Musk, Ramaswamy tell Trump to end "the Covid-era privilege of staying home"
Musk, Ramaswamy tell Trump to end "the Covid-era privilege of staying home"
The idea could affect over 1 million federal workers who are eligible for remote work.
You got to love this. The Pentagon just failed its 7th audit in a row. It has a budget of $1tr. And yet the cost savings team decides that penny pinching by making life harder for workers is where the real savings are to be found. Not the giant black hole of finance which is the military industrial complex.
Noooo shhhhh, we're not supposed to talk about HOW THE PENTAGON HAS NEVER PASSED AN AUDIT. We're supposed to be talking about the border, come on people, get it together.
Lol, how fast would he get merked for suggesting we cut Pentagon budget
You've gotta look at it from the perspective of a poor multibillionaire who desperately needs to buy his fifth superyatch so he can work his five CEO jobs remotely
How is working in the office saving the pentagon money?
But there's literally no reason to end that if staying home still gets work done
It doesn't give the same feeling of power to the people in charge if they don't see the
dronesworkers sweat.Yup. It's all about that sense of control. That's what they're paying for. I saw a quote from a survey of execuitives: "I don't know if my employees are walking their dogs for 4 hours per day when they're working from home, but I know they can't walk their dog when they're in the office".
Keep in mind, business execuitives are known to believe shit like, "when I go to the gym, that's work, because I need to be healthy for the business".
They believe they own us. They believe they deserve to.
Office real estate.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2023/03/05/how-remote-work-has-affected-real-estate-values/
This has had an understandable impact on office values, which fell considerably and remain below 2019. The author believes these valuations will remain below those levels for the next decade.
Simulations of office values, that took into account remote work rates, show that the value of all NYC office properties dropped by more than 40% in 2020. Predictions for 10 years after the shift to working from home suggest that office values in 2029 will remain an average of 39% lower than they were in 2019.
How many days do you think it will take until he calls for unions to be declared illegal?
Depends how much Musks's companies try to unionize.
He is already arguing the NLRB is unconstitutional.
The asswipes, Elon and Vivek, own several empty office buildings.
I agree! If Elon musk cannot show up to his offices at Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, xAI, and Washington for 8 hours Monday-Friday, he should be fired without severance as CEO or co-chair of his government department.
Rules for thee, not for me.
So, he and his cabinet will be working 8 hours a day at least 5 days a week in DC ? Can we get that in written please ?
Maybe not in DC, but don't underestimate how many hours most of these psychopaths actually work. They do come to work (maybe not in DC, but to some office somewhere) and work for 100 hours a week, because they place no value on anything other than work. You can fault them for many things, but billionaires are almost always true psychopaths with no concept of anything beyond working to achieve power.
Trump is a different story. He'll say the golf course is his office, where he makes his deals.
You can fault them for many things, but billionaires are almost always true psychopaths with no concept of anything beyond working to achieve power.
I can definitely fault them for that
Their work is a lot different than the work we do. (it's not harder)
There's no way Musk "works" 100 hours a week. How do you think he's found all this time to spend with his new bestie Donald? By all accounts the guy spends a significant amount of his time playing video games and on Twitter. His "work" is lunch meetings and zoom calls with the board where he just spitballs a bunch of nonsense.
General strikes, anyone?
Please!
But oh no here come the liberals again to tell us how that would hurt the economy and people need to be able to buy stuff. And that this just still isn't the right time to make a big fuss.
Back to the grind slaves. /S
Why the /s? They're not being sarcastic and you're just quoting them.
Saying the quiet part out loud again.
They believe that us not being forced to do what they want simply because they want it is a "privilege," and one that they can and will just arbitrarily decree to be null and void.
That says pretty much everything you meed to know about what they really think about everyone other than themselves.
And ironically enough, what they think is that they themselves are privileged.
"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome". this is and was always the reason american businesses were eager to force everybody back tp work. eat the rich.
Don't forget to include giving middle-management a reason to exist as well as justifying the commercial properties expenses! Man do I hate capitalism...
So they'll be coming in every day to their offices in Washington right?
...right?
It's interesting they have multiple offices. Offices they're already not in. If there was a time for a general strike it is forever ago.
Unless Musk somehow copied himself several times, he is working remote for most of his companies each day.
ROFL.
That's hilarious. You actually think Musk works?
"Working"...
But he is in a position to oppress others.
Fuck you both
Then they aren't really about efficiency, are they? When properly set up, WFH for office work is very effective and efficient.
But think of the billions of dollars of now unused office space. That's horrible for real estate pricing, which is where many of these fucks are invested.
And billions of barrels of oil no longer being used and going to waste from all the travel not happening and extra heat needed.
It's not even a real estate issue sometimes. I worked in an office in an industrial facility- printing custom boxes. Everyone in an office job was on a hybrid schedule. No one's job required them to be at the office. All conversations were by Slack, all meetings were by Zoom even if we were all in the office. They could have knocked down the office space and put in at least two more industrial printers. Considering how backed up we got around Christmas, that would have helped them.
Some of this is just old assholes who think people need to be in the office all the time so they can watch them or something. I don't know.
At least they didn't make me wear a tie.
they already said it themselves: "Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome" so no, it was never about efficiency. at all.
Agreed 100%. I used to work a hybrid schedule and I was much more efficient when I was at home and could be both relaxed and not distracted or annoyed by coworkers.
They are about more efficiency in enriching themselves. Forcing people back into inefficient office-based work is just a tool to fire huge chunks of them while filtering for those easier exploited.
Efficient for whom? The rich all have millions invested in commercial real estate so if it's not about voluntary resignations it's about that.
Anyone wanna bet on how many days Trump is at Mar-a-Lago during his presidency?
Honestly, I'll be surprised if he spends more than a few days at the White House.
Probably better for the whitehouse staff, easier to work around him and his gaggle of sub-humans, cant exactly demand folks do something as easily if he aint there.
Remember when he complained about how many days of vacation Obama took, then took more than that in half as many years?
I too want to work from the golf course.
Guy who sells cars wants people to need cars.
"iT's Up To ThE sTaTes!!!1!"
At least they're open about it: The entire point (according to them) is attrition. The actual plan is to make work for these people much more hostile so they quit.
Do you think our tax bills will drop if they succeed in forcing these million employees to quit?
They said they want to run the government like a business, and it looks like that's what they're pursuing. Unfortunately, that just means they'll give us the lowest quality service at the highest possible price.
why federal employees and not the private sector? oh right you want to fire half of the first group.
Well, also how would they mandate that for private companies?
well it is enough for Elon to suggest it. that is the kind of presidency they will be running as is obvious from Disney, IBM etc going back to advertising with Xitter
That’s the thing which makes it all funny, RTO in the private sector was a failure.
Sure some people went back cause they were forced to, but offering remote work for new positions is very popular now.
Companies have power over their current employees but not the new ones. So the industry is becoming more remote friendly overall as salty CEOs cling on to their smaller and smaller workforce of in office loyalists.
I liked the meme posted a month ago...
"Great. I get to delete my work email and collaboration apps from my phone"
Musk made a rant last year interview that "It is immoral for you to work from home if people building your car, or delivering your food cannot". As an employer, you have the option to pay more for extra expenses/time involved in coming to office if that is super important to you.
I'm not going to take lessons in morality from Mr. I-Promote-Nazis-On-My-Website
I don't think we should ever listen to moral opinions from ANYONE who has dedicated their lives to skimming as much money as possible off other people's hard work, and not just a few people but millions and millions. They are whatever the capitalist, economic version of a serial killer is.
Nah, I don't agree with paying people more to come into the office. Working at home has costs for me that the company doesn't compensate me for, plus it saves the company money in infrastructure and resources. If you get paid more to come into the office, I want to be paid more for my electricity, plus the desk and chair and monitor and the space in my house for them.
The average commute commutes 30 minutes each way, traveling an average of 15 miles, for a total time cost of 250 hours for a job wherein you are paid for 2080 hours of work.
The cost per vehicle mile is now about $0.72 including all costs. The average commuter traveling 15 miles one way will burn $5,400 commuting. Man then there is the cost of childcare. For instance maybe your kid gets home at 4P and you get off at 5P. If you commute you'll be back and 5:30 and you have to find a solution. One solution is one partner arrange to be off but that has its own cost. If you want to itemize the cost of having someone pick up and watch your kid its about $15-20 an hour 180 days * 2 hours or so. So up to $7000. This is not even counting the times that kids have the day off from school but mom and dad don't or times a kid is sick.
That is to say you commit 12% more unpaid work + commuting costs for the privilege of being there in person. If the median worker earns about 60,000 they are incurring as much as $20,000 in costs in both time, transportation, and childcare.
Compare that to the cost of running the company laptop 40 hours a week 50 weeks a year is about $10. A home office can be had for $1000 ever. As far as the space I have one which I've worked out of in my tiny studio come on man. Are you really shocked that you have to pay someone more to come in?
Hell we haven't even talked about the cost of living in the expensive places companies like to situate themselves vs the surrounding oft cheaper areas!
https://www.care.com/c/after-school-transportation-for-kids-cost/ https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/Transportation-Economic-Trends-Transportation-Spen/bzt6-t8cd/ https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/one-way-travel-time-to-work-rises.html
I mean, coming into the office also has additional costs associated. Fuel, mileage, commute time, etc.
god I fucking hate these people. Pure fucking hatred.
So the government telling businesses how they have to operate is small government now?
I assume they mean all government positions. Hey look at that it's in the headline
Yes. Much more power to a small amount of rich morons and sycophants while firing most people actually doing government day-to-day work makes the government smaller...
Oh we're well beyond "small government" at this point.
So small it'll fit right in your vagina.
Working from home for all jobs that it is compatible with should be a mandate to help lower the amount of gas necessary for commuting.
Yep but that means you're not buying gas, which is a crime
Exactly! People died for this gas, don't you care???
You think these ghouls don't have tons of investments in oil.
That hurts their profits
And avoiding government inefficiency, exactly what their dept is actually supposed to be advising on
To help bring good jobs to rural locations, that's how you convince people
I contract for uscis. It's fully distributed, there's no way to enforce this without crippling the agency. So it would hobble the mass deportation plan. Very curious how this might turn out
Since they're both just mouthing off about things they have zero understanding of, based on an over-inflated sense of their own knowledge and competence, this will probably turn out about like most things Trump has tried to do. It'll either go nowhere and they'll just stop speaking of it, or they'll try to force something through and make a mess that someone else will have to clean up.
Plus trump said their report will be due on July 4, 2026. How much cutting can they actually due before his term ends? Will they even start mass firing before mid terms?
Imagine owning the libs by spending your whole life trapped in an office serving capital.
Get a government job they said, it’s super safe and secure they said.
We owe commercial real estate investors exactly jacksh’t. This is, at least in part, about securing income for commercial landlords. Their “jobs” aren’t any more precious than anyone else’s jobs that are being impacted hard by this changing era. If they would like to fill their buildings, they can fork over some cash to convert parts of them to housing.
Not landlords. About securing investments in commercial real estate.
Which given its traditional status as a rock solid baseline for investors, its not at all surprising that two rich fuckers are pushing hard to shore up commercial real estate. It probably makes a significant part of their investments.
Ha ha, joke's on them. Our office doesn't have space for all of us. We downsized to ..gasp.. save money, which is what the federal government is supposed to do. They'd also have to renegotiate the union contract, something they just finished doing, so it's not something they really even can address for several years at least.
But Biden isn't squeaky clean on this either, he mandated some percentage of office space being utilized. Supposedly this was to help local businesses, like the fast food chicken place across the street that has survived without us there for almost 5 years now. (They were renovating our building and had us all move out during the pandemic.)
But there's something wrong with the formula being used to calculate utilization of the building - and in our case, even if every cube was full every day, we still wouldn't meet the requirement, because of how it's calculated. I don't have details, but it apparently includes space people can't occupy - like server rooms and the cafeteria - and there's no way to get an exception.
I'm pretty sure upper management would continue the telework setup if they could (I really think they intended to be primarily remote before the Biden administration put the brakes on it). But higher authorities have said no. Our current telework agreement is that we have to go into the office twice per pay period (two weeks), which isn't too bad, but I'd still prefer not. My return to office is scheduled for February. We're bracing for a lot of people to find other jobs or retire, and it has already begun.
I'm hoping to retire in about 7 years. Maybe this next administration will buy me out. I'd be open to a generous severance package.
it apparently includes space people can’t occupy - like server rooms and the cafeteria - and there’s no way to get an exception.
I'm sure they've convened a committee to schedule a meeting to begin discussions on the color of the folder for the updated rules that will fix this. So maybe by 2030 you'll be able to hit your utilization goals.
We kept it gray!
Why? I think businesses should be left alone to decide.
They’re talking about federal employees
Let the managers decide, then.
If we won't let logic or evidence do it, at least the people working directly with their teams and having to deal with them should do it.
“The Deep State appreciates your hard work, know how, and dedication. Come work for us from home and help stymie the Shallow State”
It did seem weird to me that Harris or any of the other democratic candidates campaigned on remote work. Seems like a smart pro-worker position to take that would directly impact a group she was trying to court: college educated professionals who skew male. Plus lower environmental impact, cheaper gas, more opportunities for working parents, etc.
The cynical reason I assume it wasn’t a talking point is because the 1% who directed the media conversation had a vested interest in return to pre-Covid status quo.
Campaigning on remote work doesn't really resonate with blue collar workers, though.
They've got to be where the work actually is to do their job.
It's only the "paper pushers" who have the provelege of working remotely.
Lol they're not going to get top talent unless they raise pay
A people elected government has a mandate to protect its people. Its real frightening to see that instead it announces adopt the worst business practises of private economy.
"Psst, Doogees, wait until you guys see what Robbie has planned for stay-at-home."
Imma be real... this isn't even a GOP vs DNC thing, the government has always fucking haaaaated telework, especially since Covid let the genie out of the bottle.
It's still going to be handled significantly worse than the DNC would though.
kagis
It sounds like he would have the authority to require in-office work.
https://www.opm.gov/frequently-asked-questions/telework-faq/remote-work/
Does an employee have a right to engage in remote work?
No. Remote work is not a universal employee benefit or an employee right.
Can a manager deny a request for remote work?
Yes. Because of the policy and potential costs implications of remote work arrangements, agencies should evaluate and consider such requests (especially those submitted primarily for the convenience of the employee), on a case-by-case basis, highlighting the cost effectiveness and business benefits to the agency or organization.
Can a manager terminate an existing remote work arrangement?
Yes. An agency may determine that a remote work arrangement no longer meets the business needs of the organization or that the arrangement negatively impacts the employee's performance. However, terminating a remote work arrangement, particularly if the employee resides outside the local commuting area of the agency worksite, may require additional considerations. If the decision is made to terminate the remote work arrangement for business reasons, there may be costs implications for the agency to consider.
That being said, my guess is that at least some federal employees probably pretty much have to work outside of the office, just because of the nature of the job -- like, it may be travel-intensive. I guess they could end work-from-home stuff.