Remote work, telework, and working from home became a significant trend during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and numerous studies and anecdotal accounts have highlighted how many workers across the country often abused these practices.

The federal government under former President Joe Biden was no exception, and a recent inspector general's report exposed substantial abuse of remote and telework policies by some government employees, according to the Washington Examiner.

The report was focused solely on the Office of Personnel Management, but its findings are almost certainly indicative of what was going on throughout virtually all of the executive branch's myriad departments and agencies.

IGs asked to investigate abuse of remote and telework practices

In August 2023, as part of a crusade against remote work for federal employees, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) asked the inspectors general of all major departments and agencies to investigate remote and telework practices and determine whether those practices were being abused, among other things.

"It’s not fair to let the responsibilities of running an agency -- and the country -- fall on the shoulders of the hardworking public servants who are showing up while others are out golfing on the taxpayer’s dime," Ernst said at the time. "Frustrated Americans are being put on hold while too many federal employees are phoning it in."

"I’m calling out federal employees who refuse to answer the call of duty to return to work on behalf of taxpayers, veterans, seniors, and our great nation," the senator added. "It’s time to get back to work."

The "era of telework abuse is over"

Many inspectors general responded to Sen. Ernst's request, including the IG for the Office of Personnel Management, where an investigation "uncovered widespread compliance failures and weak internal oversight in the agencyʼs telework and remote work programs during the Biden Administration."

OPM Acting Director Chuck Ezell said of the inspector general's findings, "Under the previous administration, OPMʼs telework and remote work policies were mismanaged and oversight was virtually nonexistent."

"That era of telework abuse is over," he added. "At President Trumpʼs direction, OPM has restored in-person operations to ensure federal employees are working for the taxpayers."

Indeed, on his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued a memo that ordered all department and agency heads to, "as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary."

What did the IG find?

According to an 18-page report from the OPM IG, it was found that approximately 58% of the employees sampled had failed to meet the minimum requirements for in-office work, meaning they weren't showing up for work in person when they were supposed to.

It was also found that nearly one-third of OPM's teleworkers had lapsed agreements, while around 15% of remote workers had never even had an approved agreement for the practice on file.

Further, the IG discovered that around one-fifth of telework agreement discrepancies that had been identified by HR had remained unresolved for longer than four months, while about 8% of the employee timesheets for teleworkers were not compliant with OPM's telework policies.

The IG recommended that OPM HR "develop written procedures detailing their internal controls to ensure compliance with telework and remote work program requirements" to address the issue, and reported that the recommendation was accepted and fully implemented.