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"National embarrassment" All federal agencies ordered to terminate remote workideally within 30 days US agencies wasting billions on empty offices an embarrassment, RTO memo says. Ashley Belanger Jan 23, 2025 4:28 pm | 226 US President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on remote work for government employees during the 60th presidential inauguration parade at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg US President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on remote work for government employees during the 60th presidential inauguration parade at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAll federal agencies received a memo Wednesday requiring the termination of remote work options, with return-to-office plans due by end of day Friday.In the memo, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, Charles Ezell, told the heads and acting heads of all departments and agencies that the change is due to Donald Trump's Return to In-Person Work presidential memorandum, which carved out space for some exemptions and ordered:Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.Empty offices a national embarrassmentAccording to the memo, "most federal offices presently are virtually abandoned," with "the vast majority of federal office workers" having "not returned to in-person work" after transitioning to remote work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only has this "devastated" the local economy in Washington, D.C., the memo said, but having so many federal offices sitting empty also serves as a "national embarrassment.""Virtually unrestricted telework has led to poorer government services and made it more difficult to supervise and train government workers," Ezell said, citing a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.That report was published last week, calling out the lack of data supporting remote work policies. It found that "American taxpayers are wasting billions to pay for owned and leased federal office space that remain largely vacant" and accused the Biden administration of making "no real attempt to determine the effects of widespread telework.""While the Biden-Harris Administration has touted the benefits of telework, it generally has had no means of measuring the effects of telework on agency mission outcomes or on addressing any existing recruitment or retention challenges," the report noted among key findings.Exceptions may be grantedEzell's memo expanded criticism of the Biden administration's approach to remote work, suggesting that it enabled federal unions' alleged attempts "to abuse the collective-bargaining process to guarantee full-time telework into the indefinite future and forestall any requirement to return to the office."Suspecting that the "rampant use of telework is likely underreported," the committee's report concluded that "even the reported levels are excessive, there is little evidence that it is enhancing productivity or addressing recruitment and retention gaps, and there is evidence it is harming agency missions and citizen-facing services."To overcome these supposed deficiencies, the committee recommended that remote work policies be linked to performance metrics, rather than "employee preferences or union demands." Any remote work that is granted should be tracked through automated systems, the report further prescribed, and any attempts for federal agencies to compete for talent using remote work perks should not be tolerated.This will allow the government to alleviate the "national embarrassment" of empty offices and "dispose of unneeded property and terminate unnecessary leases," the report said.While some employees may be eligible for RTO exemptionseither to accommodate a disability or qualifying medical condition, or for some "other compelling reason certified by the agency head and the employees supervisor"Ezell's memo insisted that a general return-to-office push was necessary. He said that Trump's presidential memo reflected "a simple reality" that "the only way to get employees back to the office is to adopt a centralized policy requiring return-to-work for all agencies across the federal government.""Seeking to cajole individual agencies to try to get employees to return to the worksite has not succeeded," Ezell said.Although Trump's memo set no deadline for RTO efforts to begin, Ezell gave federal agency heads rather short notice to fall in line. All agencies must submit their RTO plans by 5 pm ET on Friday, January 24, Ezell's memo said.Those plans should specify "the date that the agency will be in full compliance with the new telework policy," with a recommended deadline of 30 days to comply, Ezell said.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 226 Comments
