Despite the Department of the Air Force’s (DAF) push for a full office return by Feb. 7, the service is finding there’s not enough room to park every Airman and Guardian at their desks just yet.
In a Feb. 1 memo, the DAF directed its commands to fill 100 percent of their existing government in-person workstations by Feb. 7. The DAF’s plan came in response to a Jan. 31 memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlining the initial steps to phase out remote work across the Department of Defense (DoD).
However, a more recent memo reveals that the DAF is encountering a shortage of workstations both in the National Capital Region and across the Air Force and Space Force, making it impossible to accommodate the entire workforce.
Due to this shortage the DAF is “exempting such portion of the workforce (civilian personnel, Airmen, and Guardians) that cannot currently be accommodated … [and] approving the use of alternative work schedules as an alternative means to fill 100 percent of existing space,” the new memo reads.
“These measures are deemed necessary due to a shortfall in suitable office space and will be in effect until additional capacity is achieved,” the document says.
The Headquarters Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center will assist commands in “developing facility solutions for the allocation of exempt personnel in organizations outside the National Capital Region” to support installation commanders as they manage their workforce and the tenant organizations they support.
Additionally, they will also assist in developing facility solutions for the “allocation of exempt personnel for headquarters elements within the National Capital Region” to help installation commanders manage workforce requirements in the region.
While these new accommodations are necessary right now, the DAF commanders should continue to move “expeditiously to return the entirety of their workforce to in-person work … reducing their telework and remote work populations as short- and long-term facilities solutions come online,” the memo says.
