Trump offering buyout to gov workers who WFH

PLEASE note. He is NOT offering a buyout. The details are as follows:

1. Resign effective Sept
2. work from home until September.

That's the "buyout."

There is a statute that provides for actual buyouts. Employees are better off waiting to get fired so that they can get unemployment. It's another MAGA SCAM that the media fell for.

sending strength to you and your son. the cruelty of not knowing when or if your job is going to be cut; the lack of planning and the lies in that email do not shock.

this is MAGA at its finest and if you voted for this scum, own it.

If MAGA wants to cut the size of workforce, then do so thoughtfully and with some respect. these are humans.

I am so sorry for everyone going through this uncertainty and stress.  Huge and wide spread job issues are terrible and it is even worse that it is nothing that you have done and has absolutely nothing to do with your character, work ethic, or job performance.  Good luck to you all.

On a sarcastic note -  because I would not want to disappoint anyone that may think I have unwarranted hate for and never pass up a chance to pass it on…I wonder if Trump got his letter?   No hybrid working for him from Mar-a-Lago, Bedminster, or whatever of his golf places he wants to be at.  I want to see him in the White House Oval Office every day if not out of the country.  😉😆😆

I stay far away from political threads, but I'm curious about this. Understanding your son needs an accommodation, then I'm totally in support that he should not lose his job. BUT, why do people not want to go back to the office? I just don't get it! A vast majority went to the office prior to COVID. You are hired to do a job, for most your employer had brick and mortar buildings in which to do that job. Just because you can do your job from home, doesn't mean it's your right. I personally like the separation of 'Church and State'...at work you work, at home you live your personal life. Apologies, I just really struggle with this concept...and it has nothing to do with which side of the aisle you support.

IMO, Because for some people, the ability to get into a work place and the amount of personal time spent trying to get there definitely affects a person’s personal/work life balance.  People are pushing for more of a balance but do not seem to be able to come up with alternatives that will help…this helped for many now that we are in the technical age that it is possible.

How long does it take you to get to work?  For my small semi rural state many have to travel at least an hour and often in inclement conditions each way.  That addition of 2 to 2.5 hours of personal time being able to spend with family, go see your kids ball game or whatever was a benefit and far outweighed whatever you (general you) think may be gained by being in a cubicle somewhere.

For me, it saved me from having to drive in in Blizzards , intense storms etc.  It also meant that at midnight I was not having to get in my car and drive home.  As a 2nd shifter of a 24/7/365 department this was a game changer.   And I have worked at my job for over 20 years.  I still have to go in sometimes and immediately if I lose internet or power but it also means that I don’t dread risking life or limb trying to make it in some days when not needed and that it gives me back 1 and a half of hours of my very precious personal time without hindering any of my job or performance.  And I was in an pretty empty building so it wasn’t like I needed to be there for socializing.

There are some jobs that you can not.  There are some jobs that can be hybrid.  There are some people that want to go into a physical work place and there are some that do not.  To generalize and force everyone to one way when it is not necessary, and actually sometimes counterproductive,  doesn’t make sense either.  I don’t see it as a one way or the other type issue. 

I live about 20-30 min from the base I support. When COVID happened, they sent everyone home "for 2 weeks" and it was a diasaster - teams meetings and connectivity was a nightmare, etc. Then, they fixed it and as we stayed home, and gradually COVID restrictions were lifted, they shifted - instead of bringing people back, they made it permanently from home. And indicated that since we could do our jobs from home, that meant you could live somewhere else. Some locality pay changed (the DC area is more expensive than say, TX) but who cared where you logged on to attend a teams mtg? Before, I'd have to fight to schedule a conference room, or go to another bldg, pray to find parking, get out and often find the meeting was cancelled or rescheduled but since I didnt get the message since I was travelling or parking, I didn't see it before I left for the meeting.

So a lot of my coworkers moved closer to their family. I have coworkers now in TX, NC, DC, MI, VA, Baltimore... I work with a team of approx 25, and I think there are maybe 10 of us local now? I dont even know if it's that many. And we aren't all govt employees - we are a mix of contractors and civilians. And there was some telework flexibility prior to COVID - I could work some from home like if my kids were sick or weather was bad. Now, I am not sure if ALL work has to be done in the office or if some flexibility is allowed. Even our local offices downsized. The room I used to sit in on base is now reassigned to another team. My husband's space was also reallocated, so they have 1/3 what they used to. My company used to have a space in a building off site, I believe we occupied 1.5 floors, and that was reduced to 1/5 floor now. So it's not like people are fighting to return to office, it's that they don't HAVE an office to return to, and cramming 15 people into a conference room now to sign on to a team meeting is, frankly, stupid, IMO. People have to arrange for child care, pet care, parking or transportation (ie carpools or buses) etc, which is reasonable, except now its in the middle of the school or FY - some of these things aren't even accepting new people at this time.


So a part of me feels it was bait and switch - everyone got forced home, kinks were worked out and working/saving $ so well, they decided to continue, and now, the new admin wants everyone back - not to save money (it will do the opposite) but bc some people actually can't bc they moved and had agreements in place, and now unless they get an exception, which is likely not gonna happen - they have to come back to their duty station, OR find a local desk at another federal agency (which you may have zero to do with, plus they have their own people to take care of) to plug into just for the sake of saying they are in the office.


TL;DR version:  It's not that we wanted to WFH, but we had to, we adapted, money was saved, productivity was up, so flexibility was granted bc it was working so well.... and now all that is out the window to cause choas and distrupt the federal govt. This is straight out of Project 2025.

I totally understand your son's circumstance and am in full support of his accommodation...it makes total sense.  I'm not saying it necessarily should be a blanket "go back to the office", but I'm curious about people who worked in office full time prior to COVID and now are fighting going back into office.  I think the best situations are flex in style...in office part of the time and at home part of the time.  I think I'm more curious about the people saying absolute "no" I will not return to the office in any capacity for any amount of time.  

I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but I really believe in general, business changed drastically in the last few years. Technologies have changed. And people adapted to having more life balance. Why should they be forced to give up mental health and life balance just to appease a tyrant, especially when businesses realized how many benefits they had with WFH? Way less overhead without all that office space. Being able to hire from a much larger pool of talent. Even longer work hours because the commutes are gone. It doesn't just benefit workers. It benefits business. But let's be honest. It's not about going back to an office. It's about attrition. It's a quick way to slash people. 

I have a friend who lives in Phx and started working from home during COVID. She is very good at her job (she is in charge of their electronic document control system)... since that time, the Phx facility closed and moved the product manufacturing to Dallas to consolidate with the other part of the company. She still works from home in AZ, even though the manufacturing of the actual product happens in TX. She would NOT have wanted to move to Texas, so would probably have found another job if that was the requirement-- but this way it's still a win for the company, because they still have the benefit of her 15+ years of expertise.