Trump to return federal workers back to office
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday at Washington's Capital One Arena, mandating federal workers return to the office five days a week, a move that drew cheers from supporters.
The order compels many white-collar government employees to abandon remote work arrangements, reversing a trend that surged during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some Trump allies suggest the return-to-office mandate is designed to disrupt the civil service, facilitating the replacement of long-serving government workers with Trump loyalists.
In a statement on the White House website, Trump directed department and agency heads to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in person at their duty stations on a full-time basis, as soon as practicable.” Exemptions are left to the discretion of department and agency leaders.
The mandate is part of a broader strategy that includes a hiring freeze and the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory body tasked with streamlining the federal government and potentially eliminating entire agencies.
Experts warn these changes could lead to significant attrition among federal employees, a result Trump’s team appears to welcome. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and chair of DOGE, recently remarked that rescinding “the COVID-era privilege” of telework could spark “a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome.”
Unionized federal employees, who comprise about a quarter of the workforce, may retain remote or hybrid work options under existing bargaining agreements. However, Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has suggested plans to challenge those agreements, labeling them a “concerning phenomenon” originating during the Biden administration.
Republicans have long criticized federal employees as inefficient, and Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement has amplified this rhetoric. Trump has called federal workers “crooked” and “dishonest,” fueling his supporters’ enthusiasm for the executive order.
As Trump signed the document, applause filled the arena. Holding it aloft with a wry smile, he reveled in the reception. “The politics play well with the MAGA crowd, because work-from-home workers tend to be higher educated,” said Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor who specializes in labor and management issues.