tl;dr The federal government is requiring that many large groups of employees that don't work directly with others or ever have contact with citizens for one or two days per week. Your tax dollars are now going to real estate that is only occupied 1/5 of the time and doesn't need to be used at all. These buildings could be repurposed and turned into housing which would lower the current price of housing. While private employers don't cave to the average person making their voices hear, political appointees do.
I am an attorney for a regulatory agency located in DC and for the last 2.25 years my office of hundreds of attorneys has been working completely remote and not only has there been no drop in productivity per employee, but an increase. Also during that time we have had attorneys poached by large firms and other organizations that have always offered double the pay but are now closing in on work life balance. Out of the handful of new hires I have heard a number of anecdotes about qualified people turning down offers due to us refusing to go completely remote. While not offering full remote my agency now requires attorneys to go in 2 to 4 days per pay period (2 weeks), and not necessarily on the same days. Just from the attorneys I deal with regularly, and including me in the estimate, about 10% of my organization is planning on leaving before year end and I don't know a single person who isn't at least putting “feelers out.” The only reason we have ever received for why we are being required to go back in is “it is what the president wants” and “we're a unique organization.” Upper management has specifically said in an unnervingly angry and unprofessional manner that they don't care that we are losing ground to private employment in pay and remote work because “attorneys at X agency have always left for those same businesses.” I don't necessarily mind that we have to return to an office for any amount of days, my gripe is that we are forced to live in the DMV area where we are slowly being priced out by higher paid private employment for no reason other than the whim of management.
It has been pointed out countless times on this sub that Biden's decisions was largely to appease Mayors of cities with a large government presence and try to win over republican voters. If I could continue to work remotely not only would they save the $3k a month that my personal office alone costs, the one that I will be in once a week, but also pay me almost $15,000 for moving to a lower cost of living area. These savings could be put towards a better purpose and help actually alleviate some of the problems this country is having.
Please contact the white house, your state senator and other lawmakers and ask why the discriminate return of federal employees to a physical office is necessary.
To write a letter to the white house
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact your state senator
https://www.270towin.com/elected-officials/contact-us-senators
I have no doubt I will be long gone from the federal government before a change is made but this is truly something I think the public is missing. There are hundreds of millions of dollars alone between high cost of living salaries and real estate in DC alone being wasted on the whim of “upper management.”