United States Federal workers are scrambling to make sense of the flurry of decrees issued Monday evening by President Donald Trump, parsing through emails from interim agency heads and skimming reports of lawsuits filed by unions to try to understand whether they have to report to work in person, or if they will soon have a job at all.
The executive orders and memos strip employment protections from tens of thousands of federal workers, institute a hiring freeze, instruct agency leaders to send the White House a list of employees under probation, and give all federal agencies 60 days to shutter offices and positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
An executive action appears to ban remote work — when an employee’s official workplace is at their home or rented space far from an agency headquarters or regional office — with some exemptions.
The return-to-office executive order mystified employees and their supervisors, who are trying to parse whether it also affects telework, which is when employees who are based in an office work from home. On Monday night, Google searches for “federal workers return to office” spiked by more than 600 percent — with the most interest in the D.C. region, where 15 percent of federal workers are based.
One longtime federal worker who has a disability accommodation that allows her to work from home said she had no idea if the in-office requirement applies to her. She cited a letter from top agency leaders that said they would consider “exemptions when deemed necessary.”
“I’m assuming that hopefully means me,” she said.
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The orders were the first indication that Trump and his administration intend to make good on campaign promises to overhaul the 2.3-million-person federal workforce, which the president has painted as indolent and bloated.
Trump’s budget chief nominee, hard-charging conservative Russell Vought, is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Senate Budget Committee. Vought, who also led the White House Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first administration, wrote a chapter of Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for a second Trump term, arguing that the next president more aggressively wield his power.
The White House, meanwhile, said in one order that the changes are necessary because of “numerous and well-documented cases of career federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership.”
For some, the orders are triggering panic and fear, as federal workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern of professional retaliation from the Trump administration, see their careers and local economies on the chopping block.