The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo encouraging agencies to allow work-from-home arrangements and other approaches promoting schedule flexibility for employees. The memo intends to support federal employees who are still working despite the government shutdown, OPM said Wednesday. The office also tells agencies to disseminate these schedule approaches in ways that best suit respective workforces.
“While the shutdown has affected all furloughed workers of the Federal workforce, many employees performing excepted duties during the furlough have the additional hardship of losing their subsidies for childcare and transit benefits but continuing to incur childcare and commuting expenses in order to continue reporting to work,†said Margaret Weichert, acting OPM director.
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“OPM is grateful to the dedicated men and women of the Federal workforce who are serving the American people during the partial lapse in appropriations, and we strongly encourage agencies to be as accommodating as possible during the current lapse in appropriations,†she added.
