Federal agencies were given a deadline to implement a return-to-work mandate issued this week by President Donald Trump.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said in a memo that federal agencies should require employees to meet in-office deadlines within 30 days of the policy announcement. The guidelines say the heads of those agencies have until 5 p.m. ET on Friday to revise their telework policies.
Ezell wrote that “most federal offices presently are virtually abandoned ” and that the “vast majority” of federal office workers have not “returned to in-person work” following work-from-home policies initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020.
“Virtually unrestricted telework has led to poorer government services and made it more difficult to supervise and train government workers,” he said.
However, his memo did provide exemptions for employees who cannot return to the office, including to accommodate a medical condition or disability and for other reasons “certified by the agency head and the employee’s supervisor.”
“Fairness requires that federal office employees show up to the worksite each day like most other American workers,” the memo said. “In addition, during the Biden Administration, federal unions attempted to abuse the collective-bargaining process to guarantee full-time telework into the indefinite future and forestall any requirement to return to the office.”
According to a December 2024 OPM report, 43 percent of civilian federal employees participated in “routine or situational telework” in fiscal year 2023, the lowest level reported since 2019.
Soon after winning the Nov. 5, 2024, election, Trump said he would choose X owner Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), before it was announced this week that Ramaswamy would not be joining the effort.
The president and agency heads have broad authority to fire non-union workers for cause, which could include defying a mandate to return to the office. Federal employees must be given written notice that they are being fired at least 30 days in advance, including an explanation of the reason for their termination and an opportunity to respond.
In addition to the return-to-work mandate, Ezell told federal agencies to detail by Friday a list of federal employees on probationary status and make recommendations on whether they should remain on the job.
“Probationary periods are essential tools for agencies to assess employee performance and staffing levels,” his memo said. The memo asks to see a list of those employees, adding that “agencies should promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency.”
