PHILADELPHIA – Mayor Cherelle L. Parker issued the following statement today regarding the Parker Administration’s policy for all City employees to return full-time to working in the office, effective Monday, July 15, 2024.

In alignment with my Administration’s goals of creating a more visible and accessible government, I have notified all City workers that they will be transitioning to full-time, in-office work effective July 15, 2024.  All City employees are to default to full-time in-office or on-site work.

Employee presence at the workplace allows for more personal and productive interactions, facilitates communication, and promotes social connections – along with collaboration, innovation, and inclusion. It delivers on my promise of an accessible City workforce that is best situated to serve the people of Philadelphia. A more consistent in-office presence will result in work environments where equal employment opportunity and diversity, equity and inclusion are truly realized.

The basics of our Return to Office Policy:

  • Establishes generally that all work is to be done “on-site,”
  • Sunsets the Virtual Work Policy of 6/11/2021,
  • Establishes that the appointing authority has discretion to permit occasional remote work to address periodic life circumstances.
As we plan for and move toward the return to full-time in-office presence for the City’s workforce, it is important we do so centering employee health and safety, operational efficiency and functional workspaces. Supervisors and department heads are identifying and securing office space, equipment, furniture and environmental compliance supports to prepare for employees’ return.

I also want to commend every City frontline worker who’s been working in the office or on-site since the COVID pandemic, including law enforcement, first responders, streets and sanitation workers, health and human service workers and so many others. We thank you for your public service during this time.

I appreciate and expect everyone’s cooperation with this decision and understand this transition will require some adjustment. I commit to the ongoing review and consideration of supports, benefits and resources for employees, to realize the promise of our City as an Employer of Choice. I will continue to demand tangible and intangible investments in our workforce, because you are the only way Philadelphia becomes the safest, cleanest, greenest big city in America, with access to economic opportunity for all. I look forward to the day when the Philadelphia government and all its agencies are a government that our residents can “see, touch and feel.”

To this end I have directed my administration to implement the following supports for all permanent full-time, part-time, and provisional employees:  just-in-time emergency care needs for child and elder care, increased paid parental leave, relaxation of the restrictions on use of sick leave for family members, and designation of the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday.

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Additional Facts Regarding Return to the Office
  • In 2023, approximately 80 percent of the City’s workforce worked fully on-site.
  • Of the remaining 20 percent, City employees worked approximately 31 of 75 hours per pay period (two weeks) on-site.
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