Federal agencies in the United States have new guidance on the White House about their return-to-office policies and telecommuting.
The Biden Administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) called on government agencies to try to strike a balance between doing work in person when necessary and maintaining the flexibilities of telecommuting.
Agencies are expected to increase “significant” face-to-face work at federal offices, especially headquarters, the OMB said in a memo released Thursday.
OMB said that meaningful work in the office is “purposeful, well planned and optimized for in-person collaboration.”
The guidance asked each department and agency to formulate your own plans based on the needs of your organizationbut stopped short of demanding any specific requirements.
“The guidance we released today instructs agencies to update their work environment plans and policies, with the general expectation that agency headquarters continue to substantially increase in-person office presence while conducting regular assessments to determine what is working well, what is not, and what can be improved,” Jason Miller, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a blog post explaining the new guidelines.
Plans to return workers for the federal government, America’s largest employer, to more regular in-person attendance come as the federal response to the Covid pandemic draws to a close, and various related programs and regulations are closed. are shrinking as May 11 approaches, when the pandemic public health emergency ends.
There are about 2 million federal employees covering all aspects of government, many of them remained in their regular jobs during the pandemic, from Transportation Security Administration employees at the nation’s airports to postal service workers.
61% of US workers “do not have jobs that can be done from home” but many American workers have taken advantage of a hybrid work arrangement: “41% of those with jobs that can be done remotely they are working a hybrid schedule … up from 35% in January 2022,” the Pew Research Center said in a March report, indicating that the return to business as usual and the decline in telecommuting is already happening in other sectors.
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Source: La Opinion
