The COVID-19 pandemic sent office workers all over the country in all kinds of businesses home to do their jobs. Since those days in 2020, many companies have allowed their employees to work from home. Others have their employees on a hybrid schedule.
As we move further away from the pandemic, giant companies such as Amazon and JP Morgan are bringing office employees back full time. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are operating under a hybrid model.
The office policies have created challenges for facility managers, who were tasked with the assignment of matching commercial and institutional office settings to adapt to the changing needs of workers.
Another giant employer who sent workers home for the pandemic was the U.S. government. And now with the Trump Administration taking over, most federal employees will be expected to return to the office.
A Trump memo from his first day in office ordered agencies to return to in-person work full time. The Office of Personnel Management set a deadline of 30 days for agencies to comply.
According to an article on the Government Executive website, the State Department has already started to implement the president’s memo, canceling telework agreements as of March 1 and remote agreements by July 1, with exceptions being military spouses and employees with disabilities.
Dave Lubach is executive editor for the facilities market.
