I only read about half this thread.
I get that there are lots of federal employees who don't really have a home office/nearby.
But the people I know, live(d) near one.
My boss was complaining at lunch today on behalf of her friends.
1. Employee moved from NJ to Philly on the expectation of only having to go into the office one day a week. No more. So sad.
2. Employee has a young child and no daycare provider, needs to be home to pick the child up from the bus stop. And what about the 2-3 hours after that? If your child can't get home alone, can they be home alone unsupervised? Or does employee usually quit work at 2:15 and pick up at night? When I worked for the federal government, there was a form you had to sign that you had daycare for your young kids.
3. My family member is federal, WFH; regularly throw parties, entertains, talks on the phone for an hour, all while "working"; checks his computer every 15 minutes to make sure nothing has blown up but doesn't make an effort to find maintenance work or anything else to do. Whereas I, in the private sector, rarely take 5 minutes to make a personal call.
4. Another one of my family member, retired for 10 years, worked from home 2 days a week. I saw him take maybe half a dozen conference calls in 5 years.
5. This aligns with the federal managers and staff I worked with, 10 years ago, who WFH on MF. You couldn't get an email reply, an important meeting, no contact unless it was an emergency. Did they do important paperwork or training on that time? I would be surprised.
