White House urges US agencies to swiftly transition to in-office work.
The White House Pushes for More In-Person Work by September
In an email obtained by Reuters, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients emphasized the importance of returning to in-person work for federal agency employees. Zients stated, “we are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people.”
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Zients further urged agencies to increase the amount of in-person work for their teams, highlighting that this is a priority for President Biden. He called on employees to aggressively execute this shift in September and October.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, federal agencies employ approximately 2.25 million military personnel and 2.25 million civilian employees.
In the first three months of this year, the Government Accountability Office reported that 17 out of 24 agency buildings were operating at 25% capacity or less. The cost of maintaining the 21.5 million square feet of office space amounts to about $2 billion per year, with an additional $5 billion per year in office leasing costs.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration has already issued a return-to-work order of at least three days per week by October 9th. The U.S. Department of Transportation will also begin implementing a minimum of three days in the office every two weeks starting on September 10th, with a minimum of four days per pay period beginning on December 3rd.
President Joe Biden ended the COVID-19 emergency order in April of this year, which had required half of all federal employees to remain in the office since the pandemic began in March 2020. In February 2022, the Government Accountability Office found that telework hours in some federal agencies accounted for more than 80% of total work time.
Nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between August and September 2022, 72.5% of private-sector establishments reported little or no telework, compared to 60.1% between July and September 2021.
About 16% of establishments reported having some remote employees, with 2.4% hiring at least one employee to work entirely remotely. Additionally, 11% of establishments boasted an entirely remote staff.
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