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- Donald Trump signed a return-to-office order for federal workers during his first hours in office.
- Many federal civilian workers were eligible for telework but not working remotely all the time.
- Elon Musk indicated in November that he supports government workers being fully in the office.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order mandating that federal workers return to their offices full-time, a core element of his focus on overhauling the government workforce.
For years, Republicans have sought to weaken protections that federal workers have long enjoyed, with many conservatives zeroing in on reclassifying scores of career civil servants.
"Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary," the order read.
Trump has been especially insistent on a return-to-office push, with his position threatening the remote and hybrid arrangements that many federal workers have enjoyed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some workers may consider quitting instead of working from the office full time.
Elon Musk, who will lead Trump's cost-cutting advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, said he'd welcome this.
"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," Musk said in a November op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. The op-ed was co-written with Vivek Ramaswamy, who is leaving DOGE and is expected to run for governor of Ohio.
While many federal employees can telework, an August 2024 report from the Office of Management and Budget said around 10% of the roughly 2.3 million civilian workers in two dozen major agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Social Security Administration, "were in remote positions where there was no expectation that they worked in-person on any regular or recurring basis."
That includes over 60,000 people in the Department of Defense, around 37,000 in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and nearly 27,000 in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Office of Management and Budget found, based on average data representing pay periods ending May 4 and May 18, around 1.1 million civilian workers employed in the two dozen agencies were eligible for telework.
The Department of Defense has a large workforce compared to the other agencies, but only about 8% were remote employees.
"Among the subset of federal workers that are telework-eligible, excluding remote workers, 61.2% of regular, working hours were spent in-person," the OMB report said. That figure for the Department of Agriculture was 81%, and around 80% for the Department of State.
When asked about potential relocation out of DC and return to office before the inauguration, Trump's transition team pointed to Trump's comments at a December 16 press conference that if people don't return to the office, "they're going to be dismissed."
On Monday, Trump also issued an executive order that put a freeze on federal hiring.
"As part of this freeze, no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law," the order read.
That executive order does not apply to military personnel, immigration enforcement positions, or positions involving national security or public safety.
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