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Edited by
Amanda Kolson HurleyBloomberg Businessweek April 20, 2020● Despite shelter-in-place
orders, many federal and state
workers are going to the officepublic agencies define “essential” and what they
expect of such workers varies, but many govern-
ment functions are considered essential. That
means thousands of public-sector employees and
contractors have been ordered to carry on with
business as usual—including in areas with shelter-
in-place and comparable orders.
At U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities
in California, managers have required not only clin-
ical staff but also some administrative employees
to come into the office. La Pria Johnson, a program
analyst who reviews data on patient safety incidents,
says the agency has exposed her, colleagues, and
patients to unnecessary risk by preventing such
employees from teleworking. “There’s a reason that
people are being told to isolate and stay at home,”
she says. “And we’re not being allowed to do that.”
Johnson says she changes out of her clothes in her
garage each night to reduce the risk of infection
to her family, including her teenage son, who has
asthma. What the VA is doing is “reckless,” says local
union President Marcus Walker, a VA respiratoryLong before the novel coronavirus, the Trump
administration tried to rein in telework across fed-
eral agencies, using policies and collective bargain-
ing proposals to restrict employees’ discretion to
workfromhome.Now,asa pandemicsweepsthe
nation,employeesatfederalandstategovernment
agenciessaythatsameinsistenceonin-person work
is putting their health at risk.
Along with failing to provide protective equip-
ment for critical workers, public employees say,
agenciesarerequiringthemtocomeintotheoffice
toperformtasksthatcouldbedoneremotelyor
putoffuntilit’ssafe.Thousandsofgovernment
employees have contracted Covid-19.
The pandemic has split American workers into
two categories: essential and nonessential. How