Ogden IRS workers given permission to telework again due to office chaos
Mar 21, 2025, 10:30 AM | Updated: 12:13 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — The IRS in Ogden is backtracking on its order to return to the office after realizing there is not enough space for its employees.
More than 7,000 Internal Revenue Service workers have been squeezing into the overcrowded IRS offices in Ogden since being told to return to in-person work last week.
“So we have people teleworking in hallways at the IRS in conference rooms. We have them everywhere. A lot of these people can’t go to the same desk every day. It’s quite the mess,” said Robert Lawrence, president of the local chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union.
Other IRS employees have reported cases of five employees being assigned to one desk. The number of people in the office reportedly overwhelmed the Wi-Fi network, causing a crash during their first week back in the office.
Now, Lawrence said the overcrowding is getting even worse, with hundreds more coming back to the office.
“Probationary employees that were released last month have now all been called back to work by court order,” Lawrence stated. “Now we have even less room.”
In response, some employees with telework agreements are now being told they can work from home again until they get a handle on this.
“We know that the IRS doesn’t want any of this to happen. They are not supporting this. They just receive their marching orders from Treasury,” he explained.
Lawrence said the union continues to fight against this and other contract violations as a result of the recent directives from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has issued a number of orders in recent days in order to cut costs within the federal government.
“There’s been all kinds of violations of our contract, in our legally binding contract, and you can’t break a legally binding contract without consequences,” Lawrence stated. “We have lawsuits out there. We have national grievances and local grievances going.”
He went on to say the Trump administration is working faster than the courts; however, the courts are catching up.
“We’re just trying to spread the message that we are slowly but surely gaining ground and we’re winning,” Lawrence said. “The probationary employees being called back to work who were illegally fired is proof of that.”
While IRS employees may now be getting some relief, Lawrence believes this is bound to have an impact on taxpayers. He said that while they are still sorting all this out, it is impacting their ability to work and process tax returns efficiently during this busy tax season.
