I’m hoping they are just using this as a way to get some federal workers to quit and these departments can be cut via attrition. Otherwise, I disagree.
I loved driving during COVID when all the sheep were locked up in their homes. Commutes were not as miserable, the air was cleaner. They can sell or raze all of those empty government buildings as far as I’m concerned.
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Yeah, if the purpose is to get people to quit, this is a good idea.
There is no reason work can’t be done remotely.
I think it’s funny that Musk thinks people not at their desk can’t work productively. The guy spent a month in Mar a Lago and I’m sure he worked plenty hard on companies in other parts of the country.
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Some jobs can be very effectively done remotely, and output for them can be monitored and measured to show that the working arrangement does not cost the organization in efficiency or output.
It works in the private sector, and similar jobs in the government sector should work the same way.
Turn excess office buildings into housing for the homeless.
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This is America sir. We criminalize the homeless, not help them.
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Yeah, I know it’s more complicated than typing words on the internet, but we’re staring at two major issues - excess commercial space - in both private and government sectors, and a housing shortage…
Kind of feels like the answer to both is right there…
I guess one issue is, prime commericial real estate valuation relative to affordable housing.
Unfortunately, it may be a way of getting the best people to quit while those who are insecure in their abilities decide to stay for fear they can’t find comparable work.
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Exactly. The ones that quit are probably confident in their ability to find employment elsewhere, which means they are probably productive, dependable employees. The ones you want to keep.
Good point.
A blanket RTO mandate is stupid and would like result in good people leaving and the bad ones staying because they are not desirable in the private sector.
Each agency should evaluate what works best for them. If there are excess buildings… sell/lease them! Saves us money.
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There’s a whole herd of these people that are unneeded to do the jobs they are supposed to be doing imo.
I favor making them go to work myself.
Thin the herd of useless DC bureaucrat types.
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They would just totally trash the buildings.
Best way to help with a lot of the housing problems is get about 20 million of the illegals out of here as fast as possible.
Would help tremendously with rentals available for legitimate citizens i would think.
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I agree with that.
Over all, I think it’s pandering to this weird idea that people aren’t working if they haven’t driven thought the awful DC traffic and sitting in a cubicle in a giant building downtown.
This talking point works well to a certain demo of maga. They have to go into an office or work with their hands and they feel if you aren’t doing that… you aren’t doing anything. I’ve worked remotely for almost 5 years. It’s a godsend to my productivity. I have teams on the east coast, emea and apac. Working from home allows me to have more time support their time zone.
Truth is… most Republicans have never thought government workers did much of anything. The remote work stuff is just a red herring.
What is funny is… a large portion of government civilians and contractors are former military. A large portion of them are likely republicans who voted for Trump.
Agreed. Empty buildings is the lamest reason to push RTO
Besides the biased unsupported rant part about Republicans in your post, it does bring up another issue. Why are so many government and agency offices in DC? In the 1930s it might have made sense, but today it doesnt matter so much if a related office is next door or across the country.
I believe Patel has already brought this up in relation to the FBI.
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I bet we could get rid of 50% or more of govt workers. And few would notice.
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You’d probably be very wrong.
If so, that should be done by determining which jobs are unnecessary and getting rid of those tasks, not by an across the board reduction of both necessary and unnecessary jobs.
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You would think democrats would want so value for their tax dollars. But here in cal the roads are bad, medical system is over crowded and frustrating, and the schools are bad. Yet, they love paying high taxes for it… And they seem to love paying lots to insurance companies. It’s just odd!
Now they all run around ending every conversation with “we live in interesting times” as though it’s the height of intellectualism. And as though it was not them trying to end free speech, and imprison the political opposition.
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The private sector thrives on efficiency. The company I used to work for was able to avoid having to increase office space by allowing aggressive Work from Home schedules. I believe the private sector can do a good job of avoiding abuse.
By comparison, the Government is inherently inefficient. There is no incentive to do otherwise. I strongly believe that Government Work from Home programs are ripe with abuse.
I strongly disagree with this. I believe the Government should sell off their excess office buildings.
