Business Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy suggest DOGE will end work-from-home for federal employees - part of their effort to trim the size of government.

Article (Archive)

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday floated ending work-from-home privileges for federal employees as part of their effort to trim the size of government.

The two entrepreneurs, tasked by President-elect Donald Trump last week to lead the newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), suggested in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that eliminating remote work would result in mass resignations that would help them achieve their goal of a smaller, more efficient, government.

“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote.

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

Roughly 1.1 million federal employees – nearly half of the government’s civilian workforce – are eligible for telework, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

About 228,000 employees, or 10% of civilian personnel, work fully remote with “no expectation that they [work] in-person on any regular or recurring basis,” the agency noted in an August 2024 report.

The report was released two years after President Biden, in his 2022 State of the Union address, declared that “The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.”

Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, Tesla and X, and Ramaswamy, the founder of pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences, argue that Trump has the authority to “curtail administrative overgrowth” through several means, including “large-scale firings,”relocating “federal agencies out of the Washington area” and scrapping remote work.

The two men revealed that DOGE plans “to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required” for the agency to “perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions.”

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

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

 

[Nonga Tork]

He said he saw it firsthand, so that's the "actual data" unless you think he's a liar.

Him thinking more got done does not mean more actually got done.

 

[Here to Gawk]

I can't wait to read the Reddit meltdowns that this will produce.

 

[Nonga Tork]

Retards like you were brainwashed during COVID that you don’t need human contact and that somehow working in a building is less effective. Fuck off, if you have a bugman job at least do it outside your bughive cramped apartment.

I prefer interacting with people I actually want to hang out with instead of pretending I think coworker's shitty jokes are funny, struggling to not roll my eyes at DEI nonsense spouted off by HR, or being forced to make awkward small talk with people I don't like instead of actually doing my job and getting work done.

 

[Cool Dog Returns]

I heard Musk asked Milei to speak with Sturzenegger which is the guy in charge of doing the same here in Argentina, and afaik he has ended remote work for gov parasites here too because as it turns out there were a lot of ñoquis, which means employees who do jack shit but cash a check from the guvmint

Bet a lot of niggers over there are doing the same, if you want to work from home to fap to futa hentai all day then do it on the private sector, not with my taxes

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

A family member was talking today that my cousin sometimes has to "travel for work".

What she actually meant as a I found out was that my cousin disappears occasionally and needs childcare because she somehow snagged a semi-remote job in a city four hours away. And occasionally has to show up.

 

[Cyberpunk Panatela]

Elon Musk is touting some shit called Doge?

WOW. MUCH SAVINGS. VERY OFFICE WORK.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

I knew of at least one federal worker who did very little work at home, pre-COVID. Like a short bullshit virtual meeting per week, and going in to the office 1-2 times. Maybe "work from home" wasn't the main culprit, and the agency was just run and staffed by slackers with low expectations. IIRC it was a USCIS office.

Snitching could be helpful for DOGE, but I expect there are innumerable little fiefdoms of incompetence, way too many to root out within 1.5 years. Eliminating work from home could be a quick fix, but probably won't address the underlying uselessness. It will lead to some immediate voluntary terminations, but being paid to goof off on your PC or smartphone in an air-conditioned office is still desirable.

 

[Haramburger]

which has been shown to either have no effect or actively decrease productivity. AKA the literal opposite of efficiency.

When I'm working from home, or have worked from home, I actually just play videos games or shitpost. I'd say I'm more productive in the office, but much like the word "nigger" I'd prefer not to say that to my employers.

 

[DickMain]

It will succeed in getting the people who are actually good at their job and so can get hired elsewhere to leave, while people who suck and can't get a job elsewhere will stay. Congratulations, what an accomplishment.

Which department do you work in by the way? Do you think they'll offer a decent severance package?

 

[Daily Happenings]

It will succeed in getting the people who are actually good at their job and so can get hired elsewhere to leave, while people who suck and can't get a job elsewhere will stay. Congratulations, what an accomplishment.

We get it bro, you're a federal bureaucrat. The exact point of this is to piss off people like you and hope just quit.

The problem is DOGE vastly underestimates how motivated the "workers" will be to hold onto their sinecures.

 

[Nero Fiddled]

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

My experience of the public sector workforce is that they are generally elevated above their abilities and do not thrive in the private sector where results are scrutinised over rhetoric.

 

[Fastest Hand In The East]

Retards like you were brainwashed during COVID that you don’t need human contact and that somehow working in a building is less effective. Fuck off, if you have a bugman job at least do it outside your bughive cramped apartment.

Imagine being so braindead you enjoy and crave the company of your coworkers. You need help.

 

[Karen of Human Resources]

I mean, from a retaining talent standpoint it's pretty dumb.

For cutting down workforce it is a good idea so okay.

 

[Standardized Profile]

That'll make recruiting and retention harder, make employees less productive, and increase ... what do you call it, capital costs? Buildings, parking lots, utilities, maintenance and cleaning, cafeteria contracts, MTBP costs, stuff like that. There will be a lot more parties (every birthday and holiday must be celebrated), a lot more admin leave for ethnic and gender-based resource groups, and a lot more time lost to socializing. I swear to God, anyone who thinks Federal employees are more efficient in an office has never actually been in a government office.

 

[False Emprah]

The whole 'get back to the office' spiel is a psyop by (((those))) who own commercial real estate and are shitting themselves at the thought of losing all that precious rent money.

 

[Heavy Metal Kiki]

Twitter's revenue has decline by almost 50% since Musk took over, so that's hardly a good model on how to run an organization.

If I recall correct, Twitter had only been profitable two years out of its entire public existence. Musk has only owned it two years. Not every thing has to be profitable.

I've found that the government hires a lot of older people. Weather can get dicey up here, causing a lot of car accidents on the way to government facilities for work. Allowing people to work at home as an option would save time and money for those who were already productive. At least on days that are predicted to have poor weather.

One of my relatives benefits greatly from a hybrid work-from-home gig for the government. They have to stay home often due to a surgeon's screw up giving them chronic nerve pain. Ever since COVID, being able to work from home was a game-changer for them. Their productivity went up immensely and the government has benefited as well. So to do away with work-from-home for federal positions might shoot them in the foot.

 

[Cybertonia]

Twitter's revenue has decline by almost 50% since Musk took over, so that's hardly a good model on how to run an organization.

And Bezos loses money every year on subsidizing the WP too. Making money isn't the point.

 

[David Brown]

If you work in an office you don't do a real job any way so they might as well shutter the departments entirely.

 

[Kankichi Ryotsu]

That's right goy, you WILL waste time at the office and you WILL be happy

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

Hate how close we were to a paradigm shift on making wfh a thing but never got it.

If productivity was staying the same with people at home but that makes them lazy then maybe we need to analyze how dumb the 40 hour work week is (plus commute and off clock gotta answer my messages) rather then trying to enforce office culture. The everyone must be in the office is only to appease those who need to feel big dick seeing cucibles filled and the cat ladies who only have friends at the office. The rest of us have better things to do that we lose by being in the office all day.

Can't wait to be told how I'm using up my allocated amount of carbon credits because of my commute and that I just need to move into the city pod and eat the slop because downtown tax revenue is more important then having a better work home life balance.