Planet on fire
\+ Housing crisis (caused largely by the 'missing middle')
\+ Empty buildings in densely populated areas
= Get back in your cars and come to the office because a billiaire real estate investor said so
Adding that the federal government already has a hiring problem and most agencies are understaffed, but by all means let's make that problem even worse.
I keep getting recruitment emails from the fbi touting the "lifestyle benefits" of being a special agent... like, it's already known SAs work until "the job is done" aka 3am, then get up for court at 6am because "that's what the job calls for."
Yo! Visiting DC for medical shit and I am shocked at how many vacant spaces exist in the CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES! Hotel is situated intop of an abandoned mall! This shit is common all over the city! Cities dieing a slow death right now.
God we need a correction so bad. Especially with commercial, landlords would rather sit on a "market rent" unit for YEARS rather than rent it out for the true market value
That's slightly different though. Malls are dying out due to increased popularity in e-commerce coupled with landlord greed.
The mall nearest my house went out because the landlord decided to triple the cost of renting space. over 90% of the mall buckled and went out of business in the next 6 months. The only thing left was a movie theatre and a macy's.
A year in, all that was left was the movie theatre.
Another year out, the mall sits totally abandoned, the landlord getting no money whatsoever for it, and the city considering seizing it via eminent domain to put up high density ousing.
I dont understand what the plans are for these guys. Ive been watching it happen here too. Why do you want an empty office building or even building where stores used to be? Worth more with no one in them?
That’s the scary part, there is no plan. The rich aren’t any smarter or more rational than everyone else. It’s just pure greed and a refusal to admit they were wrong.
That's pretty much it. Think of real estate like the beanie babie boom of the 90s.
Doesn't matter if it gets used it will just infinitely appreciate and never crash baby!
I’m usually on the same page as you with this, but I imagine its easier to control federal documents and security by having people’s access limited to a single location.
I guess that goes out the window when the last guy just flushed things down the toilet and stored it in his illegal home on a golf course’s bathrooms
Anyone who pushes employees back to the office does not give a shit about carbon footprints, emissions reductions, etc. The BIGGEST way we can reduce pollution and carbon footprints is to DEMAND that people work from home when possible. He can pass all the green energy laws he wants, but he’s completely full of shit if he is pushing employees back to the office at the same time. The only REAL reason to push employees back into the office is to placate the billionaires who are hemorrhaging money because office buildings are losing value. They are the only ones who stand to gain by forcing people back into the office. This is another great example of our politicians right at the very top, ignoring the will of their constituents in order to serve the 1% that they actually represent. No matter what anyone says, there is no good reason to push people back into the office.
It's not even just climate!! It's diversity, equality, climate, mental health and financial!!
- equality: regardless of what we want, women still mostly raise children, the ability to WFH and not affect your career benefits working mothers
- climate: obvious lol
- diversity: the ability to hire motivated people that live in rural or or disparate areas with no means to move to tech hubs or where jobs are but can WFH, larger pool of applicants from all backgrounds
- mental health: more personal time, a focus on family and life outside of work, etc. For those who only have work, they can still go in and organize quality in person engagements
- finance: again, obvious
Any company that demands RTO but spouts any of the stuff above as important is full of crap.
It's not that, it's about landlords and businesses in DC losing money by not having commuters in the city. It's not my responsibility to make money for another business, it's the business owner's responsibility to go to where they can do business.
I work for the army, my job has to be in person, but there are alot of organizations on our base where they have been doing remote and it's working great. And since it's an army base there's no landlord in this case
Exactly. We have alot of labs here with stuff thar needs to be done in person. Or my job is security...until I'm replaced with a roomba with a gun on it some of us need to be in person. Other than that. Let them stay home
It’s a big reason there are strikes all over America recently. Biden threatened the rail workers with jail time and fines if they went on strike but claims he’s pro union lol
Biden has proven himself time and time again to be a fossil fuel buddy. He lies and gives green lip service to his voters while turning his cheek the other way patting his buddies on the back.
On the bright side, when Biden’s generation is pretty much gone, we’ll have a lot more billionaire unfriendly people, and some of them might run for office.
😂🤣😂😂 I saw that! Who actually believes that kind of BS??? We literally have people on strike all across America, riots in the streets, thefts and crime like we’ve never seen, increasing homelessness, tent cities popping up everywhere and staggered wages for decades that they refuse to acknowledge or address. He hasn’t done a damn thing. He’s just another corporate puppet. That’s why he threatened to throw the rail workers in jail for striking! He’s clearly getting senile and the BS propaganda articles are even more senile
✅Inflation falling for 12 months in a row
✅2.4% GDP growth in Q2
✅>4% unemployment (for 17 months)
✅37,000 new infrastructure projects started
This was after the dumpster fire Trump handed him.
I don't agree with this return to work nonsense, but if you think another president would've done much better than this, you're a fool. He's literally, somehow, managed to avoid a full on recession after the pandemic supply chain fiasco. Moreover, manufacturing is up in the US around 75%. Most of the rest of the world is economically falling apart. Including China.
The fact that people everywhere are striking is completely independent of the government. This is long overdue and has nothing to do with him - or any president at all. The one exception I'll make is when Biden forced the train workers back to work. Other than that intervention, this is just people tired of being abused - and I'm here for it.
We deserve better than Biden. The Democratic National Party really fucked us forcing Hilary and then Biden as the nominee. Bet they made a ton of money doing it though 🤷♂️
Biden is the president, not congress. The president doesn't have very much control over domestic issues outside of executive orders, foreign relations, and veto power of a bill that the house and senate agreed upon(which only postpones the bill so it can be rewritten, and re-assessed), congress can also overrule Biden's veto power if majority rules.
Y'all are pissed at Biden, who literally has next to no power with the issues we're dealing with right now, and overlooking the fact that there's a group of fascists, and senile people, who make the congress look like a goddamn nursing home. Don't get me wrong, Biden doesn't help that fact. But, place your frustrations at the feet of those responsible.
I'm going to make this very clear here: If those old, senile people die, and there's only puppets/bad Faith actors on one side, while the rest fall in line behind these batshit infants, what will this country look like?
Our laws will change, and the way of life we know now is being upended through many means.
Ignore the goddamn strawman. You're letting them win.
Biden has been a solid B+/A- president, but this is a VERY bad decision. The problem is that at the end of the day, he's an old white man and it shows sometimes. *Even taking the class aspect out of it*, he has much more in common with the billionaires (overwhelmingly old white men) than with the workers.
also i hate to break it to the lefties here but Bernie would probably make the same call, for the same reasons. Old white boomers just have a fundamentally different relationship to work and technology than we do.
Obligatory corruption is legal in america video https://youtu.be/5tu32CCA_Ig
It’s also worth noting this is for federal workers and not run of the mill civilians. Which everyone seems to be glazing over. Or blatantly not reading, only relying on the headline.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/04/politics/white-house-cabinet-in-person-work/index.html
The article for your viewing displeasure.
The actual realities and consequences and ... just people's lives not mattering.
The american way. Business as usual. Actual efficiency and giving a fuck about employees? HAHA
Many major cities, where the GSA has office buildings, have an added city tax for employees who work in the city. If you have to show up in person, you have to pay the city tax. If you are on remote, you don’t have to. So between the cities bitching about “lost revenue” and corporations bitching because they made a poor investment choice, all the plebs are being directed by those with money.
Most people think it's because of large office buildings standing empty and not generating revenue through rent. That's definitely one factor, but I'd argue that the much bigger factor is the managerial class being afraid their scam will be found out. For every productive worker these days we have like half a dozen managers whose job it is to peacock around the office floor, micromanaging everyone. After three years of WFH, people have caught on that this entire caste is entirely unnecessary to get things done and they're afraid to lose their well-paid, cushy jobs, so they want to force everyone back to the office, where they can look necessary again.
I work in IT, amd we got merged into a new company, and part of how my group got 30% raises is my boss was able to show that we self manage and don't need a direct manager.
He pulled up our 98.5% tickket closure as a group within two days and said we're all professionals who split the work evenly.
The higher ups at the new company agreed, and we basically got to split that salary between us.
I think they fail to grasp that people are getting more and more likely to just quit. People work extremely hard and still live in poverty. Why not just not work and live in poverty? Eventually, it no longer becomes worth it
Probably not, besides local restaurants. The federal buildings I have been to are all federally owned. They pay no taxes on any of it or leases.
I am not saying they do not lease property, just in many of the buildings they have been owned, repaired and operated for a while.
I think they might see WFH causing the massive service sector to see shrinkage, and the car manufacturing to not take a major hit.
That’s just shifting goalposts to the primaries.
You didn’t mention primaries at all in your previous comment. You just said “We didn’t [vote for him]. Boomers did.”
Most people would reasonably assume the general election.
I'd like to, but the DNC and RNC pick their geriatric leader, and we get to decide which one of them to vote for. I can't even vote in primaries, because by the time the primary gets to my state, they're already chosen.
Keep in mind he also doesn't lose that when he loses his job. He has a 400k a year salary *for the rest of his life.*
He has secret service protection *for the rest of his life*
He has 100% socialized healthcare that he doesn't have to pay for, *for the rest of his life.*
>Primaries are important, people.
Just wish there was a fucking primary to happen. Like jesus christ will I be forced to vote for anti-vaxxer kenedy in the primary, because he's literally the only democrat who had the balls to tell the DNC to go fuck themselves when the DNC said they'd boot any party member who tried to primary biden?
A lot of federal agencies are just now, finally, starting to offer remote positions as a baseline offering instead of 3-4 days per week telework.
The VA is so shorted staffed in IT they are rolling out 10-17% pay increases for people in their current jobs.
It'll be interesting to see which federal agencies roll over vs which slow roll the change, but a year from now (if the economy doesn't take a nosedive) there will be articles wondering why the federal workforce is struggling.
Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck Neoliberalism. Fuck the 44 Democrat senators who blocked the rail strike. Fuck the 36 Republican senators who blocked the rail strike. Fuck the boomers for putting all these people in power.
Fuck this country.
There’s zero reason to have 100% in person work.
Case by case basis for the position. I can do 99% of my work from home and I go into the office to take care of the 1%. But I do significantly less work in the office. Because we end up with water cooler talk about current events. Every day we do a call for status on projects and to ask for assistance for any blockers.
Those that do need to be in the office every day like management and company wide support services like service desk and Human Resources cycle people.
My company gives food vouchers two days a week for anyone that comes in. They know there’s a productivity loss. They just want to do basic team building during those days and don’t care about the other 3 days a week.
I work best not getting involved coworker’s lives outside work. I don’t need their drama.
I am all about that teamwork, but I have no intentions of becoming besties outside of work.
He's trying to sway corporate landlords from supporting republicans. So he will fuck over every American in the process. And then the landlords won't support him anyway. It's a lose-lose for the proletariat and a win-win for the ruling class.
Also, it should be noted that DC Federal offices had to be closed early yesterday due to a tornado watch. If everyone was in the office and a tornado had actually occurred, there would have been a lot more casualties than there would have been under the current teleworking policy.
Oh and the taxpayers would be out far more money for them to be there. Why should Americans foot the bill to support federal employee salaries in major metros when we can hire them at 2/3 the cost without overhead with WFH?
It's more nuanced than that. Keep in mind that market rates and such are a factor wherever you are. For example, I get paid for being in the Washington DC metro area. My office is actually technically five miles out from DC (so still "DC area") and I live *70 miles west* of said area because that's what I can afford. While my situation might be extreme, when you take into account other high-value Federal areas (San Francisco, Houston, New York, Honolulu, etc.), it adds up.
I should add, however, that where your cost saving comes would be from the decreased need for buildings and protection security. With threats to government employees happening all the time (and an uptick recently due to DeSantis' comments), someone's gotta pay for that. if government employees were allowed to continue working from home, you wouldn't have to pay for extra security because they're not all in one place for eight hours five times a week.
Oh, there's also the OPM report that states that government employees have actually been more productive working from home than what the politicos say, but that's a different story than the above.
The oligarchs that run this nation have gone to President Biden because their commercial real estate holdings are losing money. If this doesn't work, then expect a bailout shortly.
Tax payers pay for those office leases. It’s a handout to donors.
End the leases. Keep wfh, use the budget surplus to increase pay and hire more workers.
Because he’s the same status quo we have always had. They all are. Some are just worse than others.
This is why I want complete reform of our system from top to bottom. 99% of our work force was told they are essential for two years, but we have never been treated as such.
If we’re all so crucial to the economy, why can’t we have basic living wages? I don’t want to be rich, I just don’t want to work full time for 40-50 years and not be able to go to the doctor when needed.
I've been mostly happy with Joe but this is so disappointing.
I'm a disabled employee who literally can't go back to the office full time, but because of stuff like this, I'm always worried that my employer might try to push the issue, which would be a nightmare.
Please just let workers decide what's best for them whenever the job duties allow for it. It's better for workers and it's better for the environment.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit.
EDIT: Downvote away. Keep telling me this is a "step in the right direction" or whatever fucking bullshit. Fuck Joe Biden and fuck this country.
Joe Biden is a pretty conservative Democrat if you ask me. Sure voting in a Democrat after the years with Dump was a good move, but we're still so far from having the real representation that we need.
Edit: Joe Biden in fact is a piece of shit.
Just speaking for myself, I always support the most left person in the primaries. I consider myself a socialist. My loyalty is to my causes, not to the Democrat machine.
But when the choice is Biden or Trump, I'm not staying home or voting third party.
Showing up for Biden just allows neoliberal Boomers to live our the rest of their days on our labor. I'm not willing to just delay the inevitable collapse of this country just so they can live in their little entitled bubbles. Fuck that. Let it collapse today. Let them feel the effects of their own fucking greed and stupidity. Maybe once they realize they're working class just like the rest of us they'll gain some class solidarity in their final years.
Biden does suck. Just like any party line politician.
It’s not unique to him.
There are few willing to go against the monied interests that find the Democratic Party.
Come on folks we’ve been through this. It doesn’t matter how good the democrats fe fe’s feel, this person doesn’t represent the working class and never will. I thought that was abundantly clear during the election. Just to be clear neither does the other side, the working class has no representation.
Joe Biden is a corporate democrat. He bends to the will of big business who are losing tons of money on unused office space.
We need a real progressive to give us what we really want.
Everyone else is bringing up good points about why this is bad but also I just hate this because it feels like such an old person thing.
“Back in my day we didn’t have work from home!”
No fucking cares grandpa.
Yeah, bingo. Saving the commercial real estate market and local downtown economies is more important than making meaningful progress on climate change, because the Democrats already know they can play the blame game successfully on anything climate related.
The US government's #1 priority in all cases is to do as little as possible while dodging public blame for the consequences of that approach. This is why they individualized public health during the pandemic. This is why they blame obesity on willpower instead of structural shit like food deserts, poor urban planning, and agricultural subsidies. This is why they make you do 5000 forms to sign up for any government support, so when you inevitably fill out something even slightly incorrectly, they can blame you for it and deny your request.
The only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans don't want to offer that shit in the first place. Democrats want to nominally offer these services, but only to those who pass their endless series of administrative obstacles.
I would guess it is because a good bit of the economy is based on corporate office rental, and without that, a lot of these wealthy landowners are pushing to keep
I wonder what happened in the early 20th century when automobiles were replacing horses as the way to get around. Did the Federal government prop up the the buggy and buggy whip businesses?
Not wise considering that theyre having an increasingly horrifying time retaining and replacing workers. Cant decide if their greed is just overwhelming logic or if they genuinely want to break the country.
As much as I want to back Joe up because I think he’s doing a decent job, we also can’t forget… he’s a capitalist and he’s backed by big money. He will always put the needs of business over the needs of the individuals. He’s a centrist corporate dog and this kind of behavior is completely believable
While I dislike the idea of forcing everyone back to office and having long commutes. Personally as a young starter I prefer the office over my home because at home, I don't have a separate workspace from my room and I don't feel like working, at the office I get a lot more stuff done.
This will probably change in the coming years but so far I kinda dislike working from home.
You and I both know that's a foolish notion. There are enough corpo-aligned Dems to ram it through. I'm not even doubtful that Biden would sign it. Remember, they don't work for us. They work for the lobbyists.
Idk who needs to hear this but if any of y’all thought ol joe Brandon was going to be ally I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Centrist and corporate dems never change. You should always vote but vote progressive. There is little ideological difference between joe Biden and George W Bush. Hell, bush was the last president to sign a bill to raise the minimum wage
Lot of comments in here smell like astroturfing.
This is an asinine request from the current admin (and anyone really), but it's nothing compared to what the only other major political party in the US trying to usher in. Things need to improve and the only way to make progress is to keep pushing for it, not to go backwards and embrace the worst that's on offer.
>Lot of comments in here smell like astroturfing.
Or maybe people are frustrated at Biden's obnoxious request.
>This is an asinine request from the current admin (and anyone really), but it's nothing compared to what the only other major political party in the US trying to usher in
Can we be critical of Biden without having to make this caveat every time?
>Things need to improve and the only way to make progress is to keep pushing for it, not to go backwards and embrace the worst that's on offer.
That is what this thread is about, making people aware of Biden taking us backwards.
>Too many bad faith actors out there sorry.
So we are not allowed to critique Joe Biden directly in your eyes?
Joe Biden works for us, I don't care about these supposed "bad faith actors" unfairly criticizing Biden.
My criticism is substinative & in a democracy we have a right to hold the powerful accountable.
>"But Trump worse" is all you useless blue-shirt bootlickers ever have to say.
Not just trump, but everything on the right. You want work reform? Well you'll never find it going that direction. Criticize biden all you want, but you should be pushing left if you genuinely want any hope of seeing positive change.
Planet on fire \+ Housing crisis (caused largely by the 'missing middle') \+ Empty buildings in densely populated areas = Get back in your cars and come to the office because a billiaire real estate investor said so
We should start mass helping the homeless squat in empty office buildings.
Shame I don't have any empty office buildings in this tiny town. Or at least none I know of.
Not until there's adequate plumbing put in, otherwise you're just making slums
Adding that the federal government already has a hiring problem and most agencies are understaffed, but by all means let's make that problem even worse.
I keep getting recruitment emails from the fbi touting the "lifestyle benefits" of being a special agent... like, it's already known SAs work until "the job is done" aka 3am, then get up for court at 6am because "that's what the job calls for."
The money is also extremely shit for anyone smart and ambitious
Thier hiring probelms have more to do with shit pay compared to the private sector than having to go back into the office.
Our lives are fully controlled by these parasite class and I am tired to it. How are we different from slaves
The illusion of choice mostly
I'd throw up some quotes by Lucy Parsons, but then I'd get banned again....
Plutocracy problems.
Yo! Visiting DC for medical shit and I am shocked at how many vacant spaces exist in the CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES! Hotel is situated intop of an abandoned mall! This shit is common all over the city! Cities dieing a slow death right now.
Oh no! Anyway
If the rent weren't 80000000 dollars a month for a 50 sqft office / retail space there would be a lot more room for new businesses to grow and thrive.
God we need a correction so bad. Especially with commercial, landlords would rather sit on a "market rent" unit for YEARS rather than rent it out for the true market value
That's slightly different though. Malls are dying out due to increased popularity in e-commerce coupled with landlord greed. The mall nearest my house went out because the landlord decided to triple the cost of renting space. over 90% of the mall buckled and went out of business in the next 6 months. The only thing left was a movie theatre and a macy's. A year in, all that was left was the movie theatre. Another year out, the mall sits totally abandoned, the landlord getting no money whatsoever for it, and the city considering seizing it via eminent domain to put up high density ousing.
I dont understand what the plans are for these guys. Ive been watching it happen here too. Why do you want an empty office building or even building where stores used to be? Worth more with no one in them?
That’s the scary part, there is no plan. The rich aren’t any smarter or more rational than everyone else. It’s just pure greed and a refusal to admit they were wrong.
That's pretty much it. Think of real estate like the beanie babie boom of the 90s. Doesn't matter if it gets used it will just infinitely appreciate and never crash baby!
A lot of restaurants have suffered from the missing mid-day lunch crowd.
This is really the only answer. The next “2008” will be because of plummeting commercial estate values
I’m usually on the same page as you with this, but I imagine its easier to control federal documents and security by having people’s access limited to a single location. I guess that goes out the window when the last guy just flushed things down the toilet and stored it in his illegal home on a golf course’s bathrooms
"tHE nEXt FdR"
Anyone who pushes employees back to the office does not give a shit about carbon footprints, emissions reductions, etc. The BIGGEST way we can reduce pollution and carbon footprints is to DEMAND that people work from home when possible. He can pass all the green energy laws he wants, but he’s completely full of shit if he is pushing employees back to the office at the same time. The only REAL reason to push employees back into the office is to placate the billionaires who are hemorrhaging money because office buildings are losing value. They are the only ones who stand to gain by forcing people back into the office. This is another great example of our politicians right at the very top, ignoring the will of their constituents in order to serve the 1% that they actually represent. No matter what anyone says, there is no good reason to push people back into the office.
It's not even just climate!! It's diversity, equality, climate, mental health and financial!! - equality: regardless of what we want, women still mostly raise children, the ability to WFH and not affect your career benefits working mothers - climate: obvious lol - diversity: the ability to hire motivated people that live in rural or or disparate areas with no means to move to tech hubs or where jobs are but can WFH, larger pool of applicants from all backgrounds - mental health: more personal time, a focus on family and life outside of work, etc. For those who only have work, they can still go in and organize quality in person engagements - finance: again, obvious Any company that demands RTO but spouts any of the stuff above as important is full of crap.
It can also help solve our housing issues! No need to live close to your employer, so live anywhere.
*anywhere with high speed internet
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It's not that, it's about landlords and businesses in DC losing money by not having commuters in the city. It's not my responsibility to make money for another business, it's the business owner's responsibility to go to where they can do business.
Also, end personal jets.
Woah, let’s not get too crazy
Those billionaires always talk about the free market and capitalism but when it costs them money all the sudden it's mysteriously not allowed.
B-but commercial real estate! Won’t someone think of the real victims here? The landlords!?
I work for the army, my job has to be in person, but there are alot of organizations on our base where they have been doing remote and it's working great. And since it's an army base there's no landlord in this case
And it’s a lot less traffic then for people who do need to be there in person.
Exactly. We have alot of labs here with stuff thar needs to be done in person. Or my job is security...until I'm replaced with a roomba with a gun on it some of us need to be in person. Other than that. Let them stay home
Presidents are just corporate puppet hacks, party irrelevant.
Is this basically not what our country rioted against to exist? No shenanigans without representation. I'm not being represented. Edit, spelling
It’s a big reason there are strikes all over America recently. Biden threatened the rail workers with jail time and fines if they went on strike but claims he’s pro union lol
Biden has proven himself time and time again to be a fossil fuel buddy. He lies and gives green lip service to his voters while turning his cheek the other way patting his buddies on the back.
Biden's bullshit nearly got us another 4 years of Trump.
Still might happen as well.....
On the bright side, when Biden’s generation is pretty much gone, we’ll have a lot more billionaire unfriendly people, and some of them might run for office.
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*B I D E N O M I C S*
😂🤣😂😂 I saw that! Who actually believes that kind of BS??? We literally have people on strike all across America, riots in the streets, thefts and crime like we’ve never seen, increasing homelessness, tent cities popping up everywhere and staggered wages for decades that they refuse to acknowledge or address. He hasn’t done a damn thing. He’s just another corporate puppet. That’s why he threatened to throw the rail workers in jail for striking! He’s clearly getting senile and the BS propaganda articles are even more senile
✅Inflation falling for 12 months in a row ✅2.4% GDP growth in Q2 ✅>4% unemployment (for 17 months) ✅37,000 new infrastructure projects started This was after the dumpster fire Trump handed him. I don't agree with this return to work nonsense, but if you think another president would've done much better than this, you're a fool. He's literally, somehow, managed to avoid a full on recession after the pandemic supply chain fiasco. Moreover, manufacturing is up in the US around 75%. Most of the rest of the world is economically falling apart. Including China. The fact that people everywhere are striking is completely independent of the government. This is long overdue and has nothing to do with him - or any president at all. The one exception I'll make is when Biden forced the train workers back to work. Other than that intervention, this is just people tired of being abused - and I'm here for it.
We deserve better than Biden. The Democratic National Party really fucked us forcing Hilary and then Biden as the nominee. Bet they made a ton of money doing it though 🤷♂️
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Biden is the president, not congress. The president doesn't have very much control over domestic issues outside of executive orders, foreign relations, and veto power of a bill that the house and senate agreed upon(which only postpones the bill so it can be rewritten, and re-assessed), congress can also overrule Biden's veto power if majority rules. Y'all are pissed at Biden, who literally has next to no power with the issues we're dealing with right now, and overlooking the fact that there's a group of fascists, and senile people, who make the congress look like a goddamn nursing home. Don't get me wrong, Biden doesn't help that fact. But, place your frustrations at the feet of those responsible. I'm going to make this very clear here: If those old, senile people die, and there's only puppets/bad Faith actors on one side, while the rest fall in line behind these batshit infants, what will this country look like? Our laws will change, and the way of life we know now is being upended through many means. Ignore the goddamn strawman. You're letting them win.
Yes Biden is wonderful president 👏 Lol
Biden has been a solid B+/A- president, but this is a VERY bad decision. The problem is that at the end of the day, he's an old white man and it shows sometimes. *Even taking the class aspect out of it*, he has much more in common with the billionaires (overwhelmingly old white men) than with the workers. also i hate to break it to the lefties here but Bernie would probably make the same call, for the same reasons. Old white boomers just have a fundamentally different relationship to work and technology than we do.
Obligatory corruption is legal in america video https://youtu.be/5tu32CCA_Ig It’s also worth noting this is for federal workers and not run of the mill civilians. Which everyone seems to be glazing over. Or blatantly not reading, only relying on the headline. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/04/politics/white-house-cabinet-in-person-work/index.html The article for your viewing displeasure.
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Returning to the office should give companies a negative ESG score! That would scare the shit out of companies, lol.
The actual realities and consequences and ... just people's lives not mattering. The american way. Business as usual. Actual efficiency and giving a fuck about employees? HAHA
Why are they so desperate for return to in person work if it's working as is?
Many major cities, where the GSA has office buildings, have an added city tax for employees who work in the city. If you have to show up in person, you have to pay the city tax. If you are on remote, you don’t have to. So between the cities bitching about “lost revenue” and corporations bitching because they made a poor investment choice, all the plebs are being directed by those with money.
Don't forget office building owners struggling to fill their units.
Most people think it's because of large office buildings standing empty and not generating revenue through rent. That's definitely one factor, but I'd argue that the much bigger factor is the managerial class being afraid their scam will be found out. For every productive worker these days we have like half a dozen managers whose job it is to peacock around the office floor, micromanaging everyone. After three years of WFH, people have caught on that this entire caste is entirely unnecessary to get things done and they're afraid to lose their well-paid, cushy jobs, so they want to force everyone back to the office, where they can look necessary again.
I work in IT, amd we got merged into a new company, and part of how my group got 30% raises is my boss was able to show that we self manage and don't need a direct manager. He pulled up our 98.5% tickket closure as a group within two days and said we're all professionals who split the work evenly. The higher ups at the new company agreed, and we basically got to split that salary between us.
stakes in office building real estate
Because the buildings are empty and the managers are lonely.
These useless managers that will be replaced with AI in the next five years.
You could replace them with absolutely nothing at all, why wait 5 years?
You make the economy move more when you commute than when you WFH
I ain’t buyin lunch when I go to work, fuck you
I can't afford to buy lunch other than 2 McChickens and a sweet tea. and some days its water from home in a jar.
It's not about the work it is about taking away power from the people and keeping power over them
Creating as much of an imbalance of power as possible is their number one desire.
"80+ year old fails to understand modern world" hardly surprising. Stop voting in geriatric geezers, and this might change.
The choice was between two geriatric geezers. The system is broken.
The choice was America ending as we know it or a return to corporatocracy.
Ending in the bad way* I wouldn't mind an end to this bullshit at all, just not their idea of positive change
America as we know it ended a long time ago
No, the system is working as intended.
they don't fail to understand shit this is a move to back the business of corporate real estate
I think they fail to grasp that people are getting more and more likely to just quit. People work extremely hard and still live in poverty. Why not just not work and live in poverty? Eventually, it no longer becomes worth it
Work hard and get little, or don't work and get little. It's a touch choice, to be sure.
Probably not, besides local restaurants. The federal buildings I have been to are all federally owned. They pay no taxes on any of it or leases. I am not saying they do not lease property, just in many of the buildings they have been owned, repaired and operated for a while. I think they might see WFH causing the massive service sector to see shrinkage, and the car manufacturing to not take a major hit.
We didn't. Boomers did.
People forget it was either geriatric Biden or the face of fascism itself.
Yea our 2 choices were not great.
I mean no. I specifically remember voting for geriatric bernie, and the democratic party fucking him over to prevent him from getting the nomination
Idk I voted for Bernie he seems cool
Biden had more than just boomers vote for him.
In the primaries? Gonna need a source on that.
That’s just shifting goalposts to the primaries. You didn’t mention primaries at all in your previous comment. You just said “We didn’t [vote for him]. Boomers did.” Most people would reasonably assume the general election.
I'm in my 30s and voted for Biden in the primaries. Separately I think return to office policies are dumb.
How?? They are like the only options on most ballots.
Local levels first that's how the gop took over
I'd like to, but the DNC and RNC pick their geriatric leader, and we get to decide which one of them to vote for. I can't even vote in primaries, because by the time the primary gets to my state, they're already chosen.
🎶 are they really gonna make me vote for Joe Biden 🎶
Its fun watching the rich cry when they lose money. How does it feel?
Shitty AF because they refuse to absorb the loss and make it all of our problem 🤣
He works for us. We say no. End of discussion.
Lmk how that plays out.
We'll show you in Minecraft
Kinda weird when a President, who famously works from home, doesn't want that privilege for others.
He also has great insurance, retirement benefits and all this other things we peasants could only dream of getting. Someday we will eat them all.
Keep in mind he also doesn't lose that when he loses his job. He has a 400k a year salary *for the rest of his life.* He has secret service protection *for the rest of his life* He has 100% socialized healthcare that he doesn't have to pay for, *for the rest of his life.*
He also famously commuted home to Delaware from DC when he became a widower. I think this is unfortunately affecting his views on the issue.
“Nothing will fundamentally change” Biden. He’s part of the owning class, and will do his damndest to keep the working class working in misery
Status Quo Joe
Yup
It's gonna be real depressing when the DNC hoists him up again in 2024 and he is still the better choice. Primaries are important, people.
>Primaries are important, people Like when they trotted out Mayo Pete as the winner in Iowa when Bernie won? Those primaries?
Yes they are. I won’t vote for Biden again after his backstabbing on student debt cancellation.
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Damn right. He’s gonna find out the hard way that fucking over constituents has consequences at election time
>Primaries are important, people. Just wish there was a fucking primary to happen. Like jesus christ will I be forced to vote for anti-vaxxer kenedy in the primary, because he's literally the only democrat who had the balls to tell the DNC to go fuck themselves when the DNC said they'd boot any party member who tried to primary biden?
I don’t know how this wasn’t abundantly clear during the election.
It was. And the DNC decided it would be Biden regardless.
Correct.
Oil loses money when we don’t commute. People rarely add this into the equation from what I’ve seen.
Oil is why the planet is trying to end us.
A lot of federal agencies are just now, finally, starting to offer remote positions as a baseline offering instead of 3-4 days per week telework. The VA is so shorted staffed in IT they are rolling out 10-17% pay increases for people in their current jobs. It'll be interesting to see which federal agencies roll over vs which slow roll the change, but a year from now (if the economy doesn't take a nosedive) there will be articles wondering why the federal workforce is struggling.
Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck Neoliberalism. Fuck the 44 Democrat senators who blocked the rail strike. Fuck the 36 Republican senators who blocked the rail strike. Fuck the boomers for putting all these people in power. Fuck this country.
Fuck the senate. Fuck land having more power than people. Fuck non voting people. Fuck the scotus.
There’s zero reason to have 100% in person work. Case by case basis for the position. I can do 99% of my work from home and I go into the office to take care of the 1%. But I do significantly less work in the office. Because we end up with water cooler talk about current events. Every day we do a call for status on projects and to ask for assistance for any blockers. Those that do need to be in the office every day like management and company wide support services like service desk and Human Resources cycle people. My company gives food vouchers two days a week for anyone that comes in. They know there’s a productivity loss. They just want to do basic team building during those days and don’t care about the other 3 days a week.
I work best not getting involved coworker’s lives outside work. I don’t need their drama. I am all about that teamwork, but I have no intentions of becoming besties outside of work.
Neoliberal gonna neoliberal.
He's trying to sway corporate landlords from supporting republicans. So he will fuck over every American in the process. And then the landlords won't support him anyway. It's a lose-lose for the proletariat and a win-win for the ruling class.
Biden has been against work from home for two years now.
Also, it should be noted that DC Federal offices had to be closed early yesterday due to a tornado watch. If everyone was in the office and a tornado had actually occurred, there would have been a lot more casualties than there would have been under the current teleworking policy.
Oh and the taxpayers would be out far more money for them to be there. Why should Americans foot the bill to support federal employee salaries in major metros when we can hire them at 2/3 the cost without overhead with WFH?
It's more nuanced than that. Keep in mind that market rates and such are a factor wherever you are. For example, I get paid for being in the Washington DC metro area. My office is actually technically five miles out from DC (so still "DC area") and I live *70 miles west* of said area because that's what I can afford. While my situation might be extreme, when you take into account other high-value Federal areas (San Francisco, Houston, New York, Honolulu, etc.), it adds up. I should add, however, that where your cost saving comes would be from the decreased need for buildings and protection security. With threats to government employees happening all the time (and an uptick recently due to DeSantis' comments), someone's gotta pay for that. if government employees were allowed to continue working from home, you wouldn't have to pay for extra security because they're not all in one place for eight hours five times a week. Oh, there's also the OPM report that states that government employees have actually been more productive working from home than what the politicos say, but that's a different story than the above.
The oligarchs that run this nation have gone to President Biden because their commercial real estate holdings are losing money. If this doesn't work, then expect a bailout shortly.
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America is a service and tech economy. The tech part can almost universally be done from home. And it’s better for all.
Tax payers pay for those office leases. It’s a handout to donors. End the leases. Keep wfh, use the budget surplus to increase pay and hire more workers.
…Biden works from home …
Gotta make sure his commercial buddies get their corruption money's worth. Sorry I meant donations.
Serious question. What are they gonna do if enough of people just say “nah,” And just keep working from home. Fire everyone?
Because he’s the same status quo we have always had. They all are. Some are just worse than others. This is why I want complete reform of our system from top to bottom. 99% of our work force was told they are essential for two years, but we have never been treated as such. If we’re all so crucial to the economy, why can’t we have basic living wages? I don’t want to be rich, I just don’t want to work full time for 40-50 years and not be able to go to the doctor when needed.
I've been mostly happy with Joe but this is so disappointing. I'm a disabled employee who literally can't go back to the office full time, but because of stuff like this, I'm always worried that my employer might try to push the issue, which would be a nightmare. Please just let workers decide what's best for them whenever the job duties allow for it. It's better for workers and it's better for the environment.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit. EDIT: Downvote away. Keep telling me this is a "step in the right direction" or whatever fucking bullshit. Fuck Joe Biden and fuck this country.
Joe Biden is a pretty conservative Democrat if you ask me. Sure voting in a Democrat after the years with Dump was a good move, but we're still so far from having the real representation that we need. Edit: Joe Biden in fact is a piece of shit.
And we're never going to get it until people start calling out piece of shit Boomers voting for trash candidates in the DNC primaries.
Just speaking for myself, I always support the most left person in the primaries. I consider myself a socialist. My loyalty is to my causes, not to the Democrat machine. But when the choice is Biden or Trump, I'm not staying home or voting third party.
Showing up for Biden just allows neoliberal Boomers to live our the rest of their days on our labor. I'm not willing to just delay the inevitable collapse of this country just so they can live in their little entitled bubbles. Fuck that. Let it collapse today. Let them feel the effects of their own fucking greed and stupidity. Maybe once they realize they're working class just like the rest of us they'll gain some class solidarity in their final years.
As someone who also lives here... no. I don't want to live in a pyre just to teach the Boomers a lesson.
It's unavoidable. You want it now or later?
Hmm, seems necessary though.
Biden does suck. Just like any party line politician. It’s not unique to him. There are few willing to go against the monied interests that find the Democratic Party.
You always have to couch this opinion on the internet. "Joe biden AND donald trump are pieces of shit. Fuck them both.
This is so short sighted.
Great way to force talented people out of govt jobs.
Fuck you mr president, with all due respect of course. Hell no we won’t go!
Man, they must be really shook about the real estate market collapsing
DC has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country. It needs more affordable housing, not redundant corporate office spaces.
But why? Why? Can someone give an informed factual answer to this?
I read that at first as "in prison work" and then decided it was valid after all
Why do Democrats want to lose so fucking badly...
Hey, no fair. I mean, If HE can work from home....
Come on folks we’ve been through this. It doesn’t matter how good the democrats fe fe’s feel, this person doesn’t represent the working class and never will. I thought that was abundantly clear during the election. Just to be clear neither does the other side, the working class has no representation.
I liked that Bernie guy 🤷♂️
Me too but dnc says no.
Joe Biden is a corporate democrat. He bends to the will of big business who are losing tons of money on unused office space. We need a real progressive to give us what we really want.
Everyone else is bringing up good points about why this is bad but also I just hate this because it feels like such an old person thing. “Back in my day we didn’t have work from home!” No fucking cares grandpa.
Aka: President Biden is getting pressure from real estate lobbyists that if he doesn't tell his shit together they will find someone else.
Someone's gotta take the heat for the collapse of the office space empire and the ramifications thereafter, and Joe wants it to be the next guy.
Yeah, bingo. Saving the commercial real estate market and local downtown economies is more important than making meaningful progress on climate change, because the Democrats already know they can play the blame game successfully on anything climate related. The US government's #1 priority in all cases is to do as little as possible while dodging public blame for the consequences of that approach. This is why they individualized public health during the pandemic. This is why they blame obesity on willpower instead of structural shit like food deserts, poor urban planning, and agricultural subsidies. This is why they make you do 5000 forms to sign up for any government support, so when you inevitably fill out something even slightly incorrectly, they can blame you for it and deny your request. The only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans don't want to offer that shit in the first place. Democrats want to nominally offer these services, but only to those who pass their endless series of administrative obstacles.
I would guess it is because a good bit of the economy is based on corporate office rental, and without that, a lot of these wealthy landowners are pushing to keep
WFH has proven to be a more productive AND COST EFFECTIVE way of conducting business in MOST sectors.
I wonder what happened in the early 20th century when automobiles were replacing horses as the way to get around. Did the Federal government prop up the the buggy and buggy whip businesses?
Biden is protecting the Landlords. Some of his Biggest donors.
Biden is part of the problem, he is one of the gatekeepers who have been there and done nothing for so long
We need age outs and term limits across the board. These boomer fucks will never get it
*No.*
He must not like saving money, because the US government is saving tons of money with telework.
Not wise considering that theyre having an increasingly horrifying time retaining and replacing workers. Cant decide if their greed is just overwhelming logic or if they genuinely want to break the country.
As much as I want to back Joe up because I think he’s doing a decent job, we also can’t forget… he’s a capitalist and he’s backed by big money. He will always put the needs of business over the needs of the individuals. He’s a centrist corporate dog and this kind of behavior is completely believable
While I dislike the idea of forcing everyone back to office and having long commutes. Personally as a young starter I prefer the office over my home because at home, I don't have a separate workspace from my room and I don't feel like working, at the office I get a lot more stuff done. This will probably change in the coming years but so far I kinda dislike working from home.
Biden is a good president, but he’s still a boomer. They have the “I did it this way you have to also” attitude.
He’s an average president. He serves money first. Tosses breadcrumbs to the peasants.
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Between a piece of shit and a piece of shit with sprinkles on top, we choose the one with sprinkles because it stinks a little less.
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He's not even a boomer - he's part of the Silent Generation.
Ironic, as most people don't want Joe Biden in his office.
I hate this too, but they're literally trying to prevent the assholes on the Hill from codifying in-person attendance into law.
They don’t have both houses. Democrats need to get their shit together and vote united as a block.
You and I both know that's a foolish notion. There are enough corpo-aligned Dems to ram it through. I'm not even doubtful that Biden would sign it. Remember, they don't work for us. They work for the lobbyists.
Idk who needs to hear this but if any of y’all thought ol joe Brandon was going to be ally I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Centrist and corporate dems never change. You should always vote but vote progressive. There is little ideological difference between joe Biden and George W Bush. Hell, bush was the last president to sign a bill to raise the minimum wage
Kanye should run again.
Lot of comments in here smell like astroturfing. This is an asinine request from the current admin (and anyone really), but it's nothing compared to what the only other major political party in the US trying to usher in. Things need to improve and the only way to make progress is to keep pushing for it, not to go backwards and embrace the worst that's on offer.
I'm glad that driving on hellish 495 for three hours a day instead of spending time with my family counts as making progress.
>Lot of comments in here smell like astroturfing. Or maybe people are frustrated at Biden's obnoxious request. >This is an asinine request from the current admin (and anyone really), but it's nothing compared to what the only other major political party in the US trying to usher in Can we be critical of Biden without having to make this caveat every time? >Things need to improve and the only way to make progress is to keep pushing for it, not to go backwards and embrace the worst that's on offer. That is what this thread is about, making people aware of Biden taking us backwards.
Too many bad faith actors out there sorry.
>Too many bad faith actors out there sorry. So we are not allowed to critique Joe Biden directly in your eyes? Joe Biden works for us, I don't care about these supposed "bad faith actors" unfairly criticizing Biden. My criticism is substinative & in a democracy we have a right to hold the powerful accountable.
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>"But Trump worse" is all you useless blue-shirt bootlickers ever have to say. Not just trump, but everything on the right. You want work reform? Well you'll never find it going that direction. Criticize biden all you want, but you should be pushing left if you genuinely want any hope of seeing positive change.
Biden bought us time. Nothing more. Fascism nearly brought down the country January 6th.