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Though it represents just a sliver of the nation\u2019s overall workforce, the U.S. government is the country\u2019s largest employer, with more than 2 million civilian employees. Some 162,000 workers alone are located in Washington, D.C., according to data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and federal workers make up over 40% of the city\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n
But most federal workers, like Paulsen, actually work in other parts of the country: Only 7.56% of federal employees work in D.C.<\/p>\n
Yet whatever their location, many workers like Paulsen are responding to Trump\u2019s RTO order with concern. There are practical worries: Paulsen has questioned whether the office he works in, which the VA leases, has enough seats for everyone employed by his division. Another VA employee, who requested anonymity because she didn\u2019t want her program targeted, echoed space concerns, especially in settings where sensitive medical information is discussed.<\/p>\n
Paulsen said he is planning for a return to the office five days a week no matter what.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guidance we give our employees is basically, don\u2019t put yourself in a position to get fired,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Morale has never been lower on one metastatic cancer research team within the VA, an employee there told NBC News. She requested her name not be used because she didn\u2019t want her team to lose funding. Two people on her team are remote workers and the employee said she works from home two days a week, doing administrative tasks and data analysis.<\/p>\n
Guidance was changing by the hour on Thursday, she said. With a contract that renews every three years, the employee said she was told by management at one point to start looking for new jobs, then was later alerted by a higher-up that she fell into the VA\u2019s list of exemptions.<\/p>\n
Lunch hour at a restaurant in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in 2021.<\/span>Drew Angerer \/ Getty Images file<\/span><\/p>\nThe fate of her remote colleagues and telework options remains unclear, she said. They work with veterans across the country, and the team worried for those whose treatments could be canceled without them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just doesn\u2019t feel good to go into work knowing that you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to have a job in a few months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who works in Washington, D.C., said he and his colleagues are making backup plans. They all have telework arrangements, and some work remotely \u2014 hourslong drives from the nearest federal office. He views the executive order as an attempt to force people to quit. He wanted to remain anonymous because he fears retaliation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feeling is there\u2019s an ax over our heads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has said that just 6% of federal employees now work in person. But according to an August report from the Office of Management and Budget, among federal workers eligible for telework \u2014 and excluding those who are fully remote \u2014 roughly 61% of work hours are now in person.<\/p>\n
Among agencies, the Department of Agriculture had the highest percentage of in-person work hours, at 81%; while the Environmental Protection Agency had the lowest, at about 36%.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration had already been keeping an eye on return-to-office implementation\u00a0as the Covid-19 pandemic waned, with regular reports being issued on how much telework was being used by each federal agency.<\/p>\n
In December, an OPM survey found 75% of telework-eligible employees had participated in telework in fiscal year 2023, though that was 12 percentage points lower than in fiscal year 2022.<\/p>\n
The report said there had been positive results from a hybrid setup.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgencies report notable improvements in recruitment and retention, enhanced employee performance and organizational productivity, and considerable cost savings when utilizing telework as an element of their hybrid work environments,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
A GOP-sponsored House Oversight Committee report this week accused the Biden administration of exaggerating in-office attendance, citing \u201cphysical and anecdotal evidence,\u201d while accusing it of taking a \u201cpliant\u201d posture toward federal union groups as they sought more generous telework arrangements.<\/p>\n
Even as it praised Trump\u2019s desire to improve federal workforce accountability and performance, the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan think tank focused on government effectiveness, said in a statement that the return-to-office order was an example of overreach.<\/p>\n
\u2018While any move toward making the government more responsive to the public should be welcomed, it said, the actions announced in Trump\u2019s workforce-related executive orders put that goal \u201cfarther out of reach.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a press call with reporters this week, Partnership CEO Max Stier said <\/strong>telework is necessary to attract more qualified employees who already tend to enjoy higher salaries in the private sector.<\/p>\nIn a follow-up statement, Stier warned of the dramatic impact the order will have on career civil servants\u2019 personal lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe affected employees are everyday people who have to support themselves and their families, and the abrupt and rushed approach chosen here will have a traumatizing impact on not just them but their colleagues who remain in their roles serving the public, as well,\u201d Stier said.<\/p>\n
Social media forums frequented by government workers have also lit up, with many raising questions about how agencies were expected to comply given that many have been downsizing their office space.<\/p>\n
Even before the pandemic ushered in widespread work-from-home policies, 2010 legislation cited telework for federal employees as a way to reduce office costs and promote resilience in emergency situations, as long as employees continued to meet performance expectations.<\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal reported the government was looking to sell off many of its commercial real estate holdings. NBC News could not independently confirm the report.<\/p>\n
Unions representing federal employees have slammed the new policy, saying it would undermine the government\u2019s effectiveness and make it harder for agencies to recruit top talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than undoing decades of progress in workplace policies that have benefited both employees and their employers, I encourage the Trump administration to rethink its approach and focus on what it can do to make government programs work better for the American people,\u201d Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The AFGE\u2019s contracts with major government firms, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education, establish procedures for telework and remote work in accordance with the 2010 law. The union said the order \u201cdoesn\u2019t appear to violate any collective bargaining agreements,\u201d and whether it would file a lawsuit depends on how the policy is implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they violate our contracts, we will take appropriate action to uphold our rights,\u201d the AFGE said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The NFFE, Paulsen\u2019s union, likewise said the executive orders would \u201cimpair critical services\u201d and viewed the termination of remote work arrangements as an attempt to force employees to quit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am worried about this administration violating those contracts with regard to telework,\u201d Randy Erwin, the national president of the NFFE, told NBC News.<\/p>\n
One sector that would stand to benefit from the mandate is local business in downtown Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Gerren Price, the president of the DowntownDC Business Improvement District, which covers an area to the east of the White House, said only about half of the office space within its boundaries is occupied. Price said 27% of that office space is owned and operated by the federal government.<\/p>\n
From coffee shops to dry cleaners, local businesses that used to cater to a nine-to-five crowd have closed, Price said.<\/p>\n
Leona Agouridis, the president of the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, which encompasses an area between the White House and Dupont Circle a mile to the north, said the neighborhood hasn\u2019t felt as busy as it did before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will go a long way in bringing back vibrancy that we have lost over the last five years,\u201d Agouridis said.<\/p>\n
At the Tune Inn, a restaurant and bar that has served D.C.\u2019s Capitol Hill neighborhood since 1947, general manager Stephanie Hulbert is bringing back a federal worker lunch discount, which the establishment had done away with after the pandemic because no one used it. She knows this policy will change many federal workers\u2019 lives, but hopes they can help each other out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really hope that when these workers do come back, they come and support the small businesses that need it in D.C.,\u201d Hulbert said. \u201cHopefully we\u2019ll be able to get the morale up to where it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on NBC NEWS<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the Trump administration announced a return-to-office mandate this week, it stated Americans \u201cdeserve the highest-quality service from people who love our country.\u201d Federal employees like Frank Paulsen say that comment suggests they aren\u2019t hardworking or loyal. Paulsen, 50, is the vice president of the Local 1641 chapter of the National Federation of Federal Employees, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}