Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, incoming advisors to the Trump administration, proposed ending remote work for federal employees in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. They argue that requiring federal workers to come into the office five days a week would result in voluntary terminations, shrinking the federal workforce. Currently, about 46% of federal civilian personnel are eligible for telework, with 10% in remote positions with no requirement to work in-person regularly.
The Biden administration previously ordered federal agencies to increase in-person work but left some flexibility for operational concerns. Musk and Ramaswamy, who head a proposed Department of Government Efficiency, suggested concrete policy changes, including ending remote work and other cost-cutting measures.
Musk, known for his strict approach to remote work at Tesla and SpaceX, has been influential in Trump’s circle. While some companies are calling employees back to the office, others are embracing remote work as a recruitment and retention tool.
Unionized federal workers have criticized Musk and Ramaswamy’s proposals, with one union president stating they don’t understand how the federal workforce operates and make absurd claims about government waste.
In addition to ending remote work, Musk and Ramaswamy also proposed other ways to cut federal jobs, such as large-scale firings and relocating agencies out of Washington, D.C. They highlighted Supreme Court precedent that they believe would give Trump broad authority to implement their suggestions.
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