally due to telework. I'm off of antidepressants. My migraines are under control better than they have been for years. I'm scared of the impact this is going to have on me.  

And there are rumors circulating about increasing what we have to pay for our medical premiums... increasing what we have to pay towards our retirement funds.... decreasing our PTO days.  I'm feeling so defeated. 

Anyone have any words of wisdom?  Stick it out?  Suck it up?  Look for other jobs? This too shall pass?  Anything?  ugh.

[Deleted]

I'm fed but Non-appropriated funds because we are self sustaining. Most jobs can telecommute one day a week. I do not telecommute at all except to remote in and do extra unpaid work hours.
My sister is fed as well and is facing what you are. She's quitting after a major medical procedure to use up her PTO/Sick Leave. She is unwilling to do the long commute and bought her house in another area due to the schools because she thought telecommute was going to be the standard. It is not worth her time/money to commute daily to sit at a desk and do what she does at home.
I would work with your doctor and your supervisor to get an exception and work towards a reasonable accommodation where you work in the office 2 or 3 days a week and telecommute the rest? And then if you still feel unhappy or are concerned, I would job hunt.

[lolalolalola]

I’m not a fed employee but I’ll share your disdain. I have never teleworked, and commute 40 minutes each way to work. I was offered a job working from home but turned it down because it was $30k less per year and I couldn’t stomach it. I’m regretting my choice...

I’m sorry - agree with the above poster, if you could get a medical allowance to reflect the impact on your mental health that would be ideal. Otherwise see how it goes. It can’t hurt to job hunt regardless!

[pumpkin]

Ugh! I'm a fed and work 2-3 days a week at home. Like you said, it has greatly improved my quality of life and I'm afraid of that changing of what I'm hearing happening at other agencies happens at mine.

I haven heard about putting more into retirement and insurance increase, etc but I have heard that they are taking a serious look at locality pay and that might be on the table to disappear. In which case I wouldn't be able to keep my job; I can't afford to live where I am without the locality pay and being in a HCOL area.

I'm scared for all the possible changes to come and think they will greatly devastate the federal workforce.

[Covergirl82]

I'm not a Fed employee, but I work in HR, so I'm kind of shocked to hear the drastic cut-back on telework. It seems more companies are becoming more flexible on telework and alternative schedules, so this change seems against the current trend. Was there a reason given for the change?

[melissa]

Covergirl82,it's all political. The BS reason I've heard is that there is no metrics to determine if people are being productive while teleworking. I say the same thing can be said for when people are in the office.

I'm a fed and we went from two days of telework a week to one day a week as long as you are not on an alternative work schedule. I'm trying to stay optimistic that it won't last forever and we'll get to go back to our two days a week eventually.

[formerlyak]

I just wanted to say that I understand why you are upset. I telecommute as well and have seen all the same benefits that you have listed since I started this job. I tell DH all the time I don't think I can go back to working in an office because of it.

I don't have any suggestions that haven't been mentioned, but I'd polish up your resume just in case there is no wiggle room and you need to start searching.

Good luck!

[dietcoke]

Feb 19, 2020 12:43:51 GMT -5 lolalolalola said:

I’m not a fed employee but I’ll share your disdain. I have never teleworked, and commute 40 minutes each way to work. I was offered a job working from home but turned it down because it was $30k less per year and I couldn’t stomach it. I’m regretting my choice...

I’m sorry - agree with the above poster, if you could get a medical allowance to reflect the impact on your mental health that would be ideal. Otherwise see how it goes. It can’t hurt to job hunt regardless!

If I want to work local to where I live, I will likely be looking at a $30k paycut.

Even if I could get a medical allowance and I'm not sure I want to go there, it would only be allowed temporarily (this is just my understanding... I could be wrong).

[dietcoke]

Feb 19, 2020 13:49:07 GMT -5 Covergirl82 said:

I'm not a Fed employee, but I work in HR, so I'm kind of shocked to hear the drastic cut-back on telework. It seems more companies are becoming more flexible on telework and alternative schedules, so this change seems against the current trend. Was there a reason given for the change?

As melissa said, it's all political. A new commissioner is in charge and just issued a blanket moratorium on it across the board. He cited "operational needs," however, our office and nationwide, we have been smashing goals and reducing our backlog of cases while teleworking.  They have not shown any reason for the change.  Our union is attempting to fight it, but it's being implemented anyway. 

[dietcoke]

Thanks all for the responses. I have polished up my resume and am looking at a gym close to my office so I can hopefully continue to run on my lunch breaks. The increased gas costs from the commute is going to stink, in addition to adding a monthly gym membership... ugh. not sure I can stomach it all right now. I'm not sleeping. My anxiety is through the roof. But thanks again for listening.

[dietcoke]

Feb 19, 2020 13:06:37 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

Ugh! I'm a fed and work 2-3 days a week at home. Like you said, it has greatly improved my quality of life and I'm afraid of that changing of what I'm hearing happening at other agencies happens at mine.

I haven heard about putting more into retirement and insurance increase, etc but I have heard that they are taking a serious look at locality pay and that might be on the table to disappear. In which case I wouldn't be able to keep my job; I can't afford to live where I am without the locality pay and being in a HCOL area.

I'm scared for all the possible changes to come and think they will greatly devastate the federal workforce.

How could locality pay disappear!? I mean. That’s our salary. Could they seriously just cut it??

Ugh. I don’t know if I can remain a fed if this clown gets elected for another four years. There’s not enough xanax in the world

[pumpkin]

Feb 19, 2020 16:54:45 GMT -5 dietcoke said:

Feb 19, 2020 13:06:37 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

Ugh! I'm a fed and work 2-3 days a week at home. Like you said, it has greatly improved my quality of life and I'm afraid of that changing of what I'm hearing happening at other agencies happens at mine.

I haven heard about putting more into retirement and insurance increase, etc but I have heard that they are taking a serious look at locality pay and that might be on the table to disappear. In which case I wouldn't be able to keep my job; I can't afford to live where I am without the locality pay and being in a HCOL area.

I'm scared for all the possible changes to come and think they will greatly devastate the federal workforce.

How could locality pay disappear!? I mean. That’s our salary. Could they seriously just cut it??

Ugh. I don’t know if I can remain a fed if this clown gets elected for another four years. There’s not enough xanax in the world

That's what I said! It's supposed to make our pay more in line with the private sector so I'm not sure how taking it away would be beneficial to anyone.

And yeah, more time under this clown would be awful. From my understanding he thinks we're all overpaid and wants to do away with locality pay and one thing that has been proposed is taking the locality pay away and making agencies use operating funds to cover it.

[freshsqueezed]

Fed here. I’m always nervous telework will go away. If it ever does I’ll really have to re-evaluate my career.

As for locality pay, I would be gone. No way!

[sadlebred]

Feb 19, 2020 17:39:02 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

Feb 19, 2020 16:54:45 GMT -5 dietcoke said:

How could locality pay disappear!? I mean. That’s our salary. Could they seriously just cut it??

Ugh. I don’t know if I can remain a fed if this clown gets elected for another four years. There’s not enough xanax in the world

That's what I said! It's supposed to make our pay more in line with the private sector so I'm not sure how taking it away would be beneficial to anyone.

And yeah, more time under this clown would be awful. From my understanding he thinks we're all overpaid and wants to do away with locality pay and one thing that has been proposed is taking the locality pay away and making agencies use operating funds to cover it.

There are plenty of large private or publicly traded companies that have location pay. It's  not uncommon in the private sector although from what I've seen it tends not to be as generous as the fed.

[ellipses84]

I’m not, but I’m so furious on your behalf. The current administration is full of idiots who don’t GAF about how this impacts people’s lives. Mandating this across so many different types of fed jobs without further research is ridiculous. Telework could save them and fed employees so much money and is better for employee recruitment and retention (and the environment) which far makes up for any perceived unaccountability issues.

[ssmjlm]

I'm late to this, but our command is actually going in the opposite direction and offering more telework. It's hard as a manager, because we are still coming out of a bad hiring time period and are still trying to cut the slack. In my group I only have 2 people on telework and it works well. I only do it 1 day a pp since as a supervisor and deputy, I personally feel I need to be in the office for face time.

I don't put too much into the other changes they're recommending. They've been trying it since the orange idiot got into office and it hasn't passed yet. Further, we just actually got added as a locality, so I can't imagine them taking that away.

I agree with pp, if you have a need for a reasonable accommodation, I would fill out the paperwork and talk to your supervisor.

[womet]

Feb 19, 2020 13:55:46 GMT -5 melissa said:

Covergirl82,it's all political. The BS reason I've heard is that there is no metrics to determine if people are being productive while teleworking. I say the same thing can be said for when people are in the office.

I'm a fed and we went from two days of telework a week to one day a week as long as you are not on an alternative work schedule. I'm trying to stay optimistic that it won't last forever and we'll get to go back to our two days a week eventually.

I think you’re with the same agency as my husband. One of his colleagues is near retirement and has decided to take sick leave on what should be his second telework day. My husband has a reasonable accommodation that specifically states that he needs to be able to telework 2-3 days per week. But others are also talking about leaving.

[melissa]

Feb 20, 2020 19:24:13 GMT -5 womet said:

Feb 19, 2020 13:55:46 GMT -5 melissa said:

Covergirl82 ,it's all political. The BS reason I've heard is that there is no metrics to determine if people are being productive while teleworking. I say the same thing can be said for when people are in the office.

I'm a fed and we went from two days of telework a week to one day a week as long as you are not on an alternative work schedule. I'm trying to stay optimistic that it won't last forever and we'll get to go back to our two days a week eventually.

I think you’re with the same agency as my husband. One of his colleagues is near retirement and has decided to take sick leave on what should be his second telework day. My husband has a reasonable accommodation that specifically states that he needs to be able to telework 2-3 days per week. But others are also talking about leaving.

I've got a coworker doing something similar with her sick leave. I'm actually going to keep an eye on the retirement numbers because I'm curious if they will trend upwards in the next few months due to this.

[simpsongal]

Be careful playing with sick leave like that. If there's a pattern and it seems the employee is abusing sick leave, the manager can contact HR and may be able to require the employee to present a doctor's note every time they take sick leave.

ETA- I’ll add my gripe. I need the flexibility of telework with my kid schedule. In turn, it’s making me hesitant to leave a job I increasingly dislike.

[dixeedeluxe]

womet, melissa, the words you're using makes me think I'm also in that agency.

We also went from two days per week to once a week. I was handling the transition well until we had an HR meeting where we were pretty much told there is nothing we can do about it as we are not front-liners AND we will most likely lose what we have soon.

[melissa]

dixeedeluxe, if you want to know for sure feel free to send me a private message.

That is my biggest concern with losing telework completely. It has been such a huge help with my work life balance.

[dixeedeluxe]

I agree. My commute is about an hour. We are so lucky with flex time so I do 6 - 2:30. I can ONLY work until 2:30 when I'm in the office because if I leave later, I won't make it home for kid activities. If I'm home, I can get two or more additional hours in!

Some more things I'll miss:
- Running at lunch
- Flexing out to volunteer at school
- Flexing out for doctor's appointments

[dixeedeluxe]

Can I revive this old thread to specifically talk about how easy it would be for us to work ADS and how we are not. ANNOYING.

[melissa]

So colleges and all sports are cancelled yet not a peep regarding allowing us to telework. I hate this period of unknown.

[pumpkin]

I thankfully have been working at home this week, but I did read that a telework bill has been introduced in an effort to expand telework programs and stop the telework decrease. It's H.R. 6108, I think.

[dietcoke]

I'm thankful to be in an area with very few reported cases, but how long will that last. My Agency's downright refusal to address this is negligent.

[pumpkin]

Mar 12, 2020 14:11:39 GMT -5 dietcoke said:

I'm thankful to be in an area with very few reported cases, but how long will that last. My Agency's downright refusal to address this is negligent.

This is being dealt with so poorly!
My agency allowed us to maximize telework last week and this week, but we're on a week-to-week decision making plan which is kind of dumb since I am in the Seattle area. Ugh! Why do they always make this so hard

[dixeedeluxe]

If anyone at the big agency with 6,000+ employees in one area in a suburban area where the Adnan Syed grew up, and you find out the words I need my doctor to put on a paper to grand me W/A/H/Q, please hit me up.

Thing that was both vague and specific enough?!

[dietcoke]

I worked at home 3 days/week for the past 4 years and have been forced to be in the office every day for the past 2 weeks.. makes sense doesn't it?

[pumpkin]

Mar 13, 2020 7:08:11 GMT -5 dietcoke said:

I worked at home 3 days/week for the past 4 years and have been forced to be in the office every day for the past 2 weeks.. makes sense doesn't it?

This is so backwards!