Keith’s note: according to this JPL memo “JPL to Transition to Fully Onsite Work“: “General telework employees will have until Monday, August 25, to fully return to their assigned work location, and remote telework employees – both in and outside of California – will have until Monday, October 27. Note that for those who can, we encourage returning to fully onsite work sooner than the required dates. Although rare exceptions are possible (see below), employees who do not return by their required date will be considered to have resigned.”
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
Return-to-office mandates underscore a general lack of managerial competence among those who advocate for in-person work assignments to subordinates. Effective managers and leaders recognize the significance of managing where individuals work most efficiently. In contrast, poor managers often exhibit an insatiable need to monitor their employees’ activities, projecting their own negative habits onto those they now lead. If one believes that “people work better in an office” solely based on personal feelings, it would be highly beneficial for them and their teams to take a moment to reconsider their underlying motives.
I retired from JPL in early April – I think I saw the writing on the wall, and my project had just launched, and I’m 66.5 so the timing was right. I worked with flight hardware, either on lab or elsewhere in the country/world, so telecommuting was never a thing for me.
But the parking was great with the remote folks off-lab. I could even drive between buildings if I was feeling lazy! That last week of August, the parking is going to be a nightmare.