Return to Office

Bureaucrats for Black Lives (B4BL) believes a Return to Office (RTO) should be thoughtful, inclusive, and anti-racist, prioritizing the needs of staff and considerate of opportunities to learn from the past year of remote work. 

As active employees within the Department, we believe that our treatment of each other should follow the same principles we espouse when interacting with and advocating for our students and families. As B4BL, we believe in community and value that when we actively build environments that center and empower the voices of those who have been the most historically silenced, violated, and oppressed, we create a better future for us and every student.

The RTO plans and practices introduced by the Department of Education’s leadership, however, have indicated that these values are not at the center of our return at this time.

B4BL intentionally chose the word “bureaucrat” in the hopes of confronting the word’s reputation for putting procedure over humanity. We believe that transparency, accountability, and speaking truth to power is an essential part of our jobs as the professionals who make up the institution. For this reason, we strongly denounce the way in which our Return has operated thus far, leaving staff confused at best, and unsafe at worst.

B4BL invites our colleagues at all levels of this organization to review the B4BL’s Return to Office Canvas, where we summarized what was shared by you and resulting recommendations from the informal B4BL RTO survey conducted in early April. Those who want to share their thoughts/concerns to complete our survey.

While we do not have faith that these learnings will be used in improving our Return to Office, we believe it is important to make clear that there are better ways to bring staff back, that can facilitate both greater productivity and safety.