On The Return To The Office For Federal Employees Debate, It’s Not About You The Taxpayer

Obviously, the rank and file of the Washington Post are all for working from home (and the beach, the mountains, in between Call Of Duty sessions and binge watching their shows), especially since those who run the WP have told employees they need to work from work. There is something interesting in this article

Trump wants federal workers back in the office. It may be a tall task.

President-elect Donald Trump warned federal employees last week that they must return to the office – or else “they’re going to be dismissed.”

The threat was the latest and loudest signal yet that Trump, his allies and Republicans in Congress are committed to ending a remote-work culture that became widespread for the civil service of 2.3 million during the coronavirus pandemic but that many conservatives now decry as an outdated taxpayer-funded perk that has hurt performance across the government.

A quick return to pre-pandemic – or even stricter – federal office policies is not likely to happen with the stroke of a presidential pen.

It’s 2024, almost 2025: the time of Wuhan Flu is long behind us. What is the point in all these taxpayer funded federal employees (supposedly) working from home? How about a study from productivity specialists to see if these taxpayer funded federal employees are actually doing their jobs. How many are getting perks associated with coming in to their place of work, which they aren’t doing?

“It’s in a lot of labor contracts,” Cathie McQuiston, deputy general counsel at the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal workers, said of the telework arrangements. “And at a lot of these agencies, the reality is, they don’t have the place to put people to force them back five days a week.”

Um, what? Where were they working beforehand? What happened to the office space? Oh, right, Biden was dumping the space over the years. Anyhow, here’s the part that really got my ire up

“AFGE embraces a work environment that includes full in-person, alternate work schedules, telework, and full remote work to best serve the needs of our members and staff,” Brittany Holder, another union spokeswoman, said in an email. The AFGE represents about 750,000 federal employees.

It’s not about what serves the federal employees, it’s what best serves the American taxpayers, who have their money involuntarily taken to pay the federal employees to work from home (at the racetrack, at the bar, sitting out at the pool). That should be the primary consideration. That’s what the job entails. They’ve long forgotten that they are public servants. If it makes sense and saves money without losing productivity to work from home, great! If not, come to the office, or go try and work in the private sector.

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