We’ve gone from 100% teleworking, to alternating A/B schedule, to 100% on=site except for medically documented high risk employees remaining on teleworking. The environment, the level of scare stage, whatever it’s to be called, changes. As we go into this 8th month of us teleworking, the word used on news media to describe the Coronavirus rate of infection nationally is “raging”. So we continue with some form of HPCON posture. So for now, at least on an alternating basis, I see my work screen at home.
Contrary to belief by some in our command chain, military and civilian, our section, at least some of us, can do virtually everything from home that we can from work except for the classified side. I get the feeling some think we’re goofing off while teleworking or otherwise cannot adequately do our required tasks from home. I suspect they feel that way because THEY cannot do their jobs from home. Someone covers the high side stuff at the office, or we go in as needed. Otherwise, virtually everything else is business as usual from home.
Of course, there are a few who I think do gaff off work or do non-work stuff on official teleworking time. They take a while to answer emails or Swift/Teams chat messages. They don’t forward work phones to their home/cell phones and are hard to reach. I remind the bosses that teleworking guidance/rules say that if these kinds of circumstances become a problem, teleworking permission can be revoked and they can be forced to report to in-office work. But bosses decline to pull the trigger on that.