Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy propose DOGE to end work from home for federal employees

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Work-from-home benefits for federal employees were proposed Wednesday as part of efforts to reduce the size of the government.

Two entrepreneurs tapped last week by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the newly formed organization. Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE)proposed in Article published in Wall Street Journal that eliminating remote work will lead to mass resignations, which will help them achieve their goal of creating a smaller, more efficient government.

“Requiring federal employees to report to the office five days a week will lead to a wave of voluntary layoffs, which we welcome,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote.

“If federal workers don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay them for the privilege of staying home during Covid,” they added.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, approximately 1.1 million federal employees—nearly half of the government’s civilian workforce—are eligible to telework.

About 228,000 employees, or 10% of the civilian workforce, are working entirely remotely, “without the expectation that they (work) in person on any regular or periodic basis,” the agency noted in the report. August 2024 Report.

The report was released two years after President Biden delivered his Message on the state of the country in 2022, stated that “the vast majority of federal employees will return to work in person.”

Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, Tesla and X, and Ramaswamy, founder of the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences, argue that Trump has the power to “limit administrative sprawl” in several ways, including “massive layoffs,” moving “federal agencies out of Washington” and withdrawing from remote work.

The two men said DOGE plans to “work with agency designees to determine the minimum number of employees required” for the agency to “fulfill its constitutionally permissible and statutory functions.”

Musk and Ramaswamy noted that furloughed federal workers will be “treated with respect” and that “DOGE’s goal is to help support their transition to the private sector.”

“The President can use existing laws to provide incentives for early retirement and provide voluntary severance payments to facilitate a graceful exit,” they said.