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The Environmental Protection Agency says the “vast majority” of its employees are now back in the office.
To make sure staff keep coming back to the office, the EPA plans to scrutinize workforce metrics including employee badge swipes into federal buildings and computer logins.
“Failure to report to agency worksites will result in formal discipline, up to and including removal from federal service,” EPA told employees in an email Tuesday.
The email, obtained by Federal News Network, states employees who don’t comply with the agency’s return-to-office requirements may face a variety of charges — including absence without leave (AWOL), working from an unauthorized duty location, failure to comply with agency directives, failure to properly submit time and attendance information, and “failure to be forthcoming and candid with information.”
“It is our expectation that we have a present workforce, with high productivity and high integrity. Compliance with the Return to In-Person Work directives is critical to achieve this,” the email states.
The EPA said it will evaluate Personal Identity Verification (PIV) swipe data to track employee compliance with return-to-office requirements.
“For facilities where the agency has badge readers, which include the facilities where most employees report, it is imperative that you use your PIV card to swipe into your facility as early as possible on your workday,” the email states.
EPA says it will also examine laptop logins and entries into the agency’s time-and-attendance system to ensure employees are working in the office.
“Therefore, it is also imperative to complete your timecards using the correct codes and for supervisors and managers to only attest to time and attendance they can verify,” the email states.
The EPA said most employees started coming back to the office full-time this week, and are “benefiting from daily face-to-face interactions with their colleagues, clients, supervisors, and the public.”
The agency rescinded nearly all employees’ telework and remote work agreements in mid-February.
Employees with reasonable accommodations — including medical telework, Domestic Employees Teleworking Overseas (DETOs), and military spouses working remotely under the Military Spouse Employment Act — are exempt from the EPA’s return-to-office requirements.
“To the dedicated employees who have been showing up to the office every day, thank you! Your commitment to our mission does not go unnoticed,” the email states. “The American people rely on every single one of us to protect their access to clean air, land, and water. Our mission of protecting human health and the environment is far too important for any of us to ever come up short.”
SSA to take ‘progressive discipline’ over not sending 5 bullet points emails
Other agencies are also going to greater lengths to track the behavior of their employees.
The Social Security Administration told managers on Monday they should take “progressive discipline” against employees who aren’t following a governmentwide mandate to report five things they did last week.
“The degree of discipline and/or penalty applied will be at management’s discretion and will largely depend on the individual circumstances of each case,” the email states.
In February, the Office of Personnel Management told federal employees to send weekly emails with five bullet points about what they did the last week.
Compliance with the five-bullet-point emails varies across the federal workforce.
At some agencies, managers and supervisors have told employees the exercise is voluntary, while others — including the Defense Department — have told employees to send the email every week.
SSA leaders told managers on Monday that the five-bullet-point email is a “mandatory assignment.”
“As such, the expectation is that managers manage employees as they would for any other assignment of work item,” the email states.
SSA leaders said collective bargaining agreements with federal employee unions require managers to take gradually more severe disciplinary measures.
However, SSA leaders told managers that those steps “may be bypassed where management determines, by the severe nature of the behavior, that a lesser form of discipline would not be appropriate.
“An example would be an employee responding to such a directive in a manner that is unprofessional, and without courtesy, dignity and respect,” the email states.
Federal employees hit a snag on March 24 when they received a notice from the original OPM-provided email address stating the “mailbox is full and can’t accept messages now.” OPM provided another email address for federal employees to send their five-bullet-point emails.
USDA employees have ‘no reasonable expectation of privacy’
Last month, the Agriculture Department added a new login banner to employees’ devices stating they “have no reasonable expectation of privacy” when using their government-issued devices.
The notice prohibits USDA employees from using personal email accounts to send or receive official business, forwarding government emails to their personal email accounts, or taking photos of government screens or documents with personal devices.
“At any time, the government may for any lawful government purpose monitor, intercept and seize any communication or data transiting or stored on this information system,” the notice states.
The post Federal employees face added scrutiny over in-office work, bullet points, leaked emails first appeared on Federal News Network.