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ORIGINAL: thebigo

The focus is not on production, at management level anyway. It just isn't. The focus is on spending their entire budget to ensure those same $ or more are coming their way next budget.

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ORIGINAL: bstinger

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ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

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ORIGINAL: unome

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ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

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ORIGINAL: McMurfy

The ever popular Total Compensation Bait and Switch

Along with an Outlier Example.

Try to keep up.

Yes, total compensation, benefits, perks or similar terms do not necessarily equate to cash in pocket. A place could have a treadmill, and the 'total compensation' will include what a gym membership costs. Holidays, leave, etc are all converted to equivalent pay.

Total compensation is the only way employers look at labor costs.

And the cost of a treadmill would be split over all employee hours and be essentially nothing for a firm with a decent number of employees. One $500 piece of equipment for every 50 full-time employees would come out to a half a cent and hour of extra compensation for that year. Less if they can use that treadmill for multiple years.

I don't think the gov't calculates it like that. They simply reason that because a treadmill exists, we are adding the cost of a gym membership (based on some calculation) to your total compensation calculation. At least that is how it is done with my total compensation calculation.

Agree. The cost to the company per employee is miniscule, but when they tell you what they are compensating you, they will inflate that as much as possible, even if you never touch the treadmill.

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ORIGINAL: unome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

quote:

ORIGINAL: unome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

quote:

ORIGINAL: McMurfy

The ever popular Total Compensation Bait and Switch

Along with an Outlier Example.

Try to keep up.

Yes, total compensation, benefits, perks or similar terms do not necessarily equate to cash in pocket. A place could have a treadmill, and the 'total compensation' will include what a gym membership costs. Holidays, leave, etc are all converted to equivalent pay.

Total compensation is the only way employers look at labor costs.

And the cost of a treadmill would be split over all employee hours and be essentially nothing for a firm with a decent number of employees. One $500 piece of equipment for every 50 full-time employees would come out to a half a cent and hour of extra compensation for that year. Less if they can use that treadmill for multiple years.

I don't think the gov't calculates it like that. They simply reason that because a treadmill exists, we are adding the cost of a gym membership (based on some calculation) to your total compensation calculation. At least that is how it is done with my total compensation calculation.

I am not sure how the government calculates expenses for their employees, but you cannot throw a treadmill into an unused office and write it off as a $80 a month 'gym membership'. I wish you could.

At the end of the day, you just cannot add any expenses if they are not actually there. Not legally, at least.

You could count the square footage of the employee's gym in a calculation of total compensation, for example. But this would just mean taking some of the building cost from one bucket and then dumping it into the total compensation bucket.

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ORIGINAL: bstinger

There's a big difference in what you can legally expense, and what you can tell your employees they are compensated in their overall compensation report.

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ORIGINAL: unome

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ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

No doubt you'll get the reported one-offs, akin to "Well, Tom Brady was a 6th round pick".

Or misinformation like Jandro saying the passport backlog is 250 million.

I always assumed the 250 million number was a typo. Maybe not.

Or maybe there is a huge backlog because a whole bunch of people filed for fraudulent passports?

Either way, there is no way that the US is 250 actual legit passport requests behind.

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ORIGINAL: unome

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ORIGINAL: thebigo

The focus is not on production, at management level anyway. It just isn't. The focus is on spending their entire budget to ensure those same $ or more are coming their way next budget.

A long time ago, as a college student, I interned at an US Senator's office and, even back then, they had to spend all their money before the end of the budget year. And that was not even place with a big budget. They went out and stocked up on supplies and anything that they would eventually need. I was told that all federal agencies had to do this or they would: a) 'lose' the money, and b) not get the same money next year.

It may also be true for state agencies.

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ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

I embellished to highlight the example. But whether the facility is 500 or 5000 SF, they consider that box checked then add in the equivalent of a fitness membership. A facility could be way nicer, but they don't boost the compensation to, for example, the equivalent of membership to a luxury fitness center.

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ORIGINAL: unome

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ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

I agree in that the president hasn't had those kind of sweeping powers. And I believe it ultimately comes down to the budgets for different agencies. If there looks like there will be a reduction in the out years, then they probably start offering various incentives to get people to retire. If that is inadequate and they still can't find cost savings, then they can lay off the probationary employees or let them go. And so on, as each agency likely has a hierarchy for reducing its force.

And it's true that the main obstacle to teleworking is likely connectivity to the IT networks in place. And safeguards. For example, there would have to be additional protections to safeguard personal information (ex. passport information and the info that goes into it) for any work being conducted from home.

I doubt gov't agencies simply gave up and said we'll not do a thing to get telework capability going. Rather, they probably faced obstacles... with varying degrees of success overcoming them.

I agree with all of this.

While agencies may not have given up, I do think some employees may have. And, maybe they had three kids at home and were trying to figure out distance learning. Still, I think productivity nationwide is down sharply and, probably, even moreso in governmental agencies.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

A friend of ours just had to watch his mom die of COVID over Facetime because of travel restrictions and the current quarantine in Hawaii.

Brutal.

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ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

Telework is a great opportunity for some employees to lay low. Adds a whole new dimension to 'out of sight, out of mind' for those looking to skirt responsibilities.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

quote:

ORIGINAL: unome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

I agree in that the president hasn't had those kind of sweeping powers. And I believe it ultimately comes down to the budgets for different agencies. If there looks like there will be a reduction in the out years, then they probably start offering various incentives to get people to retire. If that is inadequate and they still can't find cost savings, then they can lay off the probationary employees or let them go. And so on, as each agency likely has a hierarchy for reducing its force.

And it's true that the main obstacle to teleworking is likely connectivity to the IT networks in place. And safeguards. For example, there would have to be additional protections to safeguard personal information (ex. passport information and the info that goes into it) for any work being conducted from home.

I doubt gov't agencies simply gave up and said we'll not do a thing to get telework capability going. Rather, they probably faced obstacles... with varying degrees of success overcoming them.

I agree with all of this.

While agencies may not have given up, I do think some employees may have. And, maybe they had three kids at home and were trying to figure out distance learning. Still, I think productivity nationwide is down sharply and, probably, even moreso in governmental agencies.

Telework is a great opportunity for some employees to lay low. Adds a whole new dimension to 'out of sight, out of mind' for those looking to skirt responsibilities.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

quote:

ORIGINAL: unome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

No doubt you'll get the reported one-offs, akin to "Well, Tom Brady was a 6th round pick".

Or misinformation like Jandro saying the passport backlog is 250 million.

I always assumed the 250 million number was a typo. Maybe not.

Or maybe there is a huge backlog because a whole bunch of people filed for fraudulent passports?

Either way, there is no way that the US is 250 actual legit passport requests behind.

So we agree the US is somewhere between 250 and 250 million passport requests behind

quote:

ORIGINAL: thebigo


Don't I know it.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

A friend of ours just had to watch his mom die of COVID over Facetime because of travel restrictions and the current quarantine in Hawaii.

Brutal.

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ORIGINAL: Brad H

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

A friend of ours just had to watch his mom die of COVID over Facetime because of travel restrictions and the current quarantine in Hawaii.

Brutal.

Really sorry David. That's a real bummer.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

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ORIGINAL: Brad H

quote:

ORIGINAL: David Levine

A friend of ours just had to watch his mom die of COVID over Facetime because of travel restrictions and the current quarantine in Hawaii.

Brutal.

Really sorry David. That's a real bummer.

It really hits how rough this thing is. No contact with your loved ones at all, you're lucky if you can see them through a window. And then funerals have a whole other set of problems.

And lately I'm seeing a new group of idiots. Not the hoax or the "it isn't that bad, only x% of people die" crowd, but the ones that are "over this whole Covid thing".

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ORIGINAL: unome

quote:

ORIGINAL: McMurfy


Government and State jobs pay shi t

So if you want shi t pay and days off, go apply.

Government jobs pay pretty well in MN. Especially when you consider the huge amount of vacation and sick days you get.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bill Johanesen

No doubt you'll get the reported one-offs, akin to "Well, Tom Brady was a 6th round pick".

Or misinformation like Jandro saying the passport backlog is 250 million.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Brad H

And just like that, we are back over 50k new cases in the country today, which is the highest day in over a week. Whether it's college going back to class, high school, rally's or a cavalier attitude, we are once again reminded that it isn't gone.

Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas...all seeing an uptick. Huge spike in Illinois. Not sure what that is all about.

quote:

ORIGINAL: unome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Brad H

And just like that, we are back over 50k new cases in the country today, which is the highest day in over a week. Whether it's college going back to class, high school, rally's or a cavalier attitude, we are once again reminded that it isn't gone.

Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas...all seeing an uptick. Huge spike in Illinois. Not sure what that is all about.

Illinois had a testing reporting glitch so they added about 4,000 cases today that were from the last three weeks and unreported.

And the military reported today. They do not report every day. That added 1,000.

The numbers are not going down, but they are pretty steady overall. Raising in some states and dropping in others.

I do suspect the numbers will go up in September like everyone has always thought they would. It seems like college kids and 20 somethings have been fueling this thing for awhile. Freakin idiot Bernie supporters.

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ORIGINAL: Brad H

That's because the Bernie supporters are going to school and getting an education. Ba-dum-bum

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ORIGINAL: unome

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ORIGINAL: Brad H

That's because the Bernie supporters are going to school and getting an education. Ba-dum-bum

Nice one.

I just hope they take biology soon.

quote:

ORIGINAL: unome

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ORIGINAL: thebigo


Don't I know it.

Think of how many posts on TalkVikes we would miss out on if it were not for all of the 'telework' going on.