And that's what you tell Elon and Vivek when you get called in front of them.
Govt Work at Home May Be Over
- Thread starter Sneakers
- Start date
Vivek seems to think that a government worker of several decades - who might be dead weight - is going to just QUIT by being compelled to physically return.
He’s a smart guy but he’s dirt stupid on that one.
There’s nothing efficient or cost saving about it. The purpose is to piss people off enough to quit. If you’re a 50 year old government employee with a TSP and a pension and great benefits - that certainly won’t happen if you suck at your job.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Because in almost every case change is for the worse, you are right they will probably do whatever is the stupidest.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
My building isn't big enough, so right before Covid they were in the process of removing cubicles and replacing them with the carrels that are in the public library to cram in more people. These aren't people that work virtually, everyone has a lot of physical stuff to do their job. Thankfully Covid hit and they abandoned that idiocy.
We had people at tables in the hallways, closets, printer rooms, under stairs. And right when that happened, another agency moved in.
So my agency got a good idea - during the hiatus , revamp the entire buildings and structure everything around telework. Meeting rooms vastly upgraded for remote attendance - seriously, they’re awesome. The workstations are state of the art and so is the new kiosk registration system.
It’s cool. If NEEDED you can reserve a team room online and have a week to brainstorm. Security throughout the buildings is first rate.
BUT - the design assumes something I think is coming - the demise of the traditional office. The design assumes a future where telework is the norm.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
I see younger government workers quit all the time. One thing I see down here is we get a lot of ones straight out of college that just took the first job they found, don't move here and try to commute from say Silver Spring while looking for a job closer to home. I told my branch head to never hire someone that lives more than an hour away but less than two hours away because this keeps happening to us. Younger workers also look for flexibility to be able to telework if they can.
Sorry but the latest employment numbers came out. Once again, the largest job growth was in government jobs. The US can't continue on that trajectory. If Elon and Vivek can force people out of the government sector and into the private sector. (The real private sector.) We all will be better off.
The flotsam they need to push out of government would be less than worthless in the private sector.
Sneakers
Just sneakin' around....
Yes and no. Reducing the deadwood is a good thing, but from past experience, a contractor working on a govt contract costs far more than a govt employee doing the same task.
One contract I was working on cost the program $145,000 per year, my (unburdened) salary was around $60,000.
Why I added the real private sector. A contractor is just a better paid civil servant.
Considering what the local GS scale looks like around here for 12s and above, I don’t know that that’s so much the case anymore.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
I'm a pretty close to maxed out GS-14, the contractors that are equivalent to the GS-13s under me make significantly more than I do, so I am guessing my equivalent makes even more.
TPD
the poor dad
A common theme I'm reading between the lines here in this thread is that we have too many government workers.
I had a whole tirade I just typed concerning WFH government employees, but just deleted it - it's best I keep my mouth shut - already said too much. This is a hot button topic in an area like ours and the answer is not an easy one.
I had a whole tirade I just typed concerning WFH government employees, but just deleted it - it's best I keep my mouth shut - already said too much. This is a hot button topic in an area like ours and the answer is not an easy one.
Not federal government.
Bear in mind that the entire federal payroll is like 280 billion. Out of a six trillion dollar budget, it’s not much even if you fired ALL of them.
That and the fact that your typical DC area fed is like a tenth of that - most feds don’t work around DC even though the largest single group DOES.
That and the fact that your typical DC area fed is like a tenth of that - most feds don’t work around DC even though the largest single group DOES.
22AcaciaAve
Well-Known Member
I LMAO about all of this. This is all about trying to make people quit. Clowns Musk and Ramaswamy want to show reductions in the federal work force and this is their way to do it taking the easy way out.
No doubt the government work force needs to be reduced. But do the hard work. Go agency by agency, department by department and figure out who you need to keep and who should go. The clowns want to take the easy way out.
As for telework, sure some people take advantage of it, but some actually benefit from it. Take a good hard look at all of the government owned buildings, the security and maintenance dollars involved for all of them. Then tell me that those dollars are needed. There are ways to monitor if people are working from home or not. The best way is basically if people are getting their tasks done.
People like Musk and Ramaswamy don't understand that. They both have thrown millions of dollars at their ventures to make them successful. That's not what we want government to do. We want to throw less money at something and make it successful. These clowns do not understand that.
No doubt the government work force needs to be reduced. But do the hard work. Go agency by agency, department by department and figure out who you need to keep and who should go. The clowns want to take the easy way out.
As for telework, sure some people take advantage of it, but some actually benefit from it. Take a good hard look at all of the government owned buildings, the security and maintenance dollars involved for all of them. Then tell me that those dollars are needed. There are ways to monitor if people are working from home or not. The best way is basically if people are getting their tasks done.
People like Musk and Ramaswamy don't understand that. They both have thrown millions of dollars at their ventures to make them successful. That's not what we want government to do. We want to throw less money at something and make it successful. These clowns do not understand that.
