In one of many executive orders signed Monday, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work.”
The order states that employees should return to work in person on a full-time basis, with exemptions that leaders “deem necessary.”
A separate order issued the same day instituted a federal hiring freeze.
“As part of this freeze, no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law,” the order states.
Additionally, the hiring freeze order directs the leader of the Office of Management and Budget to work with the administrator of the “United States DOGE Service” to submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Once the plan is issued, the hiring freeze will be lifted save for the Internal Revenue Service.
Elon Musk, who had been tapped to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously said that a return-to-office mandate may help cut costs and reduce the size of the federal government through attrition. Trump also previously said he intends to fire federal workers who don’t return to the office.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, decried both orders in a number of statements released Monday.
Kelley said the order ending remote work “turns back the clock to before 2010” when Congress expanded telework for the federal workforce by law. He also said that less than half of all federal jobs are eligible for telework, and that those workers “still spend most of their work hours at their regular duty stations.”
“Providing eligible employees with the opportunity to work hybrid schedules is a key tool for recruiting and retaining workers in both the public and private sectors,” Kelley said in a statement. “Restricting the use of hybrid work arrangements will make it harder for federal agencies to compete for top talent.”
Kelley also had strong words for the hiring freeze.
“Make no mistake — this action is not about making the federal government run more efficiently but rather is about sowing chaos and targeting a group of patriotic Americans that President Trump openly calls crooked and dishonest,” he said. “Trump’s pick to once again lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, has been quoted in private speeches saying he wants to put career civil servants in trauma.”
Federal agencies such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board have said they already are facing slim resources that limit their ability to work.
