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

CNN

By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — 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.

Just under half can telecommute

Roughly 2.3 million civilians work for the federal government, according to the OMB report, which looked at 24 agencies that employ about 98% of the federal civilian workforce.

Just over half, or 1.2 million, work fully in person since their jobs require them to be physically present. The remaining 1.1 million staffers are eligible to telework.

About 228,000 employees, or 10% of the total, are in fully remote positions and are not expected to work in person on a regular basis.

Much depends on the agency

Overall, federal employees who are eligible to telecommute spend just over 61% of their regular working hours in person, the OMB found. (This excludes fully remote workers.)

However, that figure varies greatly by agency.

At the Department of Agriculture, 81% of the roughly 83,000 telework-eligible employees’ working hours are spent in person — the highest of the agencies. Similarly, at the departments of State, Interior and Homeland Security, the figure is roughly three-quarters or more.

But at the other end of the spectrum, Treasury Department staffers who are eligible to telework spend less than 36% of their time working in person. Their peers at the General Services Administration and departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development also clock less than 40% of their hours in person.

The Treasury Department, which has a total of just under 90,000 telework-eligible employees, told the OMB in January that it implemented a plan that resulted in “steady increases” in the share of hours worked in person, according to the report. Also, Treasury was planning to modify its policy to require teleworking employees to spend at least half their time in person.

However, the department also noted that it has already seen a “significant increase” in Equal Employment Opportunity complaints and requests for reasonable accommodations since it implemented its plan.

Also, at Treasury and throughout the federal government, telework policies may be part of unionized workers’ collective bargaining agreements — making it more difficult for agencies to change the rules.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers’ union with more than 800,000 members in nearly every agency in the federal and District of Columbia governments, said its position is that changes to working conditions that could affect contracts must be negotiated through the normal collective bargaining process.

Roughly half of its members have never teleworked due to the nature of their jobs, including health care workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Border Patrol agents, corrections officers, food inspectors and Transportation Security Administration officers. The telework language in other members’ contracts varies and depends on the position.

“The implication that federal employees writ large are not working in-person is simply not backed up by data and reality,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

Looking at all federal employees, nearly 80% of the hours they work are in person, the OMB report found.

Also, roughly the same share of federal and private-sector employees usually teleworked in 2022, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate. About 22% of federal staffers did so, compared with 25% of private-sector workers.

Questionable cost savings

Forcing all federal workers to return to the office may not save that much money, Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, told CNN. Total compensation for federal civilian staffers comes to about $305 billion a year, a little more than 4% of the federal budget. So even cutting a sizeable share of the workforce would only put a tiny dent in spending.

Though he feels some agencies are overstaffed, he pointed out that the federal government has the same number of employees as it did 50 years ago, when it had far fewer programs and duties.

“I don’t think you can just eliminate a quarter or half of federal employees on an ad hoc basis without paralyzing the government,” he said.

Plus, a blanket ban on working from home is shortsighted, he said, noting that different agencies have different needs. It could also prompt talented federal employees to seek jobs in the private sector.

“A one-size-fits-all for the entire federal government makes little more sense than a one-size-fits-all policy for the entire economy,” Riedl said.

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