Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Deja Vu, All Over Again

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Dick Hall-Sizemore
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by Dick Hall-Sizemore

As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Youngkin “wants state employees back in their offices under a new telework policy that will take effect July 5 to guide executive branch agencies out of workplace restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

To that effect, he has announced a policy that will let state agencies determine which jobs will be eligible for remote work and how often employees will be allowed to perform their duties outside of their government offices.

That is a reasonable-sounding approach.  In fact, it is so reasonable that it was the state’s policy before COVID-19 resulted in most state employees working from home.

The big difference now, of course, is that so many state employees have experienced working from home and many of them like it. The pressure will be on agency heads and supervisors to determine which jobs are suitable for remote work and to deal with those employees who will be unhappy that they will not be allowed to continue to work from home as often as they would like.

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28 responses to “Deja Vu, All Over Again”

  1. Kathleen Smith Avatar
    Kathleen Smith

    It costs a lot of money to maintain the state office buildings for so few people. I wonder how much they could save?

  2. Freda Joy Rosso Avatar
    Freda Joy Rosso

    As a state employee I’m cheering this move. I’m tired of teleloafing co-workers. Those that say agency employees are more productive when teleworking are blowing smoke. Very few positions don’t require communication and collaboration with coworkers. It is less effective and less productive to do that over “zoom”. Get out of your pajamas Virginia, polish up those social skills and get back to work.

    1. vicnicholls Avatar
      vicnicholls

      Actually some of them produced the same or more (and that is by statistics). People who worked from home didn’t mind staying after a little bit to help out, since they didn’t have to face a commute. During lunch periods they could set off the dishwasher and make a couple of personal calls. Now they take pay cuts after no rises: pay to park, gas, car insurance. Already I’ve heard in one of the depts that 3 folks have left who have been there > 2 decades for greener pastures. Another dept. head left. Another one in another area is now retiring. Production will go down not only for those reasons, but trying to backfill that knowledge and security will be impossible.

  3. tadmd Avatar
    tadmd

    Remember when the the employer was the boss?

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      How’d that work out?

  4. VaPragamtist Avatar
    VaPragamtist

    Once again, the consultants Youngkin surrounds himself with are taking a very short-sighted approach to the issue of attracting and retaining state workforce talent.

    “Let’s all come back to work out of the overpriced, highly congested center of Richmond.”

    Meanwhile, the officials are looking at demolishing and rebuilding the Monroe Building to the tune of tens-to-hundreds of millions of dollars while other office buildings sit mostly empty.

    Suburbs offer greater quality workspace at often lower prices and isn’t controlled by the often inept DGS.

    Youngkin wants everyone back in person? That’s fine. But let each agency take the next year to come up with a strategy and solution that fits the needs, desires, and budget of their employees; rearrange spacing; and then bring everyone back. Take the unprecedented opportunity of empty buildings to reimagine the future of an in-person workforce.

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      Your comment: “Youngkin wants everyone back in person?”

      The actual point from the article: ” … he has announced a policy that will let state agencies determine which jobs will be eligible for remote work and how often employees will be allowed to perform their duties outside of their government offices.”

      Do you see the disconnect?

      1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        You are right. I also thought there is a contradiction between the rhetoric and the policy.

      2. VaPragamtist Avatar
        VaPragamtist

        There’s definitely a disconnect between the policy and how the Admin is marketing the policy.

        If you read the actual policy, agency heads have authority to approve telework agreements where one day per week telework is requested. Two days request goes to the secretary level. Any more than two goes to the Chief of Staff.

        Unless Secretaries and the CoS are ready to be overwhelmed with approvals, that tells me two things: (1) agency heads are being told to be careful in their evaluation of individual requests; and (2) Youngkin wants everyone back in person to the extent possible, but recognizes challenges within agencies.

        So yes–my understanding is that technically “state agencies will have the discretion to determine which jobs will be eligible for remote work and how often employees will be allowed to perform their duties outside of their government offices”, but that discretion will be couched within very specific parameters not made public that err on the side of in-person work.

        1. DJRippert Avatar
          DJRippert

          Very good. Thank you for the details. I think you’re right – the rhetoric and the policy are disconnected.

  5. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    I’m sorry Dick, did you say something? Wow! But JAB’s highly intrusive ads just got interesting. “Shop Swim” yowzah, yowzah, yowzah!

    How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm, eh? The problem the State is likely to face on a return-to-the-forced-labor-camp program is the deadwood will come back, and the brain trust will stay at home and work for someone else.

    Jobs are out there to be had.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      re: the ‘ads’. have you tried incognito or something like the Brave browser?

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        I’m not sure I want to block these. It’s like a revolving Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          oopsie

  6. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    It’s an idea whose time has come IMHO. There are some jobs that can be done in an “office” anywhere and there are phones and videos for interaction.

    It saves the state money on buildings, electricity and it also saves drivers rush-hour congestion.

    Some workforce interactions do need to be done in person but seldom on a 5-day a week basis.

    The pandemic has fundamentally changed how things work or perhaps more accurately, how things COULD work. Not just workforce but other parts of the economy like retail, shipping, supply chain, even fast food.

  7. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
    f/k/a_tmtfairfax

    For years, the District of Columbia was pushing to obtain authority to impose a commuter tax on anyone who drove downtown to work. Then comes COVID and massive work from home. Local business and sales tax revenues plummeted. There was a call for the federal government to get workers back downtown.

    There needs to be a balance.

    I’m into my second month working remotely. I miss going into tbe office several days per week. Of course, now the drive would be four plus hours instead of 15 minutes on a good day.

  8. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It seems that I jumped the gun and, as a result, was wrong. The new policy is not like the old policy; it is more stringent. The policy is now on the website of the Dept. of Human Resource Management. It actively discourages teleworking. For those employees that request permission to telework, the policy sets out the following approval levels:

    Agency head–one day per week, or temporary telework up to two weeks for special circumstances such as family illness or school closing.

    Cabinet Secretary–two days per week.

    Chief of Staff–more than two days per week.

    For the complete policy, see here: https://www.dhrm.virginia.gov/docs/default-source/hrpolicy/pol1_61.pdf

    By the way, I am not a fan of telework. I think employee interaction in an office adds a lot of value to the output of the office. Therefore, I think the policy is a reasonable one, although it does restrict the flexibility of agency directors.

  9. Timothy Watson Avatar
    Timothy Watson

    Despite what Youngkin has said to the press (that ‘it will be up to managers to deter teleworking opportunities’), the policy as written by DHRM requires the agency head to approve even one day a week of teleworking. If the employee requests two days, it requires approval from the Cabinet Secretary, and more than two days requires the approval of the Governor’s Chief of Staff.

    Any high-performers and anyone in a competitive job market (information technology, etc.) is probably looking for a new job now.

    1. VaPragamtist Avatar
      VaPragamtist

      That may be part of the intent. . .”decrease the size of government”

  10. Ronnie Chappell Avatar
    Ronnie Chappell

    Just wanted to say thanks to Dick for keeping the blog full of material to read, ponder and comment on during JAB’s vacation.

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      Hear, hear!

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        and no name-calling, culture war stupidity!

  11. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    Daughter works (and lives) in Manhattan. In order to tempt them back to office company is now springing for Uber ride to work… nice…

    Btw, commercial real estate crash is coming and will lead the next recession… Covid just keeps giving and giving…

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      sounds pricey since I believe all the bridges into Manhattan are tolled, no?

      1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
        Eric the half a troll

        “Pricey” is Manhattan’s middle name…

  12. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    Governor making a post-Covid (kind of) policy that is more restrictive than the pre-Covid policy in a much tighter job market… only making sense in an anti-government Conservative worldview.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      he’s getting some push-back, both about the actual policy and the way it was originally presented. Hard to understand his reasoning on this (and other). perhaps he’s of the “tele-loafer” mindset or perhaps he’s looking to downsize govt. win-win?

    2. Cathis398 Avatar
      Cathis398

      or a worldview in which the value of commercial real estate matters more than anything else, including having happy/productive/competent employees

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