OPM demands agencies comply with Trump's telework order within 30 days

[Bozvotros]

6. A lot of those workers do not have an office.

Especially VA employees, particularly therapists and social workers. I worked there for about 14 years in both of those positions. There were a lot of people doing home-based therapy over the phone and video conferencing. It was working well. People who had to come in to work were often sharing spacesbecause there weren't enough individual offices.
When I left there in 2023 people like me were expected to do all of our paperwork in small cubicles and only have a private room when you were seeing someone. They expected a lot of telephone work to be done out in the cubicles which really violated HIPAA rules. They were also pushing us hard for 30 minutes sessions in order to see more veterans. That had the effect of discouraging veterans wanting individual therapy, because 30 minutes wasn't near long enough, especially with so many having PTSD issues.
This ruling should help make the VA even more crowded and inefficient.