Free Republic

More than two years after the Biden administration called on all federal agencies to create plans to bring employees who teleworked during the COVID pandemic back to the office, the vast majority of Washington, D.C.’s federal buildings are still sprawling expanses of empty, echoing hallways and offices. In fact, 17 of 24 federal agencies use an estimated 25% or less of their headquarters’ office capacity, according to an updated survey by the General Accounting Office, a government agency that provides auditing and investigative services for Congress. The survey showed that all federal buildings except the Treasury were operating at or...

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 pandemic divided Americans into two classes: those who could work from home and those who could not. Federal government employees were members of the privileged class. And they don’t want that to change. During the pandemic, over 90% of the EPA, USAID, the Department of Education and, ironically, the Department of Labor, were 'working' online. The utility of federal agencies could roughly be measured by whether their employees were mostly showing up to work, the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs, or were permanently out to lunch like the Department of Housing and Urban Development which did...

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — More than 300 employees from five state agencies have resigned since Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Virginia’s new telework policy in early May, according to records obtained by 8News. This includes 183 Virginia Department of Transportation employees, 28 of whom cited “telework options” as the reason for leaving. Two VDOT workers who listed telework as the reason did move to another state agency, records obtained by 8News after filing a Freedom of Information Act request show.On May 5, Youngkin ordered all state workers to begin working in-person full-time by July 5, a change the governor said would...

To Jonathan Pruiett, it just didn't make sense. A geospatial analyst who updates Google maps for a living, Pruiett had been called back to his company's offices in Bothell, Washington, five days a week, starting June 6. Like many on his team, Pruiett had only worked remotely, having started the job in the pandemic. He'd adapted well to it, finding efficiencies such as multitasking during virtual meetings, using the time to process data. And yet, now he was being told to report to office. Anyone who failed to report within three days of the return date would be processed as...

Billionaire bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach, the CEO of $135 billion DoubleLine Capital, sees the potential for a "wave of more higher-end unemployment' hitting white-collar workers making more than $100,000 per year as employers increasingly question the value these employees bring. In 11 weeks, more than 42 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance as the COVID-19 pandemic wrecked the economy. The bulk of these job losses hit lower-income households the hardest. "A lot of times it's not the earthquake, it's the fire," Gundlach said on a webcast for the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund (DBLTX), later adding that he could "easily...

The only thing stopping many from working remotely until now was their bosses’ belief that working in an office is better for the bottom line. That belief is now being put to the test. The coronavirus outbreak is disrupting nearly every facet of American life. Many of these changes are temporary and will be forgotten as soon as the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic subsides — but not all.Changes rippling through daily life right now will present, for the first time, an alternative to the normal way of doing things, and some will be improvements. One bright spot in this medical...

If you've always wanted to work for Apple, but have ambivalent feelings about pants, you might have just found your dream job. Apple has put out the call for more than 60 "At Home" advisors and managers—customer service and support roles that let people work out of their house. "From your own home, you’ll be [people's] human connection to Apple: friendly, thoughtful, and real," the job listing reads. "You’ll answer questions about our products and services, enriching customers’ lives by helping them access the wonder they’ve come to expect from Apple. And every time you save someone’s day, you’ll be...

The speed of digital technology has allowed workers to be mobile and flexible, and more employers continue to embrace remote work policies. But it has also created demand for continuous updates and real-time collaboration. And that change has driven some companies — including IBM, Best Buy and Yahoo — to recall some of their remote workforces back into the office. In the 1970s, IBM was one of the pioneers of telework, and over time, 20 percent of its employees worked remotely. Last year, it decided to recall some remote-work employees, a move that seemed to go against decades of policies...

Ryan Heenan used to make $30,000 a year as a preschool music teacher. Now he makes $30,000 a month producing jingles and videos through a website caller Fiverr -- and he does so from the comfort of his home in Orange County, California. Heenan is part of an explosion in home-based work opportunities occurring thanks to the Internet. Consumer reporters such as myself used to struggle to offer people legitimate work-at-home options. In fact, most of our stories on the subject were about work-at-home scams. But now there are all sorts of solid opportunities to make a living in your...

EXCLUSIVE: Eight Environmental Protection Agency employees who racked up a total of more than ten years’ worth of paid “administrative leave” between 2011 and 2014 -- valued at more than $1,096,000 -- apparently did so because they were involved in “cases of alleged serious misconduct,” Fox News has learned. In a memorandum sent from EPA’s acting assistant administrator, Nanci E. Gelb, to EPA’s inspector general, Arthur Elkins -- a draft also was given to Fox News -- the agency has revealed that at least three of the affected employees have now left EPA. All of the eight “were or are...

HR 1722 was signed into law by President Obama Thursday afternoon. Also known as the Telework Enhancement Act, the bill aims to increase the work-at-home opportunities for federal employees. The bill instructs federal agencies to come up with better defined policies to promote telework. Some of its key features are that it requires each agency head to: * Establish a policy under which eligible agency employees may be authorized to telework * Determine employee eligibility to participate in telework * Notify all employees of their eligibility to telework

It’s a stocking stuffer many federal workers in the Capital region have been anticipating for years – the authorization and ability to work for the government from home. On Nov. 18, the House of Representatives by a bipartisan vote of 254-152 adopted the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, a bill that improves and expands teleworking in federal agencies by requiring them to establish a policy under which eligible government employees are approved to telecommute. The bill also instructs federal agencies to notify their workers of their eligibility to telework, and it establishes a Telework Managing Officer to develop and implement...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-national-broadband-plan Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 16, 2010 Statement from the President on the National Broadband Plan America today is on the verge of a broadband-driven Internet era that will unleash innovation, create new jobs and industries, provide consumers with new powerful sources of information, enhance American safety and security, and connect communities in ways that strengthen our democracy. Just as past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the Transcontinental...

Note: The following text is a quote: American Forces Press Service Defense Department Seeks to Expand Telework Program By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2009 – An updated Defense Department policy expected to be released next month will encourage more managers to adopt telework arrangements for their employees. Almost 17,000 department employees teleworked during the 2008 calendar year, Michael Sena from the Pentagon’s civilian personnel policy told American Forces Press Service. Teleworking, sometimes referred to as telecommuting, means employees work some portion of their work week from home or in another approved alternate location. Sena said...

Reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil, dangit!

Backers of a proposed bill to protect teleworkers from onerous state tax rules hope this could be the year the legislation sticks. If passed, the Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act would prevent states from taxing income that nonresidents who telecommute to an in-state employer earn while working from home. The legislation is aimed in particular at New York, which is legendary for its stance on nonresident teleworkers. It requires those who sometimes work in the office of their New York employers to pay state taxes -- not only on the income they earn while physically in New York, but also on...