What to know about federal employees who telecommute as DOGE looks to end remote work

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are determined to force federal employees to return to the office in hopes that some will opt to quit instead. That effort is going to affect some agencies – and workers – much more than others.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are determined to force federal employees to return to the office in hopes that some will opt to quit instead. That effort is going to affect some agencies — and workers — much more than others. How much time federal staffers spend telecommuting differs by department, according to an August report from the Office of Management and Budget. Only a small share of employees work fully remotely. Musk and Ramaswamy, whom President-elect Donald Trump named to head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), made clear in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday that they think requiring in-person work will save the US money, which is one of the nongovernmental entity’s central missions. “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,” they wrote. Flexible work arrangements existed before the Covid-19 pandemic, though they varied by agency. During the pandemic, many departments allowed more staffers to telecommute — though about half of federal employees continued to work fully in person. When the public health emergency ended in early 2023, the OMB directed agencies to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work at Federal offices, particularly at headquarters and equivalents,” with the goal of getting telework-eligible employees into the office at least half of the time, the report said. But flexible work policies could be used “as an important tool in talent recruitment and retention,” according to the report.