To be blunt: in reality, it\u00a0. . . sucks.<\/p>\n
The current administration has touted the US Patent and Trademark Office\u2019s telework as a \u201cmodel program\u201d for the Federal government. So, it must be well-run; have few problems; and very little abuse, right?<\/p>\n
Yeah, right. Just like I\u2019m the freaking rightful Emperor of China.<\/p>\n
It seems that the PTO\u2019s telework program is, in reality, not a good model at all.\u00a0 Except maybe of how to run a proverbial \u201cgravy train\u201d for people wanting something for nothing.<\/p>\n
Abuse is rife. Repeat offenders remain unfired. Managers have difficulty in getting computer records to check work-from-home claims.<\/p>\n
Or, more succinctly:\u00a0 it sucks – from the perspective of the US taxpayer, anyway.\u00a0 For those “ridin’ the gravy train”, it’s indeed a sweet deal.<\/p>\n
So, what’s going on, you ask?\u00a0 Well, in one particularly egregious case, a\u00a0 PTO employee was paid for 304 hours one calendar year that the individual never worked.\u00a0 (That’s somewhat over 1 hour in 7.) \u00a0 That individual was caught – and was warned about their behavior.\u00a0 The same individual was later caught again falsely claiming to have worked when they did not.<\/p>\n
The individual was not fired.<\/p>\n
In another case, a different worker was caught having falsely claimed to have worked 266 hours,.\u00a0 However, that individual was not charged with fraud.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the individual\u2019s supervisor couldn\u2019t 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.)<\/p>\n
The second individual was reportedly never required to pay back Uncle Sam the $12+k in salary received for those 266 hours, either.<\/p>\n
Why all the problems? Apparently because of negotiated union work rules – as well as \u201cother issues\u201d.\u00a0 Like maybe possible attempts by senior management to hide or downplay the severity of the problem.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 But what do I know?\u00a0 And besides, people never try to hide things from the IG, right?<\/p>\n
The Washington Post<\/em> has a moderately long article on the subject with more details<\/a>. Read it if you want to get p!ssed \u2013 but maybe not right after eating.<\/p>\n Oh, and if you\u2019re thinking to yourself that you remember hearing something else fishy about the PTO recently:\u00a0 you\u2019d be correct.\u00a0 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<\/a> (they had been hired, but because of a lack of Admin Law judges there was no legitimate work for them to do.)<\/p>\n Sheesh.\u00a0 I guess the management and employees at the PTO must all own stock in Purina.\u00a0 (That’s the company that makes “Gravy Train” dog food.)<\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n “Most transparent administration in history?” Well yeah \u2013 if you\u2019re talking about the most transparently incompetent<\/em> one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"