Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans Memo — page 1

U.S Office of

Management and Budget

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

Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans

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 employees

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 7

at 5:00pm EST.

Agency plans should:

describe the steps the agency will take to revise telework agreements for all eligible

employees including major milestones for implementation;

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.

Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans Memo — page 2

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;

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;

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;

describe agency’s process for determining exceptions based on disability, qualifying

medical condition, and or other compelling reason; and

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:

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.

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.

For more information about FEBs including points of contact, agencies may refer to

https://feb.opm.gov/

Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans Memo — page 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.

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