Posted on 07/15/2013 8:50:21 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
The agency that manages 375 million square feet of federal office space is moving back to its newly renovated headquarters in downtown Washington, where its employees are finding that their personal real estate footprint has been radically altered.
They now have to work in less than half the space they once had.
The long corridors, closed-door offices and high cubicles that have always defined the culture of the federal workplace have given way to open spaces filled with industrial white desks that most employees must now reserve like hotel rooms.
Employees badge in at the lobby turnstile so their bosses know where they are. They touch down at desks they must leave without a trace of clutter if they want to avoid a scolding. “Teaming Rooms” are “leveraged” for meetings, and attendees are electronically logged in by a “room wizard” on the wall outside.
The inspiration behind the General Services Administration’s new floor plan and office decor is Administrator Daniel M. Tangherlini, who is urging his employees to work away from their desks while dismantling the bureaucratic approach back at the office. The push could help usher in a new federal culture in which working no longer means that your boss can see you.
It is part of a long debate over how employers can best deploy their workers in the digital era. This year, Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer banned her employees from working at home because she said they were goofing off.
But Tangherlini is betting that his employees will get more done if they are at home — or anywhere outside the office, for that matter — more often.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
‘Work at home and do nothing,’ that’s Bathouse Barry’s smart government-in-action 5-Year Plan.
Make then stand up at their desks.
Oh great. Now they don’t even have to show up to get paid.
Our tax dollars at work?
Sounds inefficient, disrespectful of employees, and generally miserable. Time will tell whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
I’m pretty sure that corporate America has gone the same way.
Thank God I’m long retired from such nonsense.
Yeah. Sweatshop labor without even commuting. Woe are we says SEIU members.
!. Standing space.
2. Quill.
3. Inkwell.
4. One lump of coal, to be replaced with 2 hrs at the handcrank.
When we start hearing about massive sell-offs of government buildings that are no longer needed to house more efficiently packed workers then I’ll start applauding these efforts.
They now have to work in less than half the space they once had. The long corridors, closed-door offices and high cubicles that have always defined the culture of the federal workplace have given way to open spaces filled with industrial white desks that most employees must now reserve like hotel rooms. Employees badge in at the lobby turnstile so their bosses know where they are. They touch down at desks they must leave without a trace of clutter if they want to avoid a scolding. “Teaming Rooms” are “leveraged” for meetings, and attendees are electronically logged in by a “room wizard” on the wall outside.
The management ethic of the Gen-Xers can be seen replacing that of the Boomers. Here we see how the Gen-Xers will manage the work ethic of the Gen Y-ers (aka the Millennials).
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.
When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt.
So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him:
“Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.
Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.
They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”
But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.
He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.
My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”
-- 1 Kings 12:1-11
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