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mahatmakanejeeves

(62,374 posts) Thu Jan 23, 2025, 03:26 PM Thursday

OPM demands agencies comply with Trump's telework order within 30 days

Source: Government Executive

Workforce
OPM demands agencies comply with Trump's telework order within 30 days

The State Department has already begun to implement the president's memo cancelling telework agreements as of March 1 and remote work arrangements July 1, with exceptions for military spouses and employees with disabilities.

January 23, 2025 11:24 AM ET
Erich Wagner

The Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday set a deadline of 30 days for agencies to implement President Trump's memo mandating the end to telework and remote work in the federal workplace. (1) ... On Trump's first day in office, he issued a 65-word memo ordering agencies to require employees return to in-person work "full-time." (2) But, because the document referred only to terminating "remote work agreements," it caused some confusion among agencies and government-watchers.

Telework and remote work are two distinct workplace flexibilities at federal agencies; federal workers who telework commute to the office at least twice per biweekly pay period--or more, depending on their job responsibilities--while remote workers' official duty station is typically their home and they are not expected to travel to a traditional federal facility on a regular basis. ... "We don't have a lot of clarity about what exactly they mean here, especially on the return to office," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service on Tuesday. "It's a very short EO that just doesn't offer many answers."

In a memo Wednesday night, Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell instructed agencies to, by 5 p.m. Friday, to revise their agencywide telework policy to reflect that employees are expected to "work full time at their respective duty stations." (3) It allows for exemptions in the case of an employee disability, other qualifying medical condition or "other compelling reason certified by the agency head and the employee's supervisor."

Ultimately, employees will have 30 days, or until late February, to "fully comply" with the order, with notable exceptions for the aforementioned exempt employees and for employees covered by collective bargaining agreements with provisions governing telework. Trump deputies and House Republicans had expressed outrage last fall after then-Social Security Administrator Martin O'Malley signed a new contract with the American Federation of Government Employees locking in existing telework policy until 2029, though management still may temporarily suspend or amend its availability.

{snip}

Eric Katz contributed to this report.

(1) https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/01/trump-agencies-should-fire-all-bureaucrats/402353/

(2) https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/

(3) https://www.chcoc.gov/content/guidance-presidential-memorandum-return-person-work

Read more: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/01/opm-demands-agencies-comply-trumps-telework-order-within-30-days/402436/

https://www.chcoc.gov/content/guidance-presidential-memorandum-return-person-work

https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/OPM%20Return%20to%20Office%20Guidance%20Memorandum%201-22-25.pdf

6 replies

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Highlight:

OPM demands agencies comply with Trump's telework order within 30 days (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Thursday OP

This has to stop... Lovie777 Thursday #1

They all (including the media) are also ignoring this gem BumRushDaShow Thursday #2

Figures they're too incompetent to even write the Executive Order to clearly spell out Wiz Imp Thursday #3

Apparently there is a federal law angrychair Thursday #4

Right Wiz Imp Thursday #5

A lot of those workers do not have an office. Bozvotros Thursday #6

Lovie777

(15,942 posts)

1. This has to stop...

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Thu Jan 23, 2025, 03:28 PM

Thursday

BumRushDaShow

(146,207 posts)

2. They all (including the media) are also ignoring this gem

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Thu Jan 23, 2025, 03:42 PM

Thursday

H.R.1722 - Telework Enhancement Act of 2010

124 STAT. 3165PUBLIC LAW 111–292—DEC. 9, 2010
Public Law 111–292
111th Congress

An Act

To require the head of each executive agency to establish and implement a policy
under which employees shall be authorized to telework, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Telework Enhancement Act
of 2010’’.

SEC. 2. TELEWORK.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part III of title 5, United States Code, is
amended by inserting after chapter 63 the following:

‘‘CHAPTER 65—TELEWORK
‘‘Sec.
‘‘6501. Definitions.
‘‘6502. Executive agencies telework requirement.
‘‘6503. Training and monitoring.
‘‘6504. Policy and support.
‘‘6505. Telework Managing Officer.
‘‘6506. Reports.

‘‘§ 6501. Definitions
‘‘In this chapter:
‘‘(1) EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘employee’ has the meaning
given that term under section 2105.
‘‘(2) EXECUTIVE AGENCY.—Except as provided in section
6506, the term ‘executive agency’ has the meaning given that
term under section 105.
‘‘(3) TELEWORK.—The term ‘telework’or ‘teleworking’ refers
to a work flexibility arrangement under which an employee
performs the duties and responsibilities of such employee’s
position, and other authorized activities, from an approved
worksite other than the location from which the employee would
otherwise work.

‘‘§ 6502. Executive agencies telework requirement
‘‘(a) TELEWORK ELIGIBILITY.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the date
of enactment of this chapter, the head of each executive agency
shall— ‘‘(A) establish a policy under which eligible employees
of the agency may be authorized to telework;
‘‘(B) determine the eligibility for all employees of the
agency to participate in telework; and
‘‘(C) notify all employees of the agency of their eligi-
bility to telework.

(snip)

This law (and its updates) hasn't been revoked by Congress.

As another note, I know with all the trips that I had made down to our HQ offices (there were multiple locations), there was not enough space for all of the people stationed there to be in the office at the same time. I.e., they were sharing desks/cubicles and alternated when they were in the office.

The federal government isn't Amazon or Walmart or Google or JP Morgan.

Wiz Imp

(3,099 posts)

3. Figures they're too incompetent to even write the Executive Order to clearly spell out

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Thu Jan 23, 2025, 05:05 PM

Thursday

what they want. The article mentions the SSA but I believe there are a lot more employees/agencies where telework policy has been collectively bargained and thus can't just be rescinded by an executive order.

angrychair

(10,035 posts)

4. Apparently there is a federal law

Reply to Wiz Imp (Reply #3)

Thu Jan 23, 2025, 08:06 PM

Thursday

From 2010 as well (which Bum points out in post#2)

Wiz Imp

(3,099 posts)

5. Right

Reply to angrychair (Reply #4)

Thu Jan 23, 2025, 08:23 PM

Thursday

I worked for a state agency in PA working on Fed-State cooperative programs. We worked very closely with the Federal employees on these programs. We did not have any telework option in the state prior to the pandemic in 2020. However, most federal workers we worked with were already teleworking at least several days a week for at least 5 years prior to 2020 when the pandemic forced much more widespread telework.

In PA, after the pandemic in 2020 forced much of the state government to move to telework in order to keep operations ongoing, it was such a success with increased productivity and lower costs that telework was widely kept as official policy even after the pandemic no longer required it.

Bozvotros

(887 posts)

6. A lot of those workers do not have an office.

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Thu Jan 23, 2025, 09:47 PM

Thursday

Especially VA employees, particularly therapists and social workers. I worked there for about 14 years in both of those positions. There were a lot of people doing home-based therapy over the phone and video conferencing. It was working well. People who had to come in to work were often sharing spacesbecause there weren't enough individual offices.
When I left there in 2023 people like me were expected to do all of our paperwork in small cubicles and only have a private room when you were seeing someone. They expected a lot of telephone work to be done out in the cubicles which really violated HIPAA rules. They were also pushing us hard for 30 minutes sessions in order to see more veterans. That had the effect of discouraging veterans wanting individual therapy, because 30 minutes wasn't near long enough, especially with so many having PTSD issues.
This ruling should help make the VA even more crowded and inefficient.

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