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The Social Security Administration (SSA) is set to close dozens of offices across the U.S. this year as part of the advisory Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) efforts to shrink the size of the federal government and cut waste. The closures, which will span 18 states, have raised concerns over their possible impact on the agency's efficiency and the delivery of benefits that millions of Americans receive every month. Why It Matters According to the SSA, more than 72.5 million of Americans receive Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, including some of the most vulnerable individuals in U.S....

The White House's Office of Personnel Management did not mince words when addressing agency heads in a memo outlining the next steps for federal workers' return to office. "Federal office buildings sit mostly empty, particularly Washington, D.C.-area agency headquarters offices, devastating the local economy and serving as a national embarrassment," Charles Ezell, the acting director of the OPM, said in the Wednesday memo. Ezell added that "virtually unrestricted telework" has led to "poorer government services" and also hampered departments' ability to train and supervise workers. The OPM defines telework as an arrangement in which employees are expected to report to...

Google workers led sit-ins at headquarters from coast-to-coast, protesting the tech giant's contract with the Israeli military and the company's alleged complicity in the Israel-Hamas war. Tech workers at both Amazon and Google have long-protested Project Nimbus, which is Google and Amazon’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military. The tech workers, who organized the group "No Tech for Apartheid," said that the Israeli miliary will use Google technology for "genocidal means." "It’s clear that the Israeli military will use any technology available to them for genocidal means," the group said in a recent statement. "Google workers do...

San Francisco city officials plan to pull its offices from a downtown building near City Hall due to high rent and a bad real estate market, The San Francisco Standard reported Friday. The 11-story building in downtown San Francisco was initially leased to city and county officials back in 1999 and has over the years served as office space for many municipal departments like the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector, the Mayor’s Office of Disability and the Department of the Environment, the outlet reported.

resident Biden is facing criticism after a bombshell report revealed that all federal agencies are less than 50 percent occupied - wasting billions in taxpayer dollars - over a year after he declared the COVID-19 pandemic over. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) memo to Sen. Joni Ernst, obtained by DailyMail.com, not a single federal agency has over half of its workforce in the office. That's a staggering statistic since federal agencies spend about $2 billion taxpayer dollars per year to operate and maintain federal office buildings - and over $5 billion annually in leases. The shocking findings comes...

The GAO found that federal offices have challenges like the private sector. In comparing building capacity to employees, none used over 50% and some used only 9%. WASHINGTON – The Agriculture Department is headquartered at the gateway between Washington and Virginia in a building rich with history – but on any given day, roughly 90% of it sits empty. That’s not an anomaly. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) surveyed two dozen federal agencies and found they averaged a roughly 80% vacancy rate during the study period earlier this year. Not a single agency topped 50% use, GAO reported.

We’ve covered the idea of an urban doom loop in places like San Francisco and New York. Today the Washington Post has a story up which argues that it’s actually midsized cities which are in the most danger of falling into a doom loop.In Indianapolis, the technology giant Salesforce is paring back a quarter of its office space in the tallest building in Indiana, where it has been a key tenant for the past six years. In Atlanta, the private investment giant Starwood Capital defaulted on a $212 million mortgage on a 29-story office tower. And in Baltimore, a landmark...

Lonely office buildings languishing away during the remote and hybrid work boom could have a new life — and it might mean your next apartment could be both good for the environment and your wallet. A new working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research by Arpit Gupta, Candy Martinez, and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh finds that more than 2,000 office buildings in American downtowns could be converted into eco-friendly apartment buildings. Those conversions could yield up to 400,000 new apartment units, and, at minimum, over 170,000 new units — a major boon in cities simultaneously inflicted with housing crises...

For many across the U.S., hour-long transit rides and traffic jams to work have been replaced by roll-out-of-bed commutes and stand-up desks at home, leaving vacant offices behind.Long story short, more and more offices in major U.S. cities are empty. As Visual Capitalist's Avery Koop details below, at the end of March 2023, the national average vacancy rate of U.S. offices had climbed as high as 18.6%.So how have different cities in the U.S. been impacted? This ranking uses data out of fDi Intelligence to rank the top 10 cities that have seen the biggest increases in office vacancy rates...

We often ask who's running the government with a White House led by doddering Joe Biden. But with a new audit out, maybe the real question is what is the government. According to the Washington Examiner:The evacuation of federal headquarters during the COVID-19 crisis appears to have become permanent and costly with up to 90% of several agency headquarters empty, according to a federal audit.At least 6 of 24 Washington area headquarters are 90% empty, including several that manage federal office space and employees such as the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management.The audit from the Government...

When we first heard the story of a hazmat situation and the White House being evacuated on Sunday, we were told by the media that they’d found cocaine hydrochloride “near the White House.” Then it was described as being on the White House complex. That could be anywhere, including on the grounds. It was also described as “cocaine hydrochloride,” with suggestions it could be an anesthetic.Then came the report that it was in the White House library, which is on the ground floor of the executive mansion, according to the Washington Post.But now the Secret Service is contradicting that report...

TOKYO -- Office demand has fallen around the world as more people work from home and businesses accelerate job cuts to cope with slow growth. At the end of March, vacancy rates hit the highest levels since the global financial crisis of 2008 in 10 of 17 major cities. It is not just office space that has seen weak demand but hotels and other commercial facilities are also facing declines in operating rates. This raises concern about the likelihood of financial instability caused by soured real estate loans. ... The vacancy rate in the San Francisco area neared 20% at...

Despite the troubling and ever-increasing number of COVID-19 cases in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams is urging corporations and financial institutions to end their reliance on telecommuting and bring their employees back to work. He says the city’s economic health depends on it,

CNN is closing its offices to employees who do not need to work in person. In an internal memo to employees on Saturday and obtained by The Hill, President Jeff Zucker said the move was being made "out of an abundance of caution," and is tied to a new wave of coronavirus infections sweeping the nation. The decision to scale back in-person work "will also protect those who will be in the office by minimizing the number of people who are there," the network said.

MORE ON: TWITTER Simone Biles addresses fans in new statement after Olympics exit Twitter begins testing shopping feature on brand profile pages Wall Street notches record closing high on earnings, economic strength Snap surges 23 percent, Twitter gains as stocks rise on strong earnings Twitter is re-closing its New York and San Francisco offices shortly after they reopened, the company said Wednesday. The announcement comes amid a spike in COVID-19 cases due in large part to soaring Delta variant cases and rampant anti-vaccination sentiment. Many companies are slowing down their reopenings due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s...

* Google plans to open new offices in Houston and Portland, CEO Sundar Pichai said Thursday. * Google unveiled plans to spend $7 billion on offices and data centers across 19 states. * Pichai said the expansions would create at least 10,000 new full-time jobs in the US this year. Google plans to ramp up its real estate by investing more than $7 billion in offices and data centers across 19 states, despite the growing momentum for companies to let employees work from home permanently The tech giant's investment plans, announced Thursday, include spending more than $1 billion in the...

Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the US and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again. But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application. Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their Covid-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices, or even countries. The Common Trust...

CNN won’t send staffers back into its offices until at least September. In an internal email obtained by The Daily Beast, network chief Jeff Zucker told staff that the vast majority of company staff will “not be returning to the office in any significant way” before the end of summer. “Our expectation is that the rest of you will not return before early September, with a few exceptions in July for newsgathering and some in August, depending on the political conventions,” Zucker said, noting that some dates could be subject to change. “But, to be clear, production of our programs...

What was We thinking? That’s the only question worth asking now about the clowncar start-up known as The We Company, the money-burning, co-working behemoth whose best-known brand is WeWork. ......................................................... Much will be written in the coming weeks about how WeWork failed investors and employees. But I want to spotlight another constituency. WeWork’s fundamental business idea — to cram as many people as possible into swank, high-dollar office space, and then shower them with snacks and foosball-type perks so they overlook the distraction-carnival of their desks — fails office workers, too.

FBI agents this week raided the municipal offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico – rooting through documents and seizing digital records as part of a widespread investigation into fraud and obstruction of justice charges tied to the city government. San Juan’s purchasing division was the target of the raid. And while FBI special agent Douglas Leff did not implicate Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz in the raid, he did tell local media that “we are going to follow the investigation where it leads us.”Cruz tweeted Tuesday that she has instructed city officials to cooperate with federal authorities and said, “If someone...