Recall my blog post of a couple of days ago on Trump’s “Return to in-person work” order. Now the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have issued “further guidance” to agencies on their ending of work-from-home. It is dated January 27, 2025 and you can see it here.
The “guidance” directs each agency to hand in a detailed report by Friday, February 7, 2025 (by 5PM ET). The report requires each agency to “describe their approach to fully complying with [Trump’s order] and overcoming any constraints in achieving full compliance.” The February 7 date represents nine business days. The “guidance” details seven sub-topics to be answered in detail, and offers three guiding principles:
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- Prioritizing for return to in-person work those agency headquarters and eligible employees who can do so expeditiously, and phasing in the return of remote workers who are more than 50 miles from a current agency office, which may present unique challenges.
- Maximize use of existing federally-owned or leased space before adding net-new space to the federal real property portfolio, in consultation with the General Services Administration, OMB, and local Federal Executive Boards (FEBs), as applicable, to consider options for sharing space and consolidating the federal real property footprint among agencies in a given geographical area.
- In determining new duty stations or reallocating internal office space consider grouping organizations and employees based on like duties and job functions, where possible, to promote effective collaboration and management.