Musk's Government Performance Board will end remote work for 2.3 million officials, creating a "tsunami" that encourages many to resign.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to cut the bloated government bureaucracy that he deems inefficient and has appointed two billionaires to lead the Government Performance Board (DOGE) to take on this task.
Billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the two leaders of DOGE, have announced that their first target in the effort to streamline the government bureaucracy is officials currently working remotely.
"If officials do not want to work in person, American taxpayers should not pay their salaries to continue enjoying the privilege of working remotely like during COVID-19," the two billionaires emphasized in an article published in the WSJ on November 20.
Ending remote work for officials is seen as one of the first policy decisions that Trump will announce after taking office on January 20, 2025, according to informed sources.
Musk believes that requiring U.S. officials to return to a 5-day workweek in the office will create a "tsunami," prompting many federal employees to voluntarily resign, helping the U.S. government streamline without having to make mass layoff decisions.
In an interview with the WSJ last week, Ramaswamy argued that U.S. officials should worry about their jobs once DOGE becomes operational. "We will proceed in the most reasonable way possible at the individual level. But to streamline the bureaucracy, the plan will clearly have some consequences," he said.
Mr. Ramaswamy estimated in a post on X that about 25% of officials in the U.S. government would resign if DOGE implemented regulations requiring full-time in-person work.
Although some companies like Amazon and Dell recently required employees to return to the office full time, most American companies are flexible in allowing employees to work remotely, according to data tracking over 6,300 companies from Flex Index.
Billionaire Elon Musk's business empire is seen as an exception, as he has completely eliminated remote work at Tesla, SpaceX, and X after the pandemic, describing this way of working as an "ethical mistake."
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser supports the idea of forcing officials to report to the office fully. She has urged President Joe Biden to issue a clear directive requiring federal officials to work in person full time. She mentioned last week that she had requested a meeting with President-elect Trump to discuss this issue.
"Ensuring the federal workforce returns to work is very important," Bowser said.
However, requiring in-person work 5 days a week at the office will cause disruption at some federal agencies, according to observers. Some officials allowed to work remotely shared that Musk's proposal would disrupt their lives and are uncertain if it can help the government save budget as expected.
"I can't give up my job. I will have to return to Washington even if it means living away from my family," a Congressional Library employee living in the Midwest said.
An official who has worked for more than 10 years in the U.S. government said it would take 2-3 hours each day to commute to the nearest office if they had to return to working in person full time.
"The tension will reach a breaking point. I will resign and quit if I have to work in person full time. I will take this as a sign to start a new chapter in my life," this person said.
Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, opposes DOGE's idea. He argues that maintaining remote work is also a way to be prepared in case of disasters. He noted that one of the largest efforts to promote remote work for federal officials was implemented after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"All they want to do is cut the federal workforce and see ending remote work as a way to pressure everyone to voluntarily resign. They don't realize how harmful that could be to the country," Erwin said.
Ending remote work is not the only thing DOGE is expected to implement in the near future. Informed sources say the committee plans to issue several executive orders aimed at cutting government spending.
Billionaire Musk once said at Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden last October that he could help cut at least $2 trillion from the U.S. federal budget.
Sources added that Musk and Ramaswamy are identifying all the areas where they can cut in the federal government, while entrepreneur Ramaswamy will also be responsible for providing legal arguments for the proposed cuts.
DOGE is said to "provide recommendations and guidance from outside the government" on efforts to streamline the system, cut regulations, reduce spending, and restructure federal agencies. Trump expects this mission to be completed by July 4, 2026, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Despite facing backlash from some federal officials, establishing the Government Performance Board is a welcome and necessary idea, according to Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute and a lawyer in Washington.
"A more efficient government has long been a bipartisan priority. DOGE is one of the most aggressive plans to accelerate the government's machinery," Thayer said.
(According to CNN, WSJ, Newsweek)
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