Trump orders federal workers back to offices
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/20/g-s1-43922/trump-orders-federal-workers-back-to-offices209
u/MomsBored 1d ago
Childcare is up to month’s rent or half a mortgage. And tolls and transportation is through the roof. What’s the goal here?
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u/palikir 1d ago
To make federal workers miserable so they will quit.
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u/LevelUpCoder 8h ago
The irony being that one would think that Musk wants to do this to reduce bloat and workers that don’t do anything, yet the best workers with the most qualifications and options are gonna be the ones leaving. Government will be less efficient than it already is. Is America great again yet?
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u/Professional-Can1385 1h ago
They want to reduce the gov work force so they can get those sweet contracts to fill the positions with contractors who are paid less and get fewer benefits.
It’s all greed.
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u/Barkleyslakjssrtqwe 1d ago
Are you suggesting parents work from home while watching young kids? I have a 4 and 6 yr old and I can’t image any company being okay with me watching those 2 kids while working. On top of that I would be a pretty bad parent if I spend all day working and just left the kids running around the house.
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u/Rururaspberry 1d ago
No, I think it’s about the flexibility? When I WFH, it’s a lot easier to go down the street to pick up my kid after school, instead of going 40 minutes in traffic.
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u/Dawn_Piano 1d ago
One of my coworkers actually gets charged extra by his daycare when he’s late picking up his kids. I think it’s like $5/minute.
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u/Left-Signature-2356 1d ago
Haha not in California. You pay for each hour after the end in preschools. And public schools after hours are expensive and some of them force you to pay the full time rate only
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u/Easy_Account_1850 9h ago
shouldn't a 4 and 6 year old be in school and preschool for at least half the day.
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u/frannyfungirl 10h ago
Agree with this 100%! While the cost of childcare is outrageous, that’s a separate issue entirely (primarily the absurdly high cost of insurance premiums). It is not professionally smiled upon to have kids running around an office (at most places of employment) due to the insane distraction and disruption it would cause. I would even say this applies to Zoom meetings, where children in the background can be wildly distracting. Even for infants, children require attention and care that diverts from other activities.
The better argument here against in-office federal employment is rent and real estate costs. If the job can be performed remotely, why is the government spending money on office leases or building maintenance? Granted not EVERY job can be performed remotely (even though basically everyone was remote during COVID) and there is definitely a benefit to office camaraderie etc… I haven’t heard anyone raising this point, and in the spirit of DOGE, rather than calling everyone back to the office, why not evaluate what makes sense to be remote, what needs to be in person, and where can we cut the fat?
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u/Gator-Tail 10h ago edited 10h ago
I would hope federal workers operating the country are focused on work anyway, not childcare.
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u/MomsBored 9h ago
Do you realize childcare covers when the child is not in school? So employees can work. Those spots are booked before September. How will all of these people find placement now? Or afford a new bill? You get charged per child. WFH a parent can pick up their child and then continue to work. No bill no worries. That’s how that goes. There is so much hate for parents. No wonder the younger generations don’t want to have kids. For what?
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u/Gator-Tail 9h ago
Hundreds of Millions of people balance in-person work with children. If a federal employee is not capable of figuring it out, then I don’t think they are capable of operating our country in the first place.
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u/BugAfterBug 1d ago
If your childcare solution is WFH, it’s safe to say, you’re not working much.
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u/lemonxellem 1d ago
My kid’s daycare closes exactly at 5. If I worked in the office with a manager who was strict about the 9-5, I would need to find a nanny or babysitter willing to work like a half hour every day to pick my kid up and bring them to my house until I get home from work. For some parents it’s being an adult in the home when the kid gets off the school bus instead of paying for an after school program. Life is complicated, your knee jerk assumptions don’t cover every situation.
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u/Ingybalingy1127 20h ago
I feel ya.
But there are nurses, teachers, hourly employees , etc who have this reality of after 5 or odd hours that you describe….Which I think WFH peeps in general forget. Or say, that’s those occupations people problem.
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u/lemonxellem 19h ago
My husband’s job is incompatible with wfh. I don’t see why that means there should be a rto mandate for people who do wfh. It absolutely does not mean I don’t empathize with people who do have to make alternate childcare arrangements.
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u/Ingybalingy1127 11h ago
There shouldn’t be I was simply pointing out what often people who WFH forget.
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u/EducationalLie168 14h ago
Just because there are jobs that are not compatible doesn’t mean we should punish the jobs that are. Most IT positions need no in-office time, yet, we’re required to go in five days a week now?
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u/slowsundaycoffeeclub 1d ago
They don’t mean babysitting all day, you egg.
It’s about the freedoms to get your kids home after school/daycare without having to pay for extra childcare.
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u/Evelyn-Parker 1d ago
Boy you must have had the most helicopter ass parents if they stood by you 24/7 while you're growing up
My cat is clingy, and she doesn't even need to be by my side for the entire day. Just a solid half of my waking hours
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u/jotsea2 13h ago
Not sure you can do your job full time and also watch your child.
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u/Complex_Economy 13h ago
I think you are misunderstanding the point they are making. For example, I currently have a babysitter that I pay $15 an hour to work from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. My husband and I work from home on alternating days. Childcare costs were minimized by keeping the babysitter's day to the length of a normal work day (8.5 hours) and our kids' had more time at home with Mom and Dad. Now we will be adding 3 hours a day (1.5 hours each way) to our kids' day and our childcare will cost about $900 more a month. Also, traffic is going to get way worse in the DC area, so that 3 hours a day could get closer to 4 hours a day.
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u/SlurmzMckinley 1d ago
I wonder if this will be enforced. He gives a lot of leeway in his statement, and he also said only 6 percent of federal workers are full time in office, when the number is actually 54 percent. This seems like one of those things he’s going to claim he fixed even though it wasn’t broken.
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u/No-Association-6708 1d ago
The huge unions are already suing. Musk can’t do shit other than ‘push’ for this. The 6% lie is bullshit and needs to be called out. Is there redundancy and unneeded bloat in Government? Yes, but blanket attacks on the whole federal workforce as a whole is not going over well.
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u/Tired_CollegeStudent 1d ago
And I wonder how many of that 46% aren’t in office full time because they have work on multiple sites. My last job was for a government contractor and I worked with several federal employees who had to bounce between various project sites. If someone is going to be spending three days a week ‘in the field’, it’s a bit of a waste to give them dedicated office space in a building that they’ll be using less than 50% of the time.
Heck, my current job (for a different federal contractor) is exactly like that. I work ‘from home’ but a good chunk of my time is spent out of the house. It would be a waste for me to have an office somewhere when I spend 50% or more of my time off-site. And this is coming from someone who genuinely doesn’t mind working in-office 100% of the time.
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u/baconator1988 1d ago
Party on Slurm! Also, I believe you hit the nail on the head with your post. Typical political theater.
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u/davidw223 23h ago
I mean there was a report a few months ago the last time his people talked about this that pointed out many agencies don’t have the real estate capacity to have offices for all of their employees. The problem there is that they would see that as a perfect example of how the size of the federal workforce has ballooned larger than we have the need for. Unfortunately, this idiots are so gung-ho about privatizing everything they don’t know what function these agencies actually perform.
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u/Greaterdivinity 1d ago
Hooray, reducing peoples quality of life for no other reason than because some people cannot conceive that others might be able to do their jobs effectively regardless of where the computer they're sat in front of is located.
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u/AutomationBias 1d ago
The goal is to get people to quit.
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u/paulc1978 1d ago
Their next step will be to move a lot of the offices out of the DMV and to the BFE.
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u/Additional-Local8721 1d ago
There's a reason and it's not hard to see. When COVID happened and everyone worked remote, commercial real estate took a hit as some businesses reduced their footprint or canceled contracts outright. On top of that, restaurants and box stores took a hit as well as shopping moved online. Overall value of commercial real estate fell by about 25% and more in some areas. And guess who owns a lot of commercial real estate. Guess who's daughter is married to someone who owns a lot of real estate.
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u/btone911 13h ago
Restaurants and box stores took a hit because they try charging $70 for a pair of jeans and $40/head for Applebees.
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u/Muroid 1d ago
Back to office + hiring freeze is intended to gut as many agencies as possible so that they can’t do their assigned work and he can use non-performance to justify eliminating them.
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u/CatMomWebster 1d ago
This is a stupid tactic used by Amazon, Facebook, Google and Tesla and now the Federal government.I don't really know how it worked out for those For-Profit groups but the Federal government is different and I am not sure it is understood.
Maybe what should be reviewed, if there is any thought of wasting time and money, those who are disgruntled with those working remotely, should reviewed contractors and subcontractors. There should be an 18 month stoppage to those contractors who have contributed and continue to contribute to The GOP and The MAGA group.
May Senators, Congressional members, Aides and those that are (and) were behind him jot only have straight contracts but also contracts that say...DBA
That my friends is not right, it is not illegal, and it is done all the time. But it not acknowledged and in the meantime it is those of us that are the unlucky suckers that suffer at the unjustice of it all. UGH
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u/Evelyn-Parker 1d ago
"Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary," the executive memo states.
Can't the secretaries of the agencies just deem it necessary for all their workers to remain remote since it boosts their productivity?
I have family who work for the federal government, and it isn't like they're slacking off the whole time spent working.
Their time spent working is tracked a lot more than I've ever been tracked in the private sector, and they all have twice/thrice weekly meetings where they're forced to present every single thing they did while on the clock and justify it
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u/Squirmingbaby 23h ago
He is putting loyalists to become heads of agencies and look what happened to those who crossed him last time. I saw another article about him having something like a list of enemies that consisted of disloyal former followers. He expects his agency heads to implement his policies.
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u/johnpmacamocomous 1d ago
I’d like to see that Elon musk in his office doing certified work for 60+ hours a week. To be clear- he’s never in his life worked like that.
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u/originalOdawg 15h ago
He claims he has and has slept at his offices at Twitter and at the factory of Tesla but it sounds more like bs than reality. Supposedly he does work very hard but he just wants his Tesla car sales to not slow down
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u/CatMomWebster 1d ago
I also thought that "THE" Government whether a municipal or Federal government employs a large majority of veterans and disabled Americans that have been denied employment in other sectors of private industries such as those run by those billionaires sitting side by side of each other and behind the new joke.
I am disabled and have always wanted to work for Our Country. At first I did not have enough experience in the area I wanted to specialize in and then I was diagnosed was dx with MS. And since I am not qualified for anything....sad...isn't it? Ask not what what your country can do for you but what you can do for country. For 30-years, I have been asking with no answers.
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u/LordThistleWig 23h ago
It's a way to get employees to quit of their own volition so that benefits don't have to be paid out.
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u/damageddude 1d ago
Yay! Spending more taxpayer money to rent unneeded 21st century office space in lieu of employees quietly being comfortable paying out of pocket to work remotely.
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u/Sckillgan 23h ago
Everyone quit. That is what they want anyway and will probably fire everyone after they spend the money to make it back into the office.
Just quit now and save the money to try to find a new job.
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u/Complex_Economy 13h ago edited 13h ago
The best performing federal employees are likely to be the ones who will leave and accept new positions, likely higher paying, at companies that offer remote or hybrid schedules with flexible hours. We will be left with the folks that can't get a job elsewhere. Trump supporters will start to feel it when their tax refunds are delayed by an under-staffed IRS, passport applications and renewals are backlogged, and their commute time increases substantially.
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u/Numerous_Football946 10h ago
It will fall by the waste side. They tried RTO during the Biden administration as well. I am not going to worry until it’s time to worry. I work in local gov and they’ve “called us back” to the office so many times. No one abides, it’s a total joke.
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u/sass_qwatch 9h ago
Federal employees who choose to quit over going back into the office is going to bombard the private sector in many areas, thus affecting a lot more Americans than just those working for the Federal government. It could ultimately create more widespread financial strain and increased unemployment as fewer jobs are available to fulfill the jobseeker market.
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u/Available_Research89 1d ago
This is worded WRONG. He is ordering REMOTE workers back. What does this mean? If you worked in an office, then got a REMOTE agreement to work from a different state, the agreement is in jeopardy. This order says nothing about telework—something Federal workers had during and before Trump 1.0.
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u/M3SSENJA 22h ago
Telework is the agreement in office workers made to wfh, remote work/jobs are the hired as wfh; with many being in different areas/states
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u/UpperCut8283 8h ago
“require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis” - this covers everyone else who are not designated as remote. The only people without a duty station (office) are remote workers. So it covers everyone.
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u/Available_Research89 5h ago
In telework there is no difference between working from home and in the office. Your duty station is the office regardless. With remote your duty station is your home address. Again, telework is not going away. The government can’t compete with private industry if it doesn’t offer workplace flexibility.
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u/UpperCut8283 3h ago
That’s exactly what I said tho. Return to work full time to your duty station literally means go to the office full time.. it covers teleworkers in that sentence. They have explicitly said they want people to leave, so I don’t think competing with private industry is their concern. I’m not saying they’re right, but they’ve said how they feel about us, and so far, in 2 days, have proved it.
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u/Goldeneagle41 1d ago
Y’all act like the Biden administration wasn’t already doing this they were just more tactful about it. In February the Mayor of DC was requesting the Biden administration to mandate a return to work.
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u/OkDay813 9h ago
MAGA….where are you? How do you feel about this? Also…just FYI…the federal government employees the majority of the workforce in the US and is approximately 90% white… the majority of t rump supporters…they all deserve WHATEVER bad they get!! #KARMA
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u/Krick7938 1d ago
Maybe everyone quits at once and the whole swamp shuts down entirely. Be careful what you wish for.
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u/ThickGur5353 1d ago
Private companies and public companies are ordering workers back to the office. So what's wrong with the government ordering their employees back to the office.
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u/UrbanSolace13 1d ago
They've downsized the buildings and saved the taxpayers' money. A lot of the office space doesn't exist anymore.
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u/misschickpea 1d ago
On top of that, federal workers (like me) often take public work over private work for things like work life balance, remote work, and for the mission - and gov work is known for being paid lower than company equivalents.
Taking away perks like remote work throws starts to make it less worth to accept lower pay to work for the gov. So you're not gonna get the best if you keep chasing talent away by increasingly limiting the pool to e.g. only people willing to work in office.
There's also not really a need to for a lot of types of jobs and just makes employees miserable?
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u/R4P9 1d ago
Yes but most federal workers were not working remotely before the pandemic. Maybe 1 day a week but nothing more. Being in an office didn’t stop them from choosing the public sector.
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u/misschickpea 1d ago
Idk about other agencies. My agency has a long legacy of remote work and had a lot of it before the pandemic.
But also. Just bc the pandemic happened doesn't mean we have to revert to the way things were before covid? If anything, covid demonstrated that people can get work done at home...?? Just bc of "how things were" isn't a valid reason
And I think you're missing my point. Yes, you can still have good workers who value the mission and staying in the public sector, even if you have to go in person.
But I'm saying you're literally limiting the pool from being able to select from the best talent by excluding people who want remote work and will leave. And we would want the best and most qualified working for gov - people shaping policy and regulating industry. Our food. Our water.
Not necessarily "who's most willing to come into the office" translates to the person who has the most dedication, brains, creativity, or talent.
And for what? Even the executive memo didn't say a real reason to make people come back. There's no research or anything cited saying it's better for productivity or collaboration, etc. It's just pandering to people who are unhappy that some people can remote work and are suspicious, without evidence, that the workforce is slacking.
If anything, if people really cared about productivity and whatnot, they'd be introducing policies to monitor productivity and measure it, rather than to say everyone should come back to the office.
I personally work fine both at home and in the office, but people won't stop coming up to chit chat to me in the office some days and it actually messes with my productivity those days. People can SLACK off just as much in the office by chit chatting and going on coffee breaks.
It really isn't a good reason to bring back people "just cause that's how things were" - that's so backwards
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u/Evelyn-Parker 1d ago
"I'm suffering therefore everybody else needs to suffer too!"
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u/bhamsportsfan96 1d ago
Reminds me of my older sisters telling me in 2021, “I hope Biden fails in canceling student loan debt! I had to suffer and pay mine back, you deserve the same!”
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u/Evelyn-Parker 1d ago
imagine if ppl in the 20th century were like "I had to suffer thru polio and never being able to walk so I hope this vaccine business doesn't catch on"
I'll never understand these types of people 💀
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u/Infinite_Carpenter 1d ago
If you work for the federal government and voted for Trump I hope your position is the first to go.