Youngkin offers temporary teleworking to State employees with children

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, as Memorial Day heralds summer, parents who work as state employees are scrambling for child care options under an impending deadline to comply with a new policy imposed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to push the state workforce back into the office after the 27-month-old COVID-19 pandemic drove them out.

The new telework policy, which the administration announced three weeks ago to take effect on July 5, requires state employees to return to their offices unless they have permission to work remotely, with more than one day a week requiring approval of senior administration officials.

The Department of Environmental Quality — one of more than 65 executive branch agencies covered by the policy — recently offered its employees the option of working remotely for up to five days a week under “temporary telework agreements” through the summer if they have no other alternatives for child care.

“Lack of child care is a legitimate issue and may be considered as a Temporary Telework Agreement on a case by case basis,” Renee Wilson, director of the agency’s human resource department, advised DEQ employees in a memo on May 17.

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