A few weeks before the start of 2025, everything seems to indicate that the first challenge that will test Trump’s administration is the return of federal workers to their offices.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, from the Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, are asking workers to return to their positions. Their plans were published in an article in the Wall Street Journal, and they discuss large-scale layoffs, cuts in government spending, and the end of remote work for federal employees.
Staff reduction could be voluntary upon the return to the offices.
In the article, Musk and Ramaswamy specified that the workforce could be reduced before they make it because not many are willing to return to the offices.
"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary resignations that we welcome: if federal employees do not want to show up, American taxpayers should not pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying at home," they wrote.
Office of Management and Budget percentages
The Office of Management and Budget reported in August that around 46 percent of federal workers were eligible to work from home, but only 10 percent were doing so full-time because 54 percent had chosen to return to the office.
"The order to return to work in the office would probably affect less the workers of the United States Department of Agriculture, where the majority (81%) of employees who can work remotely are already working in person," explains USA Today on its website."
The policy would affect the United States Department of the Treasury the most, where the smallest part (35.7%) of employees who can work remotely regularly come to the office.