Wi-Fi Keeps Going Down': Donald Trump's Return-to-Office Mandate Is Going Terribly - Wired

[justaprogressive]

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one employee says that the focus on the return-to-office mandate has meant a lot of chaos for people who actually need to do their jobs in person. “Some teams and groups aren’t even on the same campuses because space was so limited. So they’re coming to work just to sit on the same virtual meetings as always,” they say. “And all the chaos has made it more difficult for the lab people, who actually need to be on campus. I’d say with everything they get two-to-three hours less of meaningful work out of me each day.”

Over the past few months, Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has upended the government. In addition to firing tens of thousands of federal employees, before being forced by judges to rehire some of them, return-to-office mandates have resulted in chaos. Outlets like CNN and Reuters reported on the initial confusion and disarray caused by forcing tens of thousands of employees back to the office all at once, but weeks later, employees say the situation is getting worse.

Though Trump and Musk have claimed the mandate would result in huge productivity increases and financial savings, more than 30 federal employees at 17 federal agencies tell WIRED the return-to-office order has resulted in widespread chaos, plummeting productivity, and significantly reduced services to the public. It isn’t just traveling to work to sit on Zoom calls—it’s that there may be no place to take the call or no working internet to connect to it. WIRED granted employees anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, which some say are affecting their physical and mental health—and nearly all say are resulting in a lower quality of work and worse public services.

"The workplace environment is unpleasant, loud, people talk about whatever they want, and the workload is insane with the mass layoffs and hiring freeze," an employee at the Department of Defense (DOD) tells WIRED. "This is a terrible place to work." The employee says they cry almost every day after leaving the office.

https://www.wired.com/story/federal-workers-rto-chaos/

[Meowmee]

1. omg, so terrible 😢