Federal Workers - Telework status?

[melissa]

What's your current telework status?  I'm waiting on the official word but looks like SSA is moving to 3 days in the office per week for a majority of us here at the HQ's location starting in April.  

If it is true, I've lost all motivation to work today.  I figured we would eventually go back in and was hoping for two days a week but can't wrap my head around three days a week.

[womet]

Hmmm, interesting about SSA. My H works there and never wants to go back into the office again. We'll likely exercise his reasonable accommodation, if needed, to keep him working at home full time for as long as possible.

The telework/remote work isn't done the same across all parts of my agency. In my part, we're all given the option of being remote. So even though I live 25 minutes from the office, I work from home full time. We're even giving up our office space in March since there are only 10 or so people who go into our office building regularly.

[gottadobe]

We just started two days a week in the office this week.

[karinothing]

Jan 30, 2024 15:01:04 GMT -5 melissa said:

What's your current telework status?  I'm waiting on the official word but looks like SSA is moving to 3 days in the office per week for a majority of us here at the HQ's location starting in April.  

If it is true, I've lost all motivation to work today.  I figured we would eventually go back in and was hoping for two days a week but can't wrap my head around three days a week.

that is NOT what I got from that email/video My manager seems to think nothing is changing. 

ETA: I am based out of DC formerly falls church but we don't even have an office to put all of us in 2 days a week, 

[melissa]

karinothing, we just met with our manager and we have a DC level meeting on Friday. We are going in 3 days a week with one day a week being a core week. Are you included in the locations in the excerpt below?

Because servant leaders make themselves present and accountable to the people they lead, Deputy Commissioners, employees in headquarters components, regional offices, and area director offices will increase their onsite presence to three days per week with two days of telework optional.

[melissa]

womet, my fingers are crossed that your husband can exercise his reasonable accommodation to avoid going in the office. I am not looking forward to April. Your agency seems to be handling things much better.


gottadobe, how is the transition going? I had accepted two days in the office a week but this third day is irritating me.

[mrshandy]

My agency allowed anyone who qualified to apply for permanent remote work and I took advantage of it. So I'm full time remote. Unless there is a major change in policy for our agency I won't be going back anytime soon. Our director is fine with the current arrangement so it would take our Department head or the President to change things. I'm not sure what will happen with the next administration because even if Biden stays we may get a new director.

I would not be happy to go back in.

[karinothing]

Jan 30, 2024 16:21:03 GMT -5 melissa said:

karinothing, we just met with our manager and we have a DC level meeting on Friday. We are going in 3 days a week with one day a week being a core week. Are you included in the locations in the excerpt below?

Because servant leaders make themselves present and accountable to the people they lead, Deputy Commissioners, employees in headquarters components, regional offices, and area director offices will increase their onsite presence to three days per week with two days of telework optional.

I sent you a PM.

[minzy]

Not SSA. We have been doing a hybrid schedule for not quite two years, dependent on how long it’s been since you started. Newer people need to be in more but once you hit a certain point, you can telework up to three days. Other parts of our department ran the gamut from fully remote to fully in person.

A few months back the big boss said we would all need to be in office three days. This upset almost everyone in my office and some of us were not shy in saying that the change would prompt us to leave (I was one of them). Management wound up filing an appeal based on the nature of what we do and recent personnel trends, and it was granted. So for three more years, we can keep doing what we’ve been doing, except with the institution of core days (we have to come in on at least one of two of them). I was already in on one of those days, so ultimately nothing is changing for me. I have no idea why more offices did not appeal but some thought is that ours was granted in part because so few others asked.

[curbsideprophet]

I do not understand this push to force people back into the office. COVID is still raging uncontrolled, telework is generally better for the environment and if someone wants to be in the office more, they are most likely allowed to do that. Overall telework seems to have been a positive thing for the disability community. We should be removing barriers for people with disabilities not increasing them. Many people really like telework! Why piss everyone off in an election year?

[karinothing]

Jan 31, 2024 0:06:10 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

I do not understand this push to force people back into the office. COVID is still raging uncontrolled, telework is generally better for the environment and if someone wants to be in the office more, they are most likely allowed to do that. Overall telework seems to have been a positive thing for the disability community. We should be removing barriers for people with disabilities not increasing them. Many people really like telework! Why piss everyone off in an election year?

well 1) Congress and some taxpayers think we are lazy working from our homes and the only way to apparently not be lazy is to go into the office and 2) the DC economy has really been hurt by telework. I otherwise agree with you, but empty downtown is sad. The gov and other employers are holding on to empty buildings the district can't even turn them into housing or anything else useful. 

[pumpkin]

I’m not SSA and not in the greater DC area. I am primarily telework and have to go in once a week.

However, even prior to COVID (like 2 years) most of my office was telework, but we went in 2 days a week.

And given most of what my office does it’s really dumb to be in the office; we aren’t client facing, we have very few meetings, and my days in the office aren’t particularly “useful” in that I pretty much sit in a cube by myself all day. Now, my days in the office are more social and it’s nice to see people, but I get less done, spend about an hour and a half on the road without traffic, and get less sleep.

ETA: We’ve also been told that what the offices in DC/central office is doing is different than us because their jobs are different with meetings, etc.
Though we’ve also been told that our return to the office should help the downtown economy, etc. However, I’m in an out based office so it’s even more ridiculous. Also, our current downtown is struggling and most nearby lunch places are closed which sucks for those who are going into the downtown office. And, unfortunately homeless and mental health issues have become a greater issue downtown and we’ve had 2 employees attacked outside our Federal building.

[gottadobe]

Jan 30, 2024 16:22:30 GMT -5 melissa said:

womet , my fingers are crossed that your husband can exercise his reasonable accommodation to avoid going in the office. I am not looking forward to April. Your agency seems to be handling things much better.


gottadobe , how is the transition going? I had accepted two days in the office a week but this third day is irritating me.

It was inevitable.  What I like less is we have mandated days with no flexibility. I understand the core day, but to say we all have to be together on another same day is ridiculous - and Thurs/Fri are off the table completely.  I am not sure when/if we will transition to 3, but I would be irritated as well. 

[womet]

Jan 30, 2024 16:22:30 GMT -5 melissa said:

womet , my fingers are crossed that your husband can exercise his reasonable accommodation to avoid going in the office. I am not looking forward to April. Your agency seems to be handling things much better.

I'm fairly certain he'll be allowed to continue working from home. He was just diagnosed with liver cancer and will be having a transplant later this year. So he'll be on immunosuppressants for life. Limiting his exposure to sick people and to old, dirty buildings for prolonged periods of time will be really important. 

[ssmjlm]

I'm a fed with DOD, but not in DC.

We started 3 days per week in May 2022, but our new Director in November let us go to 2 days per week. One day is an all hands day, which I like. It's when we do some trainings and have some morale events.

Half of my staff has less than 2 years experience. Being with people physically has been beneficial to all of us. I like the 2 days a week myself.

[wildrice]

My H recently started working as a contractor with DOD, work site in Bethesda. He is told they need to be in three days a week, which sucks because when he accepted the job they told him they usually only do two. I'm not sure what changed between accepting the job in November and starting in January, but he's not happy about it. So far, most days that he goes in he really doesn't interact with anyone because he works on a smaller team and they only have one core day when everyone is there. He is hoping that once he's not new, he can start going in less and may also put in an accommodation request. He's going to hold off on that until he's established himself a bit more, though.

[lessel]

womet Hugs to you and your H. I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope prognosis is good. ❤

[fuckyourcouch]

I’m DOI and permanent remote from a DC office. As far as I know those stationed in the NCR have to go back into the office 50% of the time starting next pay period. The DOI employees I know in other regions are still either remote, max telework, or similar. No RTO plans.

[melissa]

womet , I'm sorry to hear about your husbands situation. He should definitely not have any issues having his reasonable accommodation approved.

We have a 1 pm all hands meeting so interested to see what they have to say.

Again, I expected to have to go back into the office but was just hoping for two days instead of three. I'm interested to see if there is a resulting retirement boom or people transferring to other agencies because of this.

We aren't even located in DC so we don't help with those issues.

[supertrooper1]

mrshandy, how does your locality pay work being fully remote? I spoke to my local union president and he said I should be careful fighting for a fully remote position because my pay could be changed to "rest of the country" instead of my current Seattle locality pay.

Pre-COVID I had to report 1 time per week. Right now, we have to report 1 time per month and in December they told us we were going to have to report 2 times per week. That quickly ended after the national union got involved. I imagine eventually we'll have to go back to pre-COVID 1 time per week, but we could be fully remote. Out of a group of about 50 in my division, I only work with 2 other people locally. The 1 time per month that we have to report is for a Teams meeting with the other 50 people nationwide, so it doesn't even make sense to go in for that.

[mrshandy]

Jan 31, 2024 12:04:21 GMT -5 supertrooper1 said:

mrshandy , how does your locality pay work being fully remote? I spoke to my local union president and he said I should be careful fighting for a fully remote position because my pay could be changed to "rest of the country" instead of my current Seattle locality pay.

Pre-COVID I had to report 1 time per week. Right now, we have to report 1 time per month and in December they told us we were going to have to report 2 times per week. That quickly ended after the national union got involved. I imagine eventually we'll have to go back to pre-COVID 1 time per week, but we could be fully remote. Out of a group of about 50 in my division, I only work with 2 other people locally. The 1 time per month that we have to report is for a Teams meeting with the other 50 people nationwide, so it doesn't even make sense to go in for that.

We have a home base that has to accept us. So my home base is which is the DC area HQ where I used to work. If I wanted to move then I would have to get another field office or place to accept me and they would be responsible for any IT issues I had or supplying me with remote equipment if I needed it. There are some rules about where you report to. Locality pay is based on your home base. So I kept my same locality pay. 

[pumpkin]

Jan 31, 2024 12:04:21 GMT -5 supertrooper1 said:

mrshandy, how does your locality pay work being fully remote? I spoke to my local union president and he said I should be careful fighting for a fully remote position because my pay could be changed to "rest of the country" instead of my current Seattle locality pay.

Not mrshandy, but this came up with some of my coworkers (we’re in the greater Seattle area) and they were told that if they left the area, the locality pay would be based on the locality pay of their new/actual location. Don’t know much about this, but thought I’d share.

[ssmjlm]

supertrooper1, it's based on OPM regulations. If you are remote, pay is based on your home station. If you are attached to an office, there are in-office minimums and then it's based on location of the office.

[womet]

Thanks melissa and lessel. We caught it early and he has a good prognosis. We're being seen by Hopkins for this, and his transplant surgeon has done more than 500 liver transplants.

[mpc]

I'm a fed. We are still required to be in 1 day a week, encouraged to come in 2. All GS-15s are required to be in 3 days a week.

[Scout'sHonor]

We were one of the last agencies to return to office (April 2022 I think) and we have flex hybrid arrangements. Of my 4 person team, the 2 senior members went back to in office 5 days/wk with WFH as needed. Me and the other junior member are 3 days in office, 2 days WFH. All of us are in on Mon, then she and I split the week so at least one of us is in office. It helps that we're technically a field office, so a little looser requirements. Though I do believe supervisors and directors were just told at least 3 days in office.

[tacoflavoredkisses]

Jan 31, 2024 12:23:23 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

Jan 31, 2024 12:04:21 GMT -5 supertrooper1 said:

mrshandy, how does your locality pay work being fully remote? I spoke to my local union president and he said I should be careful fighting for a fully remote position because my pay could be changed to "rest of the country" instead of my current Seattle locality pay.

Not mrshandy, but this came up with some of my coworkers (we’re in the greater Seattle area) and they were told that if they left the area, the locality pay would be based on the locality pay of their new/actual location. Don’t know much about this, but thought I’d share.

This is the guidance my H was given when we were looking to move and we were careful to stay in what would fall in the DC locality pay radius.

[tacoflavoredkisses]

My H is a DC based fed, not SSA, and he’s been required to do 2 days in the office for a few months now. We moved further out from the city proper assuming he would stay teleworking for the foreseeable future so it’s been an adjustment for us all.

[mainelyfoolish]

My DH is a DOD civilian who has been back in the office 3 days a week for quite a while now. His job is covered under a collective bargaining agreement and it recently came to light that the most recent contract only requires being on site two days per pay period. Pretty much everyone impacted, including DH, immediately applied for a work schedule change to WFH all but the minimum two days per pp and everyone who applied got the same copy+paste rejection citing unspecified operational needs, so there are a lot of people currently working their way through the union grievance process.

To add insult to injury, DH is currently going into the office every day because his VPN was shut down last weekend for a security vulnerability/probable breach and there is no timeline yet for when it will be available again.

ETA: My DH’s work location has limited parking, few vanpools/buses, and horrendous traffic to get on/off yard (seriously, new entry-level hires keep quitting because it’s not worth the time and hassle to get to work). You would think reducing the number of workers on site who don’t physically need to be there to do their jobs would desirable.

[fuckyourcouch]

Jan 31, 2024 12:04:21 GMT -5 supertrooper1 said:

mrshandy, how does your locality pay work being fully remote? I spoke to my local union president and he said I should be careful fighting for a fully remote position because my pay could be changed to "rest of the country" instead of my current Seattle locality pay.

Pre-COVID I had to report 1 time per week. Right now, we have to report 1 time per month and in December they told us we were going to have to report 2 times per week. That quickly ended after the national union got involved. I imagine eventually we'll have to go back to pre-COVID 1 time per week, but we could be fully remote. Out of a group of about 50 in my division, I only work with 2 other people locally. The 1 time per month that we have to report is for a Teams meeting with the other 50 people nationwide, so it doesn't even make sense to go in for that.

Former union steward. Your remote salary is based on your address as your duty station. They can’t give you rural pay if you live in a distinct existing locality. I am fully remote from DC and receive Denver pay scale. If I move to another location, I will get that locality unless there is no specified locality, that’s the only way they can switch you to rest of the US scale.