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Post by garlow on Jun 30, 2023 20:38:55 GMT -5
Hi, seems like a lot of ALJs have done long commutes over the years.
For those ALJs or other feds who have had to travel or commute often, what are some tips and tricks you found to make the task easier, both in terms of cost or logistics or time?
-for example, are there hotel chains that have a great fed discount, or any with a good fed discount/group code or rewards scheme? Same thing with rental cars although less often used.
-someone mentioned starting work early and leaving early to beat the traffic, or structure a 4day /10h week to eliminate one day of travel, etc.
-anyone done anything crazy, like buy a pop-up camper for sleeping in during in-person duty station days?
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Post by ssaogc on Jun 30, 2023 21:09:49 GMT -5
Hi, seems like a lot of ALJs have done long commutes over the years. For those ALJs or other feds who have had to travel or commute often, what are some tips and tricks you found to make the task easier, both in terms of cost or logistics or time? -for example, are there hotel chains that have a great fed discount, or any with a good fed discount/group code or rewards scheme? Same thing with rental cars although less often used. -someone mentioned starting work early and leaving early to beat the traffic, or structure a 4day /10h week to eliminate one day of travel, etc. -anyone done anything crazy, like buy a pop-up camper for sleeping in during in-person duty station days? There is really no need for this. You can have up to two alternative duty stations as long as they are in continental United States. The way things are now you may, and I emphasize May go into office for in person hearings 2-3 days a month. Rest of time you can hold hearings from home. Either telephone or video. This long commute or getting stuck at an undesirable location is not as big a problem as it was in past. The job has gone from good to great since COVID hit. |
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Post by Gaidin on Jul 2, 2023 1:21:00 GMT -5
Hi, seems like a lot of ALJs have done long commutes over the years. For those ALJs or other feds who have had to travel or commute often, what are some tips and tricks you found to make the task easier, both in terms of cost or logistics or time? -for example, are there hotel chains that have a great fed discount, or any with a good fed discount/group code or rewards scheme? Same thing with rental cars although less often used. -someone mentioned starting work early and leaving early to beat the traffic, or structure a 4day /10h week to eliminate one day of travel, etc. -anyone done anything crazy, like buy a pop-up camper for sleeping in during in-person duty station days? There is really no need for this. You can have up to two alternative duty stations as long as they are in continental United States. The way things are now you may, and I emphasize May go into office for in person hearings 2-3 days a month. Rest of time you can hold hearings from home. Either telephone or video. This long commute or getting stuck at an undesirable location is not as big a problem as it was in past. The job has gone from good to great since COVID hit. YMMV on only having in person hearings 2-3 days a month. Some of us have to have more in person hearing days than that because of the volume of claimants who want in person hearings. You can telework every day you don't have in person hearings and you can still earn tons of credit hours whether you're teleworking or not. Since COVID the job has gotten better. If your plan is to commute to the hearing office you will need to make nice with your scheduler to line up your in person and telephone hearings. At least for now you can insist that your in person hearings cannot be scheduled on days with telephone hearings. Which will concentrate your in person days. If you are commuting then my advice regarding hotels is find a nice one near your hearing office with a decent rewards program. |
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Post by barkley on Jul 2, 2023 21:50:48 GMT -5
It is hard to answer this due to the wide variety of factors. My advice to someone commuting to Middlesboro would be different than my advice to someone commuting to Chicago. Further, offices vary so much, with some HOCALJs being more flexible, some schedulers being more competent, and some colleagues being more helpful. You won't know until you get there.
One thing you need to know about the ALJs is that they recently got a new time schedule "Any 80" which basically means you can log in any time between I think 5 a.m. (maybe 6?) and clock out at 10 p.m., with the max time you can long in a single day being 12 hours. So if you want to work a longer day to avoid traffic, you can. Or if you schedule your hearings right, you day can end at 1 and you can hit the road. Totally up to you. Just so long as during the two week pay period you log in 80 hours.
Craziest thing I ever heard was two ALJs in my office did an apartment share, finding it was cheaper than the hotel thing, and they liked having some of their own stuff there.
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Post by jagvet on Jul 3, 2023 5:18:53 GMT -5
In the run-up to COVID, I was travelling a lot. Some things I found are that if you research your travel carefully, it will usually pay off. Finding a chain with your points is good, but what if your favorite place is booked?
I found one small hotel near a train station that was family-run, and not part of a chain. Coffee, light breakfast. Immaculate. Good security. It had few reviews. They were often booked when I tried to make a reservation, I got the owner's number and made a deal with him. I would give him my schedule a month in advance and prepay the rooms for that month. He'd give me a discount and guarantee the rooms. It only lasted a week until mid March 2020. When the plague came and we went remote, the deal was over.
Bottom line is to think outside the box.
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