MedPage today story.
HHS employees and various sub -operations are struggling to know how to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order, who requires them to report a person to their full -time work sites, and how changes will affect them.
Early executive order
The personal work condition was clarified in Executive order President Trump signed him on January 20, his first day in office. The paragraph of two paragraphs stated that “the heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of the government, as soon as possible, take all the steps necessary to end the work arrangements for a distance and ask the employees to return to work personally at their duty stations on a full -time basis, provided that they take the heads of the agency with necessary contracts.”
The matter was explained in a January 27 a note To the agency’s heads of the Personnel Management Office (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This memorandum directed the agency’s heads to submit a date not exceeding February 7 “describing the steps that the agency will take to review the work agreements for all qualified employees, including the main landmarks of implementation” and “providing time schedules for the return of all qualified employees to personal work quickly as possible.” The agencies must also explain their plans to make those who work full -time remotely to the office, especially those who live more than 50 miles from their duties stations, and explain any exceptions they intend to give.
Trump is not alone in his hatred of remote work for federal workers. Last December, Senator Johnny Ernst (R- Release It was mentioned that only 6 % of federal workers were in the full -time office; The report was entitled “Out Office: Bureaucrats on the beach and in bubble baths, but not in offices.” The percentage of Ernest was at odds with the 2024 OMB-report that has been removed since then from the OMB-which has found that 54 % of federal employees work in the office full time, while 46 % of the federal workforce is qualified, according to A. Story on MERITALK Website. Only 10 % of federal employees – 228,000 people – She is completely distant.
Generally popular with both parties
In general, however, the work was common on both sides of the corridor, and Max Stir, president and executive director of the Public Service, said last month in a phone call with correspondents: “There was support from the two parties from the two parties in the field of federal work for many years, because it was explained-upon its well-providing better performance to improve federal sites. The partnership says to the public service Its goal is to build a “better and stronger democracy government.”
In the past few years, “it is clear that there is a boost to try to transfer people in the federal space to the office,” Stier continued. “The Biden Administration has already pushed it to try to achieve this … … some organizations such as the Patent Office and brands are almost exclusively … We know it is really important to understand that you have these [telework] The ingredients that work very well, even before birth, and do not want to disable them, as this will have very negative consequences for the American people. “
The office order comes as a public services department Declared plans to reduce significantly The real estate imprint of the federal government. “One of the things that our government has become more efficient in terms of cost, in terms of its material imprint, as a result of increasing the use of remote work and distant work.” “So these things contradict each other, and it is definitely very important to understand the transitional needs of any organization.”
Like anyone else in the federal workforce, more than 80,000 employees – many of them spoke MedPage today Provided that his identity is not disclosed-they try to know how to implement the return to work in his specified position. The agency consists of workers appointed to the HHS office in Washington, as well as 10 regional offices spread throughout the United States, and the remaining logistical questions remain. For example, some of those who worked at the headquarters of the headquarters in Washington say most likely that there is not enough internal space or car park to accommodate all employees if everyone is now appointed to return full time.
One of the employees working on a different location said that they heard that the supervisors would have to return to work full time in a closer time than the employees who are not subject to supervision, and that there may be still some “custom” remote agreements. The employee said that there is enough space for everyone to be in their building.
Another employee still said that their colleagues were not “very happy” to hear him about the requirements of time full of the office, noting that the base seemed to replace other arrangements that people can, for example, work for four days for 10 hours and get the fifth day. The person said: “This is an inevitable approach, dictatorial, tin authorized in management.” “It is not a competence; it is only about revenge. There are ways to achieve the general goal of serving the American people well, but this is not.”
Changes in the balance between work/life
With this change, “the balance of work/life for people is about to be tilted completely,” the person continued. They pointed out that “the flexibility of work from a distance allowed them to create a life as they were more productive as parents and they still accomplish their work; if they have to do parking at 3 pm, they can do this and work in the evening. I will receive email messages from people who were still working at 7 or 8 pm, but you cannot do that if you are in the office 5 days a week with unplanned work rules.”
Another employee said that work remotely made it easy to work longer when necessary. Before working remotely, “I will take an hour to get to work in the morning and perhaps 90 minutes or more to return home in the afternoon,” explaining that they worked in the transformation from 7 to 3:30 pm. But with remote work, “I can work before 7 o’clock or after 3:30, and this is what happened commonly – things appear and require only more than 8 hours that you do from Monday to Friday.”
One of the things that may affect whether HHS employees and when HHS employees return to the full -time office is any collective negotiating agreements highlighted by employee unions with the federal government. The employee added: “In the OPM note, they pointed out that there are some problems that must be solved through the collective bargaining process before the employees who were already represented by the unions returned to the office.” Several unions, including the American Union of Government Employees and the National Treasury Union, represent different areas of HHS employees.
Christina Furry has contributed to this story.