(PatriotSpotlight.org) – A year since President Biden declared the official end to the nationwide public health emergency enforced due to the pandemic, federal agencies are struggling to tempt their employees back to the office. The White House has issued a target of a 50-50 office-home split so that employees are forced to work in person at least half of the time.
Non-governmental research casts doubt on their ambitions, revealing that occupancy rates at various government workplaces in Washington were languishing at around 30% of pre-pandemic levels between January and September 2023. Republican lawmakers in particular raised concerns over sluggish returns to office working, with Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, asking if such delays were due to poor government leadership.
Some Republicans have not only complained about tele-work’s potential impact on productivity but also the use of taxpayer funds to continue paying for underutilized office buildings. Others argue that work-from-home can be more beneficial, with a 2023 survey concluding that one-fifth (20 per cent) of workers are burned out, and just over half (51 per cent) reporting feeling more productive when working remotely.
Pushes to legislate for federal employees to return to office work have garnered bipartisan backing in Congress, with proposed bills geared toward compelling agencies to report telework data and require in-person work for a certain percentage of hours. Rep. Michael Waltz has also homed in on the possible consequences of prolonged telework, referring to issues encountered by the pharmaceutical industry in receiving new medication approvals due to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delays. Commissioner Robert M. Califf hit back, claiming that pharmaceutical approvals were at record levels despite remote working. He also said there were issues with a lack of meeting room availability, rather than with telework.
Agencies including the Government Accountability Office (GAO), already smoothly transitioned to remote employment prior to pandemic restrictions, other agencies are struggling to evaluate what arrangements may work best for their productivity. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said her department’s outdated monitoring systems were making productivity estimates cumbersome.
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