The White House push to bring federal employees back into their offices could benefit business in downtown D.C.
Axios reported the White House chief of staff sent an email to every Cabinet member, asking them to aggressively execute a return-to-office plan starting next month.
"As we look towards the fall, and with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, your agencies will be implementing increases in the amount of in-person work for your team," Chief of Staff Jeff Zients wrote in that email. "This is a priority of the President -- and I am looking to each of you to aggressively execute this shift in September and October."
While it’s unclear how many District-based federal employees are working remotely a new report from the Government Accountability Office found 17 of 24 federal agencies were only using an estimated 25% or less of the capacity at their headquarters buildings.
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More people physically working in D.C. means more people shopping and eating downtown.
“We’d like to hope that a rising tide lifts all ships when it comes to having more people in the offices, so we’re hopeful that it would translate to more sales for us, which is great,” Pearl’s Bagels co-owner Oliver Cox said.
Cox decided on a downtown location for Pearl’s Bagels just before the pandemic began. They opened in July of 2020 and have yet to see the downtown foot traffic they were banking on.
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“To see downtown fully back to where it was pre-COVID would be the dream for us,” Cox said.
Dina Daniel, the owner of Fava Pot -- an Egyptian street food café on M Street in downtown D.C. -- has just one thing to say to all the people who have been working from home since the pandemic began.
"You need to come back to the office," she said. "I will not be able to stay in business long like this."
She added that the impact on businesses is on more than just the direct owners and employees of that business. It also impacts "security, cleaning people, Uber drivers, you name it."
Daniel isn't the only one who wants to see workers return to offices. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has been calling for federal employees to return since January.
Several businesses downtown have had to close. While remote work is not the sole reason, it’s been a contributor.
“The numbers show only about 42% of folks are in their offices compared to pre-pandemic levels, and a lot of that is largely due to the impact of the federal government,” DowntownDC Business Improvement District President Gerren Price said.
DowntownDC BID found about 22% of retail space was vacant as of March – the highest rate in decades.
“If we begin to see that change with the federal workers, we will start to immediately feel a real impact in terms of what our streets feel like,” Price said. “We’ll start to see some of our daytime businesses seeing people again and thriving again.”
While small business owners, the mayor and the president all want to see a return to the office, the union representing around 750,000 federal workers and D.C. government employees sees work from home as part of the future of government work.
“Now that the federal public health emergency around COVID-19 is over, agencies should take advantage of the collective bargaining process and labor-management partnerships to design hybrid working arrangements that allow both for meaningful in-person as well as remote and telework options," AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement emailed to News4.
“Working in partnership with workers’ unions will help agencies balance competing interests and achieve a workable, long-term solution that builds strong culture, achieves our shared mission, and protects the productivity gains and benefits to recruitment and retention realized through expanding remote and telework options beyond pre-pandemic levels.”
While the return of federal workers wouldn’t instantly make things better for vacant retail space and downtown foot traffic, it would be a big boost, Price said.
“This is really the first step in getting us back to that energy that we once had,” he said.
Details of how the return to the office will look for federal workers are limited, but the White House says this move will not end remote work entirely.
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