Government operations aside, I'm of the opinion that working remotely should be the norm and the 40 hour work week is now stupid.
We're doing 3x the amount of productivity for less pay despite an insane amount of automation, and digitization, all so we can sell to the globe and consume.
It is amazing watching people defend 40+ hour work weeks, and being forced into the office (while the exec team does whatever the fuck it wants) almost for no other reason that it's become a habit "we've alwaysdone it this way".
I agree. I've worked remotely for quite a long time and have always been more productive. I also noticed one year I added less than 1000 miles on my car that year so I saved a TON of gas. Great benefit.
However - these government workers are not like us. Some of them actually have other jobs they work instead of doing their government work, so they are getting paid for 2 full-time jobs but only working the 1 non-government job.
I'd be ok with them having 2 or even 3 days for WFH, but those days would have to be the days they have the long meetings the govt likes to have. Make them attend on video, and sprinkle some random, unannounced meetings in as well to make sure they are actually at home working. The govt won't do that either, probably because the managers are also slacking off doing nothing.
I'm government and work frome home. I hate driving into work. I do 12 hrs days. No I'm no slouch, yeah I see others that suck, but the problem is, unless they automate a lot of things, they won't be able to get the cuts they want. It's just too big.
You can also say let's cut the military too, but most of yall would be up in arms, or the post office, or calling into the irs for "where's my refund check" I think alot of yall see way more state government workers slacking than you do the feds.
Should there be cuts, yes. But the politicians should get the cuts first, then have it all trickle down. Biggest budget spending is interest, health and defense. It ain't no fed employee standing around doing nothing.
Yeah yeah, you fed, and? I applied and got the job, private sector didn't hire me when I got got my finance and accounting degree so I went for government. Beats working minimum wage at some bs job just to get by. You do what you must. So yall want cuts but we have lives too and none of us want to have our jobs taken away and I'm sure there's a bunch of fed and state workers on the board as well.
With today’s communication technology and computer monitoring software there is absolutely reason for anyone with a desk job to report somewhere other than a desk in their own house. Period!
Teleworking benefits all of society, not just the lone teleworker. So much time, money, and all around resources are saved it’s ridiculous to expect people to continue to line up on the highway to get “to work” nowadays.
The instances of telework abuse are far more manageable and avoidable than the waste involved in everyone “reporting to work”.
Management’s failure to enforce any kind of rule has nothing to do with why telework is beneficial. Time management is problem in the office as well. It is a management problem. Not a telework problem.
I'm not here to put you down, but 40 hour work weeks aren't likely to change and the simple reason is just... It can't.
If you reduce the hours, you'll get paid less and they'll hire on a second person to handle the other hours. So now you double the hired force, sure, but they're also going to end up being paid substantially lower wages.
As for return to office on the government side, it is 100% a bypass against their efforts to stop them from firing a large number of people. That is the primary focus.
From a private company point of view, it is useful for several reasons:
Testing loyalty / investment of your employees.
Simplifies security.
It ensures that they're not just furnishing your home with furniture.
For point #3, we saw a good number of people crying that they had to return the standing desks to the company who paid for it. In normal office work, that desk could be reused. In remote work, that desk is now difficult to ship back.
I don't see anything wrong with that either. The company is paying for the desk, it is their property and not yours.
There are other reasons too, but these are pretty important ones to smaller companies.
I've worked remotely for quite a while, and this is why I beg to disagree. When you work with a functional team, you teach the less experienced, your team works as a team - functioning at a higher level than the parts.
My team has been back to work since the COVID rules relaxed, and the shape of our programs is appalling. A lot of people have retired in the last few years, and with no one to train them, they have had to depend on online training, the number of corrections we have had to make, and I mean very basic and costly mistakes far outweighs any perceivable benefit.
One positive thing that has happened, is our ability to work from home, means that when winter weather makes commuting to work dangerous; we can meet virtually. When someone is sick, they can still (voluntarily) do some work at home.
But, as a whole - this has been a net negative. To paraphrase Musk "they can pretend to work elsewhere".
People like Elon Musk is why we have a 40 hours work week. He works very hard to get rich and make a different. Normal people just want to survive and raise a family.
He's the type that would make folks work 120 hours a week for peanuts an hour, with promises of a few thousands RSUs 4 years from now. And won't give two shits if you balk at the offer.
A new world is coming and work culture will finally evolve beyond 1926.
Government operations aside, I'm of the opinion that working remotely should be the norm and the 40 hour work week is now stupid.
We're doing 3x the amount of productivity for less pay despite an insane amount of automation, and digitization, all so we can sell to the globe and consume.
It is amazing watching people defend 40+ hour work weeks, and being forced into the office (while the exec team does whatever the fuck it wants) almost for no other reason that it's become a habit "we've alwaysdone it this way".
I hope people wake up to that fact.
I agree. I've worked remotely for quite a long time and have always been more productive. I also noticed one year I added less than 1000 miles on my car that year so I saved a TON of gas. Great benefit.
However - these government workers are not like us. Some of them actually have other jobs they work instead of doing their government work, so they are getting paid for 2 full-time jobs but only working the 1 non-government job.
I'd be ok with them having 2 or even 3 days for WFH, but those days would have to be the days they have the long meetings the govt likes to have. Make them attend on video, and sprinkle some random, unannounced meetings in as well to make sure they are actually at home working. The govt won't do that either, probably because the managers are also slacking off doing nothing.
I'm government and work frome home. I hate driving into work. I do 12 hrs days. No I'm no slouch, yeah I see others that suck, but the problem is, unless they automate a lot of things, they won't be able to get the cuts they want. It's just too big.
You can also say let's cut the military too, but most of yall would be up in arms, or the post office, or calling into the irs for "where's my refund check" I think alot of yall see way more state government workers slacking than you do the feds.
Should there be cuts, yes. But the politicians should get the cuts first, then have it all trickle down. Biggest budget spending is interest, health and defense. It ain't no fed employee standing around doing nothing.
Yeah yeah, you fed, and? I applied and got the job, private sector didn't hire me when I got got my finance and accounting degree so I went for government. Beats working minimum wage at some bs job just to get by. You do what you must. So yall want cuts but we have lives too and none of us want to have our jobs taken away and I'm sure there's a bunch of fed and state workers on the board as well.
You won't really find many bleeding hearts for the over inflated government.
Jobs will be lost. That has to happen. It sucks. The government should not be a top employer. That is where we are though.
Social security administration alone is ridiculously inflated and that is one section.
Sorry I doubt you are doing 3x the work since 2010.
Just look up any workers compensation vs. Wages graph. We get paid less, yet have way more worker output.
Not sure where you got 2010 from.
With today’s communication technology and computer monitoring software there is absolutely reason for anyone with a desk job to report somewhere other than a desk in their own house. Period!
Teleworking benefits all of society, not just the lone teleworker. So much time, money, and all around resources are saved it’s ridiculous to expect people to continue to line up on the highway to get “to work” nowadays.
The instances of telework abuse are far more manageable and avoidable than the waste involved in everyone “reporting to work”.
Except management rarely deals with abuse of time management.
Management’s failure to enforce any kind of rule has nothing to do with why telework is beneficial. Time management is problem in the office as well. It is a management problem. Not a telework problem.
I'm not here to put you down, but 40 hour work weeks aren't likely to change and the simple reason is just... It can't.
If you reduce the hours, you'll get paid less and they'll hire on a second person to handle the other hours. So now you double the hired force, sure, but they're also going to end up being paid substantially lower wages.
As for return to office on the government side, it is 100% a bypass against their efforts to stop them from firing a large number of people. That is the primary focus.
From a private company point of view, it is useful for several reasons:
Testing loyalty / investment of your employees.
Simplifies security.
It ensures that they're not just furnishing your home with furniture.
For point #3, we saw a good number of people crying that they had to return the standing desks to the company who paid for it. In normal office work, that desk could be reused. In remote work, that desk is now difficult to ship back.
I don't see anything wrong with that either. The company is paying for the desk, it is their property and not yours.
There are other reasons too, but these are pretty important ones to smaller companies.
Totally agree.
That only works in some work environments.Blue collar still needs to be on the job. Which is a large portion of the workforce still.
I've worked remotely for quite a while, and this is why I beg to disagree. When you work with a functional team, you teach the less experienced, your team works as a team - functioning at a higher level than the parts.
My team has been back to work since the COVID rules relaxed, and the shape of our programs is appalling. A lot of people have retired in the last few years, and with no one to train them, they have had to depend on online training, the number of corrections we have had to make, and I mean very basic and costly mistakes far outweighs any perceivable benefit.
One positive thing that has happened, is our ability to work from home, means that when winter weather makes commuting to work dangerous; we can meet virtually. When someone is sick, they can still (voluntarily) do some work at home.
But, as a whole - this has been a net negative. To paraphrase Musk "they can pretend to work elsewhere".
Amen! you laid it out well. Work from home is a total negative overall. The only good point is that snow days are no longer a day off without work.
People like Elon Musk is why we have a 40 hours work week. He works very hard to get rich and make a different. Normal people just want to survive and raise a family.
He's the type that would make folks work 120 hours a week for peanuts an hour, with promises of a few thousands RSUs 4 years from now. And won't give two shits if you balk at the offer.
I hope so.