To be blunt: in reality, it . . . sucks.
The current administration has touted the US Patent and Trademark Office’s telework as a “model program” for the Federal government. So, it must be well-run; have few problems; and very little abuse, right?
Yeah, right. Just like I’m the freaking rightful Emperor of China.
It seems that the PTO’s telework program is, in reality, not a good model at all. Except maybe of how to run a proverbial “gravy train” for people wanting something for nothing.
Abuse is rife. Repeat offenders remain unfired. Managers have difficulty in getting computer records to check work-from-home claims.
Or, more succinctly: it sucks – from the perspective of the US taxpayer, anyway. For those “ridin’ the gravy train”, it’s indeed a sweet deal.
So, what’s going on, you ask? Well, in one particularly egregious case, a PTO employee was paid for 304 hours one calendar year that the individual never worked. (That’s somewhat over 1 hour in 7.) That individual was caught – and was warned about their behavior. The same individual was later caught again falsely claiming to have worked when they did not.
The individual was not fired.
In another case, a different worker was caught having falsely claimed to have worked 266 hours,. However, that individual was not charged with fraud. Why? Because the individual’s supervisor couldn’t seem to get the computer records needed to substantiate fraud. (The individual did get disciplined for failing to contact their supervisor in a timely manner when requested to do so.)
The second individual was reportedly never required to pay back Uncle Sam the $12+k in salary received for those 266 hours, either.
Why all the problems? Apparently because of negotiated union work rules – as well as “other issues”. Like maybe possible attempts by senior management to hide or downplay the severity of the problem.
It seems the Commerce Department’s IG investigated the PTO’s telework program problems when the matter was referred to them by PTO management after an internal review. But the internal review report given to the Commerce IG as their starting point was a far cry from the original report prepared by the group doing the initial review. Many of the worst abuses were for some reason missing from the revised internal review report given to the Commerce Department IG.
You know, to me that almost looks like maybe someone was trying to downplay the seriousness of the matter and/or hide the true scope of the problem from the IG. But what do I know? And besides, people never try to hide things from the IG, right?
The Washington Post has a moderately long article on the subject with more details. Read it if you want to get p!ssed – but maybe not right after eating.
Oh, and if you’re thinking to yourself that you remember hearing something else fishy about the PTO recently: you’d be correct. That’s the same Federal agency that recently was found to have a sh!tload of paralegals sitting at home getting paid for doing nothing (they had been hired, but because of a lack of Admin Law judges there was no legitimate work for them to do.)
Sheesh. I guess the management and employees at the PTO must all own stock in Purina. (That’s the company that makes “Gravy Train” dog food.)
. . .
“Most transparent administration in history?” Well yeah – if you’re talking about the most transparently incompetent one.