Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans

U.S Office of Management and Budget U.S Office of Personnel Management MEMORANDUM TO: Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies FROM: Matthew J. Vaeth, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget; Charles Ezell, Acting Director, Office of Personnel Management DATE: January 27, 2025 RE: Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans I. Purpose The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are issuing this memorandum to provide further guidance to agencies on implementation of the January 20, 2025, Presidential Memorandum (PM) Return to In-Person Work. II. Requirement to Prepare Implementation Plans As of January 24th, agencies should have already notified employees of their intent to comply with the PM directing agencies to return all eligible employees1 to full-time in-person work. To facilitate the consistent implementation of this guidance across agencies, OMB and OPM direct all agencies to prepare implementation plans that describe their approach to fully complying with this PM and overcoming any constraints in achieving full compliance. Agencies should prepare plans to expeditiously implement this PM and submit their plans to OMB and OPM for review and approval by no later than Friday, February 7th at 5:00pm EST. Agency plans should: a. describe the steps the agency will take to revise telework agreements for all eligible employees including major milestones for implementation; b. provide timelines for the return of all eligible employees to in-person work as expeditiously as possible, including the date that the agency will be in full compliance with the PM;

For the purposes of this memorandum, the term “eligible employee” means any agency employee, unless excused due to a disability, qualifying medical condition, or other compelling reason certified by the agency head and the employee’s supervisor. Agencies should also exclude military spouses working remotely based on the Military Spouse Employment Act, Pub. L. 118–31, div. A, title XI, § 1112, codified at 5 USC § 3330d. 1

c. describe the steps the agency will take to bring any relevant Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) into compliance with the new PM, consistent with applicable law, to include an examination of the process by which agencies put new CBAs into place in the last four years; d. describe the steps the agency will take to determine permanent worksites for all eligible employees currently teleworking on a full-time basis (i.e., remote workers), the number of those employees, and the steps the agency will take to move these employees’ duty stations to the most appropriate Federal office based on the employees’ duties and job functions. This information must include estimated costs and resource implications when the new duty station is greater than 50 miles from current alternative worksites, a description of what policy, regulation, or statute requires or permits payment of relocation benefits, and where those employees will be located—whether in a home agency’s office or in another agency’s federal office space; e. identify any risks, barriers, or resource constraints that would prevent the expeditious return of all eligible employees to in-person work (e.g., availability of suitable office space, budgetary impacts, resource capacity, etc.) and a plan to overcome those barriers; f. describe agency’s process for determining exceptions based on disability, qualifying medical condition, and or other compelling reason; and g. describe the agency’s criteria for determining “other compelling reasons” for exemptions from return-to-office, including any limited, discrete categories (such as military spouses working remotely) where categorical or indefinite exemptions may be granted. In preparing these plans, agencies should be guided by the following principles: 1. Prioritizing for return to in-person work those agency headquarters and eligible employees who can do so expeditiously, and phasing in the return of remote workers who are more than 50 miles from a current agency office, which may present unique challenges. 2. Maximize use of existing federally-owned or leased space before adding net-new space to the federal real property portfolio, in consultation with the General Services Administration, OMB, and local Federal Executive Boards (FEBs), as applicable, to consider options for sharing space and consolidating the federal real property footprint among agencies in a given geographical area.2

For more information about FEBs including points of contact, agencies may refer to https://feb.opm.gov/ 3. In determining new duty stations or reallocating internal office space consider grouping organizations and employees based on like duties and job functions, where possible, to promote effective collaboration and management. Agencies should submit their plans to both OPM (tracking@opm.gov) and OMB (workforce@omb.eop.gov) for review and approval.