DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers
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https://fortune.com/2024/11/25/elon-musk-rto-federal-workers-welcomes-attrition/
Musk and Ramaswamy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:
“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the COVID-era privilege of staying home,” ...
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I have no idea of how you would measure it, but as a thought - has "productivity" changed with the work-from-home policy?
If the job's getting done, why not continue?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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I have no idea of how you would measure it, but as a thought - has "productivity" changed with the work-from-home policy?
If the job's getting done, why not continue?
@George-K said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
I have no idea of how you would measure it, but as a thought - has "productivity" changed with the work-from-home policy?
If the job's getting done, why not continue?
My theory is there's a bunch of executives out there who do nothing but fuck around all day playing golf and having pointless off-site meetings who feel the need to ensure that their workforce isn't doing the same thing.
We were told we had to come back full time to ensure "personal engagement". I literally haven't seen a senior management exec. in the building once since we returned. I tell a lie - two of them showed up to the summer office barbeque, but that was it.
It may indeed be tough at the top, but it's a lot tougher at the other end.
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I have no idea of how you would measure it, but as a thought - has "productivity" changed with the work-from-home policy?
If the job's getting done, why not continue?
@George-K said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
I have no idea of how you would measure it, but as a thought - has "productivity" changed with the work-from-home policy?
If the job's getting done, why not continue?
Easy. This is a public sector job. These people work for the people, plain and simple. As a result, the people are owed both transparency and accountability. When employees work from home, there is neither.
Beyond that (though there’s no need to go beyond that), if there were a group whose purpose was say to evaluate both the necessity of the work being done as well as the capacity of the employees to do said work, then that group would have to be able to observe the employees in action.
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We have a retired lawyer as a board member. She took a temporary job with the SBA, something to due with the pandemic loan forgiveness program.
She worked from home on a government computer. They monitored her activity to ensure she put in her hours. She could only have zoom calls between 12-1 because she had to be in their system 8-12 and 1-5.
I don’t know how unusual that is for the government.
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That sounds like an idea the gummint would implement. Of course you can be in the system all day and accomplishing diddly squat. I imagine it would be fairly easy to run a script that sends an appropriate keystroke or data entry every few minutes and run that. I could be right in front of you in the office doing whatever I liked and you'd never know.
On the other hand, do you want to make government jobs significantly less desirable than private sector? That will decrease the quality of available hires over time.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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In my experience if you treat people like children, they'll act like children.
And telling government workers 'you work for us, the people, and you are accountable to us, the people', is a great sound-byte, but it's really just bullshit. They work for their manager, just like the rest of us.
I was only joking
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That sounds like an idea the gummint would implement. Of course you can be in the system all day and accomplishing diddly squat. I imagine it would be fairly easy to run a script that sends an appropriate keystroke or data entry every few minutes and run that. I could be right in front of you in the office doing whatever I liked and you'd never know.
On the other hand, do you want to make government jobs significantly less desirable than private sector? That will decrease the quality of available hires over time.
@Mik said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
On the other hand, do you want to make government jobs significantly less desirable than private sector? That will decrease the quality of available hires over time.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
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In my experience if you treat people like children, they'll act like children.
And telling government workers 'you work for us, the people, and you are accountable to us, the people', is a great sound-byte, but it's really just bullshit. They work for their manager, just like the rest of us.
@Doctor-Phibes said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
In my experience if you treat people like children, they'll act like children.
And telling government workers 'you work for us, the people, and you are accountable to us, the people', is a great sound-byte, but it's really just bullshit. They work for their manager, just like the rest of us.
And I give a flying fuck about their opinions about who they work for?
The Brad
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There is some "push through" effect to having people in the office, government or otherwise. Businesses in the areas near offices benefit.
Should people who work from home take a pay cut as their expenses are down? If not, should people who work for the government (or other companies) but have to be in the "office" get a pay raise? (cleaning staff, garbage workers, bus drivers, etc.)
A while back, I think it was Facebook(?) was talking about adjusting salaries of those who work remotely. Part of their high pay structure was because cost of living in San Fran, etc. was so high. If that person worked remotely in XX city, North Dakota, Facebook wondered if they should be getting the same pay.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
In my experience if you treat people like children, they'll act like children.
And telling government workers 'you work for us, the people, and you are accountable to us, the people', is a great sound-byte, but it's really just bullshit. They work for their manager, just like the rest of us.
And I give a flying fuck about their opinions about who they work for?
@LuFins-Dad said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
@Doctor-Phibes said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
In my experience if you treat people like children, they'll act like children.
And telling government workers 'you work for us, the people, and you are accountable to us, the people', is a great sound-byte, but it's really just bullshit. They work for their manager, just like the rest of us.
And I give a flying fuck about their opinions about who they work for?
Clearly not. However, in the grand scheme of things that doesn't really matter.
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I’m a small government conservative sort of guy - but the rhetoric on government workers in this country is counterproductive.
Aside from political/judicial staff and aides, I don’t think any part of the government is seen as prestigious.
A well functioning administrative state is essential. You want smart, capable people doing that. I don’t think any of our best and brightest really want to be a part of that machine - and then bad government becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
TLDR - fewer people, high quality
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You should care about their opinions about who they work for.
Enough of them have to truly believe that they ultimately work for the people for us to maintain a democratic republic. Else you devolve into some form of autocracy.
@Axtremus said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
You should care about their opinions about who they work for.
Enough of them have to truly believe that they ultimately work for the people for us to maintain a democratic republic. Else you devolve into some form of autocracy.
Welcome to MAGA.
The Brad
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Today, the federal employees are paid more than equivalent private sector employees, with nearly 100% job security, and almost no accountability. They also have a much better retirement and health insurance plan. On average, the government workers that I engage with on a daily basis are among the least competent and have almost no drive and initiative.
The sad part? I don’t think all of them started that way. I think a fair number of them have basically been beaten into submission.
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@Axtremus said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
You should care about their opinions about who they work for.
Enough of them have to truly believe that they ultimately work for the people for us to maintain a democratic republic. Else you devolve into some form of autocracy.
Welcome to MAGA.
@LuFins-Dad said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
@Axtremus said in DOGE's Return To Office Plan for Government Workers:
You should care about their opinions about who they work for.
Enough of them have to truly believe that they ultimately work for the people for us to maintain a democratic republic. Else you devolve into some form of autocracy.
Welcome to MAGA.
He said ‘the people’, not ‘the whims of one man’. ‘
