The Biden administration is trumpeting headway made in getting more civil servants back to work in federal office space.
The Office of Management and Budget released a report Friday showing telework-eligible staffers across the government spent 61.2 percent of their regular hours working in person earlier this spring. The White House, under increasing pressure to reduce telework in the post-pandemic era, has been pushing since last year to have civil servants work more often in the office.
“While no-one-size-fits-all policy can apply universally across the government, Federal agencies are moving towards a posture where telework-eligible teams are working in-person at the office at least half of the time, on average,” the report said.
The administration’s “north star” has been centering decisions regarding government operations around delivering results for the public, leading to the call for more in-person work once the Covid-19 public health emergency ended in 2023. Guidance issued to agencies in April last year required them to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work” as the administration set a goal to have federal staff on site at least 50 percent of the time.
