As his time in office draws to a close, President Biden’s administration has agreed a hybrid work deal for 42,000 government employees.
The contract was agreed between the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the Social Security Administration (SSA).
It’s now set in stone until 2029, which will be at the chagrin of incoming President Trump and his new best friend, Elon Musk, who has been open in his disdain towards hybrid working and wants government employees back in the office full-time.
Hybrid Until 2029
The contract secures hybrid working conditions for both the federal and government workers under this AFGE Union. It offers between two and five days RTO, though some workers will have to be in the office full time because of the nature of their job.
“This deal will secure not just telework for SSA employees, but will also secure staffing levels through prevention of higher attrition, which in turn will secure the ability of the Agency to serve the public.” – Rich Couture, AFGE chapter president, to Bloomberg
It has been signed by Biden’s former SSA Commissioner, Martin O’Malley.
Immediate Backlash
There has already been a fiery response to the news from Republican ranks.
“THOUSANDS of federal employees just landed a work from home deal ahead of @realDonaldTrump taking office. This is why I introduced the SHOW UP Act. Our government needs to show up for the people it serves.” – Senator James Comer on X
Musk – as head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency – has already barred his teeth and made its RTO intentions clear.
He and former GOP presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, wrote a Wall Street Journal op ed, in which they stated bluntly: “If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.”
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Means to an End
The DOGE team has been given the task of mercilessly slashing the size of the federal workforce. Forcing employees out who don’t want to come into the office full-time is a tactic that is already being deployed by some tech companies, including Dell.
“If you require most of those federal bureaucrats to just say, like normal working Americans, you come to work five days a week, a lot of them won’t want to do that. If you have many voluntary reductions in force of the workforce in the federal government along the way, great. That’s a good side effect of those policies as well.” – Vivek Ramaswamy on Fox News Sunday
However, detractors have pointed out that unions will fight the move and that, actually, the majority of federal workers are already in the workplace full time because of the nature of their jobs.
The huge savings Musk is promising might have to be made elsewhere and who knows what that will look like. No doubt we can expect a post on X soon with his grand plan.
