Contact: Carter Christensen, media@ppionline.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report from the Progressive Policy Institute highlights the opportunity posed by the current work-from-home mandate resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
Covid-19 has taught employers the surprising lesson that for many more positions than expected, remote work is preferred by workers and seems to have little negative impact on workplace productivity. Within the federal government, a September poll showed that 53 percent of remote federal employees agreed they could perform their duties with minimal or no disruption and a November survey of managers at the Department of Transportation found 55 percent of units were more productive during the pandemic than before.
A more distributed federal government would likely raise real worker wages, improve recruiting, and lower the government’s overall operating costs. But the federal government has several additional reasons to prefer a more distributed workforce.
Caleb Watney, the director of innovation policy at PPI, had this to say about the findings and key proposals:
“The Biden Administration has a unique opportunity to help distribute the federal bureaucracy across the U.S. and thereby empower workers, improve hiring, and promote regional economic development. This natural experiment over the past year has shown that for more workers than previously anticipated, working remotely can be just as effective and has unexpected benefits. Moving to a model where even 20% of the federal workforce is distributed would be a significant change. The U.S. government has aspired to achieve a workforce from all segments of society and by embracing remote work, where appropriate, we can bring that closer to reality.”
