Trump orders federal employees to return to office full time

• Donald Trump signed a return to power order for federal employees in his first hours in office.
• Many federal civilian workers were eligible to telework, but did not always work remotely.
• Elon Musk indicated in November that he supports civil servants being fully present in the office.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday requiring federal employees to return to their offices full time, a key part of his push to restructure the government workforce.

For years, Republicans have sought to weaken protections long enjoyed by federal workers, with many conservatives focusing on reclassifying many career civil servants.

“The heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive Branch of Government will, 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 at full-time, provided that the heads of departments and agencies grant such waivers as they deem necessary,” the order states.

Trump has been particularly vocal about returning to power, with his stance 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 full-time in the office.

Elon Musk, who will lead Trump’s cost-cutting advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, said he would welcome the move.

“Forcing federal employees to come to the office five days a week would lead to a wave of voluntary attrition that we welcome: if federal employees are unwilling to show up, American taxpayers should not pay them for the Covid-era privilege. stay home,” Musk said in a November opinion piece 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 indicates that about 10% of the approximately 2.3 million civilian workers working at two dozen large agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Social Security Administration, “were in remote areas.” positions where they were not expected to work in person on a regular or recurring basis.

That includes more than 60,000 people at the Department of Defense, about 37,000 at the Department of Veterans Affairs and nearly 27,000 at 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 18, that about 1.1 million civilian workers employed in the two dozen agencies were eligible for teleworking.

The Department of Defense has a large workforce compared to other agencies, but only about 8% were remote employees.

“Among the subset of federal workers eligible to telework, excluding remote workers, 61.2% of regular work hours were spent in person,” the OMB report said. This figure was 81% for the Department of Agriculture and about 80% for the State Department.

Asked about a possible move out of Washington and a return to power before the inauguration, the Trump transition team pointed to Trump’s comments at a Dec. 16 news conference that if people don’t return to the office, “they will be fired”.

On Monday, Trump also issued an executive order freezing federal hiring.

“As part of this freeze, no federal civilian positions vacant as of noon on January 20, 2025 may be filled, and no new positions may be created, except as otherwise provided in this memorandum or other applicable law,” states the ‘prescription. .

This executive order does not apply to military personnel, immigration enforcement positions, or positions involving national security or public safety.