NOT a Good Look….
President Biden is calling for his Cabinet to “aggressively execute” plans for federal employees to work more in their offices this fall after years of working remotely, according to an email sent Friday to every Cabinet member and obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: It’s Biden’s most overt push yet to get federal employees to return to their offices — a dynamic many businesses also have struggled with as Americans continue to embrace remote work despite the pandemic waning.
Driving the news: In an email to the Cabinet on Friday, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients wrote: “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.”
- He added: “As we look towards the fall, and with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, your agencies will be implementing increases in the amount of in-person work for your team. This is a priority of the President — and I am looking to each of you to aggressively execute this shift in September and October.”
- Zients wrote that the changes will not eliminate working remotely but rather combine that flexibility “while ensuring we have the in-person time we need to build a strong culture, trust, and interpersonal connections.”
- A Government Accountability Office report published last month found that “17 of the 24 federal agencies used on average an estimated 25 percent or less of the capacity of their headquarters buildings.”
Between the lines: Zients has made returning to the office a priority for both the White House and the broader executive branch since he became chief of staff in February to improve the office culture….
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The big picture: The political pressure on the White House to curb remote work has included demands from Republicans in Congress, who have blamed telework for delays and backlogs in agencies’ work.
- Democrats, advocacy groups and some unions have largely blamed lack of funding for such issues and cite telework as a key tool in recruiting staff.