I know many of you are interested in the hoteling program management has recently announced. Some of you have told me that you are hearing from management that POPA has refused to bargain with the agency on the hoteling program. I would like to take a few minutes of your time to set the record straight and alert you to the many issues you need to think about before signing up for hoteling.
THE ESSENTIALS
I strongly recommend that you do not participate in management's hoteling program at this time. POPA and USPTO have no agreements in place for this program. Therefore, you would be participating without any negotiated rights or protections and totally at the mercy of management's every whim. You will be participating at your own risk. You will be vulnerable to management's beck and call any time they want to yank your chain by requiring you to come in for meetings, training or any other reasons. They could terminate the program or your participation in the program virtually at will.
There are no protections for those who do not wish to use hoteling. These people may suddenly find themselves with a far larger training burden and spending much more time answering questions from junior examiners. Of course, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that the additional burdens will be compensated with other time.
Please remember that management absolutely needs an effective hoteling program in order to free up office space for all the new people it is required by law to hire. The rapidly increasing cost of housing and other necessities in the Washington area will make it increasingly difficult to hire outstanding people unless the agency has a viable telework program to meet everyone's needs. While I know that many of you are very interested in hoteling, if we all stick together now and refuse to participate in a bad program, management will have little choice but to work with POPA to develop a hoteling program that is good for employees who want to hotel, good for employees who don't, and good for the agency.
THE GORY DETAILS
POPA did not refuse to bargain with management on a hoteling program. POPA has been fighting for an expanded telework program for a number of years now. What we had to do to protect your rights was to refuse to enter into "formal" negotiations. Because we knew that many of you are interested in telework, however, we told management that we would be happy to enter into informal negotiations on hoteling. What's the difference, you may ask?
Management's hoteling program violates a number of our existing contracts with management: the Patents Telework Agreement, the Carlyle space agreement, the Millennium agreement and Article 16 of our basic collective bargaining agreement dealing with space and examiners' offices. Entering into formal negotiations would have meant that POPA consented to management's violation of those agreements, and more importantly, it would have allowed management to "go through the motions of bargaining," declare impasse and then let the Federal Service Impasses Panel cram whatever management wanted down our throats. This is exactly what the agency did with the Quality Initiatives that I know you all love so much. Having learned our lesson with the Quality Initiatives, POPA could not allow that to happen again with a program as important to our members as telework. Informal negotiations, on the other hand, will allow POPA and the agency to work together to create a good, workable telework program. Management refused POPA's offer for informal negotiations. It was management that refused to negotiate hoteling, not POPA.
POPA believes the risks associated with management's hoteling program are substantial. Let me give you some examples of our concerns.
First and foremost, the management hoteling program will increase your vulnerability to management's whims. If you participate in the program, you will still be subject to being called back to the office for meetings, training and virtually any other reasons management may have. Further, if you find that hoteling is not working for you or your performance rating falls below fully successful, you would need to return to working at the agency. Only now, you won't have your office back. You'll have already given it up for hoteling. Management's program is intended to transfer much of the cost of doing business to the backs of examiners. If you participate in hoteling, management doesn't have to pay the rent for your office. We don't know what you will come back to, but management is already installing cubicles in places and is planning on 3 people per office space (cubicle) for those on hoteling. Somehow I just don't think you'll be enjoying that very much.
There is a laundry list of issues to be worked out and, as usual, the devil truly is in the details. They have indicated that they are going to train you on fixing problems with your computer. Who is really going to be fixing your computer, you or a professional? If the power goes out or your internet connection goes down or, worse, everything works but very slowly, do not expect the office to give you other time. How much access does the Office get to your home in order to monitor your activities or take care of your equipment? To what extent will management be able to do surveillance of your internet connection and your work activities? Will they be able to separate your work activities from your personal activities? How will you obtain printer paper, toner cartridges and other office supplies at home? Will you need additional liability and property insurance for your business activities? How comfortable will you be doing training, meetings, or interviews in front of a video web cam and having all those videos archived for litigation or disciplinary uses?
What happens if you get a new supervisor who doesn't like you? All he/she would have to do to ruin your day would be tell you to come in and talk to him/her. This would require you to commute into the agency as often as your supervisor desired. You will be at his/her mercy. What are you going to do if you have already bought a new home farther away or taken your child out of USPTO child care and put him/her in day care much closer to home.
This is how management can control your life with hoteling. The very reason they will have you come into work at least one hour each week is so that they are able to call Carlyle your duty station and maintain your vulnerability to management. How much work do you really think you are going to get done here in one hour/week in a cubicle. Without adequate rights and protections, all you will have done is increased management's control over your life.
On the other hand, if your duty station is your home, then the USPTO would have to pay your travel expenses and give you other time for traveling to the Office. This would be a financial check on management's right to call you in whenever they want. But with the agency continuing to call Carlyle your duty station, you get to eat all of your commuting time and expense just as you do now, no matter how many times they call you in.
I hope this will help you make your decision to wait for a better, negotiated telework program.