EPA Will Never Become a Virtual Organization, Top Official Says

The EPA won’t become a virtual organization, even though staffers have done a good job of completing their work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, a top agency official told employees.

“EPA really is an in-person organization, so I don’t see a fundamental, permanent change to the work culture here,” said Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

She spoke on a Thursday call that was shared by an EPA employee who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

Once EPA workers are back in their offices full-time, the agency will retain lessons it has learned during the pandemic about using technology to be more accessible, available, and flexible, Dunn said.

“But I know we’re going to stay a face-to-face organization,” she said.

Many EPA staffers have stressed they are working effectively from home and would like the freedom to keep doing so even after the coronavirus pandemic has passed. Telecommuting had also been a key issue in negotiations with the EPA’s union.

Reopening Can Go Backward

Also during the call, Doug Benevento, the EPA’s associate deputy administrator, said the agency is open to moving offices back down the escalating ladder of the White House’s three-phased reopening plan if that’s what the data suggests.

“The gate can swing both ways, and it doesn’t always have to go in the direction of moving forward,” Benevento said.

Several EPA offices, including its Washington, D.C. headquarters, have moved into Phase 2 of the reopening plan. No locations have reached Phase 3 yet, meaning no employees are required to be back in the office yet.

Rick Keigwin, acting deputy assistant administrator for management at the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, also said on the call that the EPA’s Office of Mission Support is developing a contact tracing protocol for agency employees.

The protocol will be used to notify those who have come into contact with a coronavirus-infected staffer, either in the office, or outside the office while on agency business, Keigwin said. It will also provide some situational leave for EPA staff who have come into direct contact with people affected by the virus, he said.