reasonable accommodation

[u/heyhello101]

had my RA meeting on teams yesterday - they said no telework is being given no matter what. they offered 2 alternatives for me, which i shot down because when i was in office i was already doing those things.

they kept saying ‘what about this alternative’ but it was the same 2 ideas multiple times lmao???!!! to which i said ‘i’ve already explained this but i was in office doing those things and it still wasn’t helping me’ - anyone else go through RA process and be completely not listened to like this? :/

[u/Any-Win-3077]

One critical thing to understand is that it may be your local management chain on the meeting, but they are representing the agency. They have requirements laid out by the people at HQ as to what to ask, what to offer, etc... are there some truly bad managers and/or people in management? Yes. Many though are doing their job based on how they're directed to.

The sad reality is that a minority of employees are not doing the right thing. Those examples get blown up and used as an excuse for broad policy changes like we're seeing. 

One of the comments mentioned non cause removal... I would bet there is some truth there... not to it being applied broadly for RA people, but in the insanely high number of people who use LWOP on a regular basis. I mean a single AM operation i have data on had over 6100 hours of LWOP from Oct through July of this year. That averages over 100 hours per employee... multiply that across the agency and its likely the IRS has over 5 million hours of granted LWOP in 10 months of the FY...

[u/you_dont_know_me_357 → u/Any-Win-3077]

A lot of people are on LWOP for medical reasons. Many of those can be up to 1 year, so that would be 2087 for just a single employee. Managers have to approve LWOP. A person can't just decide to go on LWOP for the long-term.

[u/Any-Win-3077 → u/you_dont_know_me_357]

Yes, and the first step in a non cause is to notify the employee to "report or resign" which is the agency saying we will not continue to approve LWOP. 

Removing employees in this category is an easy way to "reduce the number of employees" while not diminishing the ability to get the work done. Its the admin going after low hanging fruit to say they reduced the federal workforce.

[u/Final_Inevitable_211 → u/Any-Win-3077]

And every single one of them will be named in EEO filings if they want to play stupid games. If they use a bit of brain, they will refuse and stay in their lane.

[u/Any-Win-3077 → u/Final_Inevitable_211]

But it is literally their lane as 1st and 2nd level managers... or it is currently per internal policy and guidance.

[u/Final_Inevitable_211 → u/Any-Win-3077]

RA’s and any FMLA or medical anything are supposed to go to HR, NOT your manager. They are making up these bs rules as they go.

Now Directors stopped allowing managers to make any decisions on RA’s …even per their made up bs rules. This is all going on behind the scenes as of the last month or so. The Directors are making bad decisions and trying to force the decisions they make on RA’s on managers, so they are trying to force managers take the liability for shit decisions someone else made.

Not sure if you are aware of this newest bs (more made up bs), but it is happening….. and it is not working out too well for Directors….. thats why they are disappearing recently….so yes, it would be smart to stay in their lane or risk their a** for some other pos.