AG Freedom Board by Jessica Williams

Advocating for Change in Remote Work > Days in office

jwilliams973 — 2024-05-17 14:35:45 UTC

Imo, I care more about the changes to the full-time remote work policy than the changes to # of in office days. We have limited political capital with making demands of leadership, and I'd prefer to save it to ask them to reconsider the remote work policy.

Town Hall

2024-05-17 15:47:54 UTC

We're always told go to office hours or fill out an anonymous survey. 1:1 OH feels intimidating and anonymous survey feels like leadership is less likely to take that seriously. I think a town hall is good in between option.

What happened to Iqbal's OH? Does he even have them?

2024-05-17 15:48:58 UTC

Also what do you guys even talk about with Iqbal in his office hours? 🥴

Travel Budget Transparency

2024-05-17 15:52:52 UTC

I'm so confused after the last AG meeting. Are we able to reallocate our RST travel budget toward other traveling? Do we have a limited # of trips of $ we can reimburse toward PD trips? Knowing that info would be helpful so we can make the best decision for ourselves.

What is a "policy STF prep" alternative experience?

2024-05-17 15:53:49 UTC

Claire mentioned that people not interested in a research STF could do a parallel RST experience focused on prepping them for a policy STF? What would that be?

Taking WFA days in Boston

2024-05-17 16:14:24 UTC

Should we document the differences in how this is handled in different verticals? If people are not able to take their WFA days, that seems like something we could easily talk to Poonam about. Would need concrete examples of when people have been denied their requests.

Expectations unclear

2024-05-17 16:45:36 UTC

I have asked multiple people what the expectations are to move into a Manager-level role and almost always the answer has been that "you're doing everything well, it may just be a matter of time within J-PAL". It would be nice to have clarity on what are the expectations for each level and how can we work on building skills needed for the next level.

Relationship with Allison

2024-05-17 17:57:38 UTC

I find it hard to develop a relationship with Allison, especially a mentoring one. She cancelled the intro coffee chat with me and whoever else was in my group twice and then it was never rescheduled. When she's here in person, she's typically in meetings all the time. I suppose I should schedule office hours or send an invite to grab a coffee—wondering what thoughts others have about her accessibility?

Adjusting Flexibility Equity (it's long srry)

2024-05-17 18:29:31 UTC

F&O associate here! Also known as a non-technical. I find that this sudden shift in flexibility is making me feel very claustrophobic given how much F&O gets excluded from a lot of things. We don't travel, we don't have salary surveys, we don't have many development opportunities, and we are pretty much a burnt-out group of people. The least J-PAL could do to address this inequity is to give the F&O folks a better flexible structure to make up for it. More in-person days for me mean so much more work that I frankly don't care for. Like J-PALers can be a messy bunch so the more in person the more I am stuck cleaning, and moving when I could just finish my job and go home. I also have some mental health struggles and being forced as an F&O person to smile at people 2 days a week when I practically have no meetings or obligations is draining. The forcible 2 days a week is only applicable to some folks, as an F&O person I HAVE TO BE HERE all the time! So flexibility is lacking in my work schedule following J-FLEX 2.0. Also the past couple of instances, J-FLEX was weaponized against me in which the policy started changing at my expense on the spot despite doing pretty much everything I needed to.

Will leadership investigate the whole technical / non-technical stuff?

2024-05-17 18:40:30 UTC

It is very easy for leadership to quickly dismiss non-technical staff with 'MIT makes the rules' excuse. That one can only take someone so far. I cannot afford to live near the office but I am expected to be here? There is an unjust expectation there. I cannot even explain how it felt being told about how my salary would likely never change or survey-ed.

F&O Leadership

2024-05-17 18:43:21 UTC

I am struggling to build a relationship with Cindy. Anna has been my go to for everything but I feel like that is above her pay grade (she works A LOT!).

There was a shift in team dynamics from David to Cindy. David seemed to have an easier time building connections with F&O. His open door policy was more authentic.

RST / STF for F&O

2024-05-17 18:47:23 UTC

Can we ask leadership to support F&O associates in identifying opportunities for STF or even if RST could be a helpful experience to some associates. F&O colleagues seem to just be siloed and excluded for these discussions. Sharing F&O experience across different ROs or even to the actual field could bring great value to J-PAL.

Increases in job responsibilities, or "performs other tasks as needed" types of workload isn't effectively compensated for when people are away.

2024-05-21 15:47:19 UTC

If staff are on leave or are no longer at the department, others need to work harder to pick up on those tasks which need to be done for short period. MIT has a policy for this of a temporary base pay increase under the MIT HR pay guidelines that back this. All verticals are so overworked, and it seems that there is a lack of information being shared with us about how MIT works.

Career + Promotion Trajectories for Admin Staff

2024-05-21 17:09:35 UTC

It might not be well-known but Admin staff only have one promotional trajectory -- AA to SAA. This lack of career growth makes it difficult for Admin Associates to commit to J-PAL long-term and forces us to have to advocate for a move to P&C or RET if we want to move to manager level and beyond. I have always found this extremely unfair and makes it hard to trust that the organization is committed to every staff person's career growth regardless of their vertical. This is not to mention how demotivating it feels to have to stay in the same position WAY past the timeline other staff have been promoted in. I'd love it if there could be some promotional trajectories that Admin staff could pursue with the support of leadership, even if it means moving to another vertical. This will ensure talent stays at J-PAL and we don't lose 1-2 Admin Associates each year.

Leave comments below about the AG SURVEY, please make concrete suggestions!

2024-06-12 13:50:01 UTC