September approaches.
September is the month when federal employees are expected to start donating their “free” time three days per week to commute to a job they’ve proven they can do from home, where there probably aren’t bats.
7.68 work weeks per year of commuting
Let’s assume an hour commute each way, so 6 hours per week on this entirely unnecessary requirement, unrelated to productivity.
Crude math (6 hours x 48 weeks) puts that at 288 hours of commuting per year. Assuming a 7.5 hour day, that is 38.4 work days. Phrased differently, that is 7.68 work weeks per year confiscated from each employee, just to go to the internet from a different room. That’s certainly more than they offer in vacation time. Even with only a half-hour commute, it’s still about 4 full work weeks per year of your free time. YOUR free time.
I’m relieved to see that my former union has compiled a list of petitions by department / agency that employees can sign to say “no” to their DM, as a “low-risk way” to show unity.
I would also encourage federal employees to consider and share and implement my feistier ideas. As I said in May: “If employers can unilaterally impose additional unremunerated hours on employees, what is the point of your collective agreement.“
Figures I need help with
There are additional likely appalling figures I’d like to have, but for those I’d need expert help. I’m sure the federal government could figure all this out themselves, with their public health experts and their statisticians, etc., but I doubt the answers would get past legal / redaction.
1. What is the proportion of employees who commute via public transit?
2. What is the expected CO2 concentration on public transit during rush hour once employees start commuting six times a week and also transit frequency gets cut?
3. Taking into account CO2 concentration, wastewater data, rates of vaccination uptake, rates of rapid testing, and frequency of public masking, what percent of employees are statistically likely to contract Covid as a result of commuting to jobs they can do from home? Taking into account the R-number of the current variants, how many people are those employees likely to infect in turn?
4. How many people are statistically likely to contract long covid? What effect is this expected to have on short-term staffing and workload and “deliverables”? How many employees are likely to become disabled from work as a result?
5. How many people are expected to die as a direct result of increased infection resulting from this policy?
6. Bonus question: How much are you budgeting for the resulting lawsuits?
Doing some math on the federal government’s return-to-office policy
September approaches.
September is the month when federal employees are expected to start donating their “free” time three days per week to commute to a job they’ve proven they can do from home, where there probably aren’t bats.
7.68 work weeks per year of commuting
Let’s assume an hour commute each way, so 6 hours per week on this entirely unnecessary requirement, unrelated to productivity.
Crude math (6 hours x 48 weeks) puts that at 288 hours of commuting per year. Assuming a 7.5 hour day, that is 38.4 work days. Phrased differently, that is 7.68 work weeks per year confiscated from each employee, just to go to the internet from a different room. That’s certainly more than they offer in vacation time. Even with only a half-hour commute, it’s still about 4 full work weeks per year of your free time. YOUR free time.
I’m relieved to see that my former union has compiled a list of petitions by department / agency that employees can sign to say “no” to their DM, as a “low-risk way” to show unity.
I would also encourage federal employees to consider and share and implement my feistier ideas. As I said in May: “If employers can unilaterally impose additional unremunerated hours on employees, what is the point of your collective agreement.“
Figures I need help with
There are additional likely appalling figures I’d like to have, but for those I’d need expert help. I’m sure the federal government could figure all this out themselves, with their public health experts and their statisticians, etc., but I doubt the answers would get past legal / redaction.
1. What is the proportion of employees who commute via public transit?
2. What is the expected CO2 concentration on public transit during rush hour once employees start commuting six times a week and also transit frequency gets cut?
3. Taking into account CO2 concentration, wastewater data, rates of vaccination uptake, rates of rapid testing, and frequency of public masking, what percent of employees are statistically likely to contract Covid as a result of commuting to jobs they can do from home? Taking into account the R-number of the current variants, how many people are those employees likely to infect in turn?
4. How many people are statistically likely to contract long covid? What effect is this expected to have on short-term staffing and workload and “deliverables”? How many employees are likely to become disabled from work as a result?
5. How many people are expected to die as a direct result of increased infection resulting from this policy?
6. Bonus question: How much are you budgeting for the resulting lawsuits?