Trump seeks to end telework for federal workers
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President Trump signed an executive action Monday directing federal agencies to order their workers back to the office full time.
"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 executive memo states.
Having more federal employees work from the office has long been a focus of Republicans.
"Service backlogs and delays, unanswered phone calls and emails, and no-show appointments are harming the health, lives, and aspirations of Americans," Iowa Senator Joni Ernst wrote in a report released late last year.
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In that report, Ernst claimed that only 6% of federal workers work in-person full time, while one-third work fully remotely.
Most federal workers already work in-person, full-time
In fact, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, a majority of federal employees already work in their offices full-time.
In a report to Congress issued last August, OPM noted that 54% of the 2.3 million civilians employed by the federal government work entirely in-person given the nature of their jobs. About 10%, or 228,000 employees, work entirely remotely.
Not counting fully-remote workers, telework-eligible federal employees spent just over 60% of their work hours in-person, according to OPM, though this varies widely across agencies.
In the final days of the Biden administration, former acting OPM director Rob Shriver defended the federal government's telework policies, telling reporters on a press call that a one-size-fits-all approach could "dramatically impact the federal government's ability to handle the most important challenges that we face."
Union says telework is needed for recruitment and retention
Many flexible work arrangements predate the pandemic, though the federal government, like many offices, greatly expanded telework during COVID.
A number of agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Social Security Administration, agreed recently to long-term telework arrangements in their collective bargaining agreements.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 800,000 federal and D.C. government employees, says it expects those agreements to be honored, given the Trump memo states that the directive "shall be implemented consistent with applicable law."
Still, in a statement, AFGE President Everett Kelley called the directive a "backward action" and asked the Trump administration to rethink its approach.
"Providing eligible employees with the opportunity to work hybrid schedules is a key tool for recruiting and retaining workers in both the public and private sectors. Restricting the use of hybrid work arrangements will make it harder for federal agencies to compete for top talent," he wrote in a statement.
He also warned that given the success federal agencies have had consolidating unused office space and selling off properties that were costly to maintain, there may no longer be enough office space to accommodate an influx of on-site workers.
Musk said return-to-office order could lead to resignations
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last fall, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump appointed to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, suggested that requiring federal employees to return 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," they wrote.
Ramaswamy stepped down from DOGE on Monday because he intends to run for elected office, according to the White House.
Return of Schedule F
In another controversial move that rattled federal workers Monday night, Trump resurrected his 2021 executive order creating a new category of political appointees within the federal workforce. Previously called Schedule F, the order was rescinded by former President Biden days after he took office.
The new directive replaces the letter "F" with the words "Policy/Career," among other small changes.
A key part of Trump's plan to rid the government of what he calls "rogue bureaucrats" and dismantle "the Deep State," the executive order directs agencies to identify and reclassify career civil servants whose jobs are "confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating" in character as political appointees, stripping them of civil service protections.
Trump has long argued that his administration should have greater flexibility in appointing people who will faithfully carry out his agenda and firing those who won't.
It's unclear how many civil servants could become political appointees under this move. Earlier estimates ranged from 50,000 to hundreds of thousands of workers.
Of the 2.3 million civilians in the federal government, roughly 4,000 are political appointees now.
In anticipation of this move, OPM issued a rule last year aimed at making it harder to convert career federal employees into political appointees. The rule establishes procedural requirements for such moves and an appeals process for employees.
Trump's new directive orders the OPM director to rescind all changes made by that rule.
Critics of the plan have warned that it threatens to hamper the government's ability to perform essential services for the American public.
"Things like the safety of air or food or your workplace … do depend upon having a qualified, nonpartisan workforce to make sure things actually function," said Don Moynihan, professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, in an interview last summer. "As those things start to disappear, it's going to be very hard to rebuild them in the long term."
Trump freezes federal hiring
Trump also temporarily froze hiring at most federal agencies. He made certain exceptions, including for the military and agencies carrying out key priorities such as immigration enforcement.
He directed the Office of Management and Budget and DOGE to deliver a plan within 90 days to shrink the federal workforce "through efficiency improvements and attrition."
The AFGE warned that the freeze will impair federal programs.
"Make no mistake – this action is not about making the federal government run more efficiently but rather is about sowing chaos and targeting a group of patriotic Americans that President Trump openly calls crooked and dishonest," wrote Kelley.
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