Federal-government employees irked at the prospect of being forced back into the office five days a week might want to check out job opportunities with the Arlington County government.
Arlington continues to offer a relatively flexible work-from-home policy, and would be happy to talk with those who might wish to avail themselves of it, the county’s top staffer said.
“I’m expecting we’re going to have a pile of really qualified applicants knocking on our door — in every department,” County Manager Mark Schwartz told delegates to the Arlington County Civic Federation during a December meeting.
Some in the incoming administration, including Donald Trump himself, have called for all 2.2 million in federal workforce to get back in the office on a full-time basis.
“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump said during a December press conference.
Whether he and his administration can make that happenafter Jan. 20 remains to be seen. But there also could be a plethora of applicants for local-government jobs if the Trump administration carries through on its desires to trim the federal workforce, perhaps significantly, and move agencies out of the local region.
Arlington would welcome those seeking jobs, particularly in the public-safety front. Both the fire and police departments remain short-staffed, although the county “is seeking a lot more applicants” in recent months, Schwartz told Civic Federation members.
“We’ve done a lot to improv our recruiting,” he said, but “a lot of it really depends on what happens with the larger economy.”
Strides have been made in filling gaps in the county’s Department of Human Services, Schwartz said, but vacancies remain among the behavior-health ranks.
To entice employees, the Arlington government has taken to offering signing bonuses for some postings, including $5,000 for some human-services jobs and up to $15,000 for firefighters and $25,000 for police.
At least one veteran budget watchdog wonders how far the county government will go in its recruiting and retention efforts.
“It used to be that government jobs didn’t pay well and thus the benefits were generous to make up for lower-than-private-sector wages,” said Suzanne Smith Sundburg. She chairs the Civic Federation’s revenues and expenditures committee, but was speaking to ARLnow on her own behalf.
“That dynamic no longer holds,” Sundburg said of lower pay.
Today, “Arlington residents are being asked to foot the bill to fund salaries and especially benefits that are far more generous than what many Arlington residents can earn/receive in the private sector,” she said.
Beyond the specific issue of poaching disenchanted federal-government employees, the success or failure of any federal back-to-the-office edict could have broader ramifications across the region.
And views on the matter are split, even among the virtually all-Democratic elected leadership of the local region.
At a Dec. 5 forum sponsored by the Dulles Area Transportation Association, several Northern Virginia elected leaders said it wasn’t necessary to have personnel in the office full time when work-from-home options could prove just as effective.
“People are getting the work done” without being in the office, said Deshundra Jefferson (D), chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
“Workers proved during the pandemic we can be just as productive, if not more so, working at home,” Jefferson said. “We have a lot more technology, people have learned to collaborate.”
“It’s a nuanced question,” said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay (D), speaking at the same forum. “What makes sense for one agency and position doesn’t make sense for all.”
Others, however, seem sympathetic to getting more workers back in the office full-time.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has been calling on the Biden administration to bring more workers back to the office since early 2023, citing concerns about the city’s economic viability.
Bowser and several of her top staff sat with Trump in late December, describing it as a “great” meeting.
“President Trump and I both want Washington to be the best, most beautiful city in the world, and we want the capital city to reflect the strength of our nation,” she said.
And Arlington County Board member Matt de Ferranti, wearing his hat as chair of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, has said that more federal workers in the office more days would help support local transit systems, some of which (notably Metrorail) have yet to fully recover from Covid-era dropoffs.
At the Dec. 5 Dulles forum, though McKay said such issues need to be looked at from a broader lens.
“There’s no doubt teleworking is hurting Metro. Metro obviously could use the fare revenue,” McKay said. “[But] in terms of our air quality, our infrastructure, our roadways, they don’t necessarily need more congestion.”
