In April, the Biden administration issued a memo effectively telling federal agencies that, with the COVID-19 public health emergency at an end, it was time to start getting their people back to the office on a more regular basis.
A number of large federal entities have responded. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Aviation Administration are just a few of the agencies that have announced plans to require employees to work in person more frequently, signaling that the government return-to-office effort has begun in earnest.
The pushback from government employees has begun as well.
For instance, the union representing CMS employees said staffers were “just completely taken aback” by the agency’s June announcement that, starting in January, most of the workforce at its Washington, D.C. headquarters would be required to work on site three days a week, according to a Federal Times report. The agency’s union has already filed two unfair labor practice complaints in response to the CMS plan, and “expects the agency to negotiate changes before rolling them out,” Federal Times’ Molly Weisner wrote.
Employees at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reacted similarly when the agency informed them in June that they would also be expected to report to the office for a minimum of three days each week, beginning in January. Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), said the union and the FDIC employees it represents “strongly oppose the agency’s plan to disregard previous negotiated agreements on telework policy,” and intend to respond with a counterproposal, according to a statement obtained by Federal Times.
More recently, a group of Department of Justice (DOJ) employees went so far as to write a letter to DOJ leadership, expressing concern that the department’s plan to propose a new policy that significantly increases in-person work “will have a negative impact on [the DOL’s] ability to retain and recruit a productive, diverse and talented workforce.”
DOJ Employees Express Dismay
The DOJ Gender Equality Network (DOJ GEN) is a 1,500-employee organization that advocates for gender equity and equality in the DOJ and the federal workforce. In its July 25 letter to DOJ leadership, the group shared concerns it had heard from many of its 1,500 members regarding a recent email that DOJ employees received from Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
In the email, employees were asked to complete a brief survey designed to help inform the department’s decision on a policy that would substantially increase in-person work at DOJ, per the White House’s April memo. According to the letter, multiple DOJ GEN members said the survey didn’t allow sufficient time for employees to provide useful feedback within the four business days they were allowed before the survey’s deadline, which also fell during the July 4th holiday weekend.
“Many expressed dismay that the survey asked nothing about how mandating substantial in-person return to office might negatively impact the work productivity of employees, including those who are parents or caregivers, or who are employees with disabilities,” the letter read.
Others voiced their frustration with the email’s tone, “given that DOJ employees have been working so efficiently in a flexible telework posture for the last several years,” the DOJ GEN letter continued, adding that multiple DOJ employees worried that the department was engaged in a return-to-office initiative “for reasons unrelated to fulfilling our primary mission at the department.”
Still others feared that more prescriptive in-person work policies would negatively affect their productivity. For example, employees with family care obligations said their productivity has increased as a result of 100% remote and local telework agreements or reduced in-office requirements that eliminate or cut down on multi-hour commutes, traffic, metro delays and other time-consuming and stress-inducing factors.
“Those caregiving obligations will not dissipate should the department issue a more prescriptive [telework] policy,” according to the DOJ GEN letter. “Rather, a mandated increase in in-person office time will reintroduce logistical complications and truncate work productivity gains that resulted from reduced commuting time and the absence of in-office distractions, according to the DOJ GEN letter, which cites recent research suggesting that employee stress related to the return-to-office movement is contributing to the ongoing mental health crisis.
With its letter to DOJ leadership, DOJ GEN asked that the department, at a minimum, not issue a policy that “eliminates components’ ability to provide the most expensive array of flexible work options consistent with components’ needs.” And, should the DOJ issue any further guidance to employees regarding telework, the group requested that the agency first conduct a more thorough assessment of a new telework policy’s potential effect on employee productivity and ability to develop and retain a diverse and effective workforce, for example.
07 August 2023
Category
HR News Article