Theoretically, the request applies to all the Departments. Thus, we wonder about USDA. Some agency heads have only been seen in Washington a few times, e.g., rumor has it that the Risk Management Agency’s (RMA) Administrator has only been in town three or maybe four times. When constituencies want to talk with her, do they get on a group Zoom for 30 minutes? Has she ever even met her employees? Does meeting employees matter? Is a 30-minute Zoom with ten or twenty people effective?
Then there is RMA’s Product Development Shop which is based in Kansas City but had its office space canceled. Product Development used to develop some really good crop insurance products, but now they seem to only produce niche products with little market appeal, e.g., PACE and parametric. It used to be a strongly effective office. Now, nothing. Well, its employees are scattered and its deputy administrator seems to relocate from one state to another.
White House Chief of Staff Zients’s approach involves carrots and sticks — “born of his firm belief that in-person contact leads to better teamwork.”