The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has sent a letter to the head of the Office of Management and Budget, signed by the heads of 23 local governments, urging more in-person work at federal government agencies.
In the letter to OMB director Shalanda Young, the COG members suggested the success of their own experiences with getting more in-office face time from employees.
“We employ roughly 100,000 outstanding individuals, and the large majority of our employees work in-person on a full-time basis. For those who are eligible to telework, employees typically report to work in-person two to three days a week. We have found that this strikes an appropriate balance and provides the best level of service for taxpayers,” the letter said.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration issued a call to cabinet heads to aggressively execute in-person workplans, four months after OMB directed federal government agencies to develop plans for more in-person work.
COG’s letter also referenced the importance of predictability of workers commuting to the efficiency of public transportation.
“As you consider plans from agencies across the federal government, coordinating with these transit systems is important. It is difficult to efficiently operate train systems and WMATA without predictable ridership spread across the week,” it said.
On average, only about one in three federal government agency employees is back in the office, but that varies widely from agency to agency. Downtown D.C. alone is missing almost 200,000 daytime office workers, according to a George Washington University School of Business report.
COG’s full letter to OMB director Shalanda Young is posted online.
