Federal Workers Who’ve Been Working From Home Returning to Offices This Week

Trump’s senior adviser Elon Musk warned that those who do not return could be placed on administrative leave.

Federal employees who have been working from home are returning to offices this week, according to Trump administration senior adviser Elon Musk and several agency heads.

Musk warned on social media on Monday that federal workers who have not returned to the office could be placed on administrative leave starting this week, more than a month after the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a roughly 30-day deadline.

Last month, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing department and agency heads to take steps to end work-from-home and remote work arrangements, mandating that federal employees return to in-person office work.

A directive sent on Jan. 22 by the OPM said workers must comply within “approximately 30 days” of the presidential memo’s issuance but did not specify an exact date. The Epoch Times contacted the OPM for comment on Monday to clarify the date of the deadline for remote workers to return to the office but received no response by publication time.

Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), appeared to refer to that effort on Monday in a social media post on X.

“Those who ignored President Trump’s [memorandum] to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Musk wrote in the post. “Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”

The Tesla founder was replying to a comment from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who wrote: “Not a single government agency is occupying even HALF of their office space. Their checks come from WE THE PEOPLE.”

Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also wrote on X on Monday, “Full time, COVID-era remote work is DONE under @POTUS leadership.”

On Feb. 21, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler wrote on X that on “Friday afternoon, you could hear a pin drop at SBA HQ.”

“That ends Monday as @POTUS orders every federal employee back to the office, full-time and in-person. It’s time for the government to get back to work,” she wrote.

Days after signing the memorandum, Trump delivered remarks to reporters in the White House saying that federal workers should return to the office “or be terminated” from their employment.

“We think a very substantial number of people will not show up to work, and therefore our government will get smaller and more efficient,” Trump said. “And that’s what we’ve been looking to do for many, many decades, frankly.”

Last month, the OPM started sending emails to federal employees offering them a buyout if they didn’t intend to return to the office for in-person work.

Trump had wanted to use financial incentives to encourage government employees to quit. According to a White House official, about 75,000 federal workers had taken the government up on its offer as of the deadline in mid-February.

In his remarks earlier this month, Trump criticized federal workers who want to keep working remotely.

“Nobody is gonna work from home,” Trump said while talking with reporters in the Oval Office on Feb. 10. “They are going to be going out, they’re going to play tennis, they’re going to play golf, they’re going to do a lot of things. They’re not working.”

Under the buyout, or deferred resignation, program, those employees can stop working and get paid until Sept. 30.

The administration’s mandate creates some carveouts for workers who have a “disability, qualifying medical condition, or other compelling reason certified by the agency head.”

Over the past weekend, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he wants to see Musk become “more aggressive” in his efforts related to the downsizing of the federal government. Hours later, a mass email was sent to federal employees asking them to list their work accomplishments from the past week, drawing criticism from some unions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.