Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.
America returned to work after the COVID lockdowns, but the government didn’t get the memo. Tens of thousands of bureaucrats have yet to return to the office, despite the lockdowns being long over. Only one in three government workers had fully returned to the office by October of 2022. Whether these bureaucrats work or not, they still get paid by our tax dollars.
The Office of Personnel Management only started asking workers return to the office last April. In spite of the mandate, many workers still haven’t stepped foot in a federal office.
Thankfully, a growing number of lawmakers want government workers to earn their checks and get back to work. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst joined the crusade against government laziness just days ago.
Ernst wants a thorough investigation of how telework impacted the major government agencies. She wants to know how much taxpayer dollars have been wasted in the process and what can be done to save money if this is the new norm. Expensive office buildings may no longer be needed if no one shows up to work.
The senator understands how the no-shows directly impact American lives. She took up this issue after hearing from disturbed constituents and shared the harm done by workers not showing up in a speech before the Senate.
“Thousands of calls to the Department of Veterans Affairs from veterans seeking mental health services are going unanswered,” Ernst said. “Desperate travelers are waiting hours on the phone or in line hoping to speak with someone at the State Department about passport delays that are causing vacation cancelations.
Our seniors are calling the Social Security Administration and are increasingly being greeted with busy messages, waiting longer to speak to a representative, or having their calls go unanswered altogether as the agency shifts towards remote work,” she added. “Frustrated Americans are being put on hold while too many federal employees are phoning it in.”
On top of all this, the at-home workers make a mockery of their jobs. Ernst relayed one egregious example from the VA.
“A manager of a VA medical center responsible for overseeing the scheduling of veterans’ care appointments actually, and get this, folks, this is no joke. An overseer for scheduling veterans’ care appointments called in to a meeting from a bubble bath—and even posted a selfie of it on social media with the caption, ‘my office for the next hour,’” Ernst told the Senate.
This worker clearly is not delivering top-notch service to the American taxpayers who are funding his or her salary, and there are thousands more just like this one.
As of this lack of productivity and terrible service are not reason enough to critique current de facto HR department, the OPM has also suffered major security breaches and can’t seem to keep anything secure.
Not long ago, the Office of Personnel Management suffered one of the largest cyberattacks in American history, which led to a $63 million settlement. The Chinese were responsible for the hack.
This issue of government-managed HR has only gotten worse. A Government Accountability Office report released in May found that the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Labor, and the Treasury have not implemented key cloud security practices. “Until these agencies fully implement the cloud security key practices identified in federal policies and guidance, the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of agency information contained in these cloud systems is at increased risk,” the GAO report concluded.
And yet, despite these shortcomings, OPM is trying to seize more responsibilities from the private sector to the dismay of conservatives like Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who chairs the powerful House Oversight Committee.
Getting government workers back in the office is a good start. But the entire bureaucracy needs to be reformed. OPM’s poor handling of government should convince lawmakers that radical change is needed. It would be better to allow the free market to staff and oversee our government agencies than to continue OPM’s incompetent monopoly. Especially when considering that the private sector companies capable of performing the same functions are held to far stronger security standards.
No competent business would ever keep their employees away from work or allow an entity with a rich history of security issues to continue operating. Only the government would approve this idiocy.
Fortunately, Republican good government stewards in Congress aren’t having it, and it seems like only a matter of time before they send the inefficient, unelected bureaucrats in OPM home packing.
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