Latest news with #telework
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Watchdog finds ‘rampant abuse' of remote work among federal employees during Biden administration
A U.S. government watchdog found 'rampant abuse' of work-from-home policies by federal workers, according to a new report released on Friday. The Inspector General of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees the federal workforce, found 'compliance failures and weak internal oversight' as the root cause of the problem. The report focused on procedures that allowed employees to work remotely, rather than whether they were effectively performing their jobs. The report sampled badging data, timesheet, and remote-work agreements of dozens of federal employees in 2024, during President Joe Biden's administration, following a 2023 request from Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who took issue with telework policies. 'Under the previous administration, OPMʼs telework and remote work policies were mismanaged and oversight was virtually nonexistent,' OPM Acting Director Chuck Ezell said in a statement. 'That era of telework abuse is over,' Ezell declared. 'At President Trumpʼs direction, OPM has restored in-person operations to ensure federal employees are working for the taxpayers.' On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies and departments to 'take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements' and require employees to return to the office on a full-time basis. Federal employees were required to return on March 3; therefore, the findings and recommendations of the OPM report, which aimed to develop written procedures detailing internal controls concerning remote work, are now considered closed, according to the executive summary. OPM is the chief human resources agency and personnel policy manager for the federal government's 2.8 million employees. President Trump has claimed that many federal workers took on second jobs while still being paid by the federal government, or were not fulfilling their duties when working remotely. There was a dramatic increase in working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic in the first Trump administration. Based on a small sample of timesheets, the report found that 58.1 percent of the sampled employees failed to meet the minimum requirements for in-office work in 2024. According to OPM's inspector general, three in ten (29.7%) telework agreements had lapsed, 21 percent of those sampled had discrepancies in their paperwork, and 15 percent did not have any approved agreements on file. The report did not investigate why this was the case, but suggested that possible reasons included 'weak or missing management controls,' 'negligence or carelessness,' and 'intentional fraud or abuse.' Under the order signed by President Trump mandating a return to in-office work, limited exemptions are allowed as determined by departmental heads. Similarly, new internal controls and compliance reviews have been set for employees who continue to telework. When workers were summoned back into their offices five days per week in March, many were met with less-than-desirable conditions, from cramped workspaces to dirty bathrooms. In addition to the return to the office, the Trump administration also sought to cut costs by reducing space and staff. Multiple federal employees across various agencies and departments told news outlets at the time that they found themselves working elbow-to-elbow as staff consolidated into smaller workspaces. Understaffed cleaning crews are reportedly struggling to keep up with the demand for tidy spaces, resulting in dirty bathrooms with no paper towels. Some staff were asked to bring their own toilet paper or help out by taking their trash home, a federal employee told USA Today.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Watchdog finds ‘rampant abuse' of remote work among federal employees during Biden administration
A U.S. government watchdog found 'rampant abuse' of work-from-home policies by federal workers, according to a new report released on Friday. The Inspector General of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees the federal workforce, found 'compliance failures and weak internal oversight' as the root cause of the problem. The report focused on procedures that allowed employees to work remotely, rather than whether they were effectively performing their jobs. The report sampled badging data, timesheet, and remote-work agreements of dozens of federal employees in 2024, during President Joe Biden 's administration, following a 2023 request from Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who took issue with telework policies. 'Under the previous administration, OPMʼs telework and remote work policies were mismanaged and oversight was virtually nonexistent,' OPM Acting Director Chuck Ezell said in a statement. 'That era of telework abuse is over,' Ezell declared. 'At President Trumpʼs direction, OPM has restored in-person operations to ensure federal employees are working for the taxpayers.' On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies and departments to 'take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements' and require employees to return to the office on a full-time basis. Federal employees were required to return on March 3; therefore, the findings and recommendations of the OPM report, which aimed to develop written procedures detailing internal controls concerning remote work, are now considered closed, according to the executive summary. OPM is the chief human resources agency and personnel policy manager for the federal government's 2.8 million employees. President Trump has claimed that many federal workers took on second jobs while still being paid by the federal government, or were not fulfilling their duties when working remotely. There was a dramatic increase in working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic in the first Trump administration. Based on a small sample of timesheets, the report found that 58.1 percent of the sampled employees failed to meet the minimum requirements for in-office work in 2024. According to OPM's inspector general, three in ten (29.7%) telework agreements had lapsed, 21 percent of those sampled had discrepancies in their paperwork, and 15 percent did not have any approved agreements on file. The report did not investigate why this was the case, but suggested that possible reasons included 'weak or missing management controls,' 'negligence or carelessness,' and 'intentional fraud or abuse.' Under the order signed by President Trump mandating a return to in-office work, limited exemptions are allowed as determined by departmental heads. Similarly, new internal controls and compliance reviews have been set for employees who continue to telework. When workers were summoned back into their offices five days per week in March, many were met with less-than-desirable conditions, from cramped workspaces to dirty bathrooms. In addition to the return to the office, the Trump administration also sought to cut costs by reducing space and staff. Multiple federal employees across various agencies and departments told news outlets at the time that they found themselves working elbow-to-elbow as staff consolidated into smaller workspaces. Understaffed cleaning crews are reportedly struggling to keep up with the demand for tidy spaces, resulting in dirty bathrooms with no paper towels. USA Today.
E&E News
19 hours ago
- Business
- E&E News
Personnel agency blames Biden team for telework ‘abuse'
The Trump team is blasting the Biden administration's oversight of telework after a recent watchdog report pointed to lapses at the agency that manages the federal workforce. The inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management issued a report earlier this week finding that the personnel agency needed to improve oversight of its telework and remote work policies. The watchdog office flagged problems including telework and remote work agreements that had lapsed or were not on file and employee time sheets that weren't compliant with the agency's requirements. Advertisement The Trump administration pointed to the report as it accused its predecessors of allowing telework 'abuse.' The Trump administration has made it a top priority to prod federal employees back to full-time in-person work.
E&E News
09-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Interior employees may get extra month to return to office
The Interior Department has sent a reminder to employees that they must return to work at the office on June 16 — unless there's not enough room for them. The department promised in an email to staff Friday they'll be granted up to a one-month reprieve — until July 16 — from the return-to-office order the agency issued in April if space cannot be found for those employees by next Monday's deadline. The email noted that the department is 'diligently' working to find a 'workstation' for each returning employee. And when a location has been found, regardless of whether it's at an Interior building or at another agency's, 'the employee must accept it,' according to the email viewed by POLITICO's E&E News. Advertisement The email, which wasn't signed by a specific Interior official, is the latest in the administration's ongoing effort to force federal workers to return to the office in accordance with an executive order President Donald Trump issued in January. The order targeted telework and remote work for federal employees.
Bloomberg
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Federal Employees Can Work From Home as DC Preps for Trump Parade
Federal employees ordered back to their offices under Donald Trump are now temporarily welcome to work from home to make way for parade preparations as the US Army marks its 250th birthday in Washington on Saturday. The Office of Personnel Management told agency heads last week that they should consider allowing unscheduled telework for DC-based employees beginning June 11 'to help alleviate traffic congestion, prevent disruptions to preparation activities, and minimize any distractions to law enforcement and security officials.'
