The House passed a bill Wednesday aimed at ending COVID-era remote work policies, which could bring an estimated 1 million federal employees back to the office full time.
According to The Hill, the House voted 221-206 Wednesday to pass the Stopping Home Office Work's Unproductive Problems Act, otherwise known as the "SHOW UP" Act which orders federal workers who have been telecommuting, at least partly, since 2020 to come back to the office.
"The federal workforce needs to get back to work," The Hill reported Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., saying, calling the measure "urgent." "Federal agencies are falling short on their missions. They are not carrying out their duties; they are failing the American people. Federal employees not being in the workplace has hurt the federal government's ability to achieve its missions and deliver vital programs."
The Hill reported that a CBS News audit of data from the Office of Personnel Management showed the number of federal workers working from home on some days more than doubling from 483,000 to an estimated 1 million by the end of 2021.
Thomson Reuters reported in August 2022 that the policies allowing workers to work remotely during the pandemic require an increased level of planning to meet logistical issues, especially for public-facing agencies.
The Hill report said Democrats came out against the bill, citing the benefits of telecommuting for employees.
"We strongly oppose this bill, which is an assault on all the progress we've made over the last several years in telework policy," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said. "Telework has strengthened private and public workplaces across the land, enhanced productivity, increased efficiency, improved the morale and satisfaction of the workforce, reduced traffic congestion, and made positive environmental changes."
A September 2022 study by Microsoft said that despite leaders feeling their teams are not being productive working outside the office, 87% of workers believe they are being productive, and the number of virtual meetings had increased by 153% around the globe.
According to the report, leaders may simply be in a situation where they cannot physically see their workers performing tasks, leading them to think that the time is not being used as productively as it is when they can watch the task be completed.
Forbes reported that another two-year survey of 800,000 employees showed an increase in productivity of around 6% during the pandemic.
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