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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have adding further detail to their proposed changes to the federal workforce, including mandatory five-day, in-office schedules, and significant staff reductions.
The proposals are part of with their vision for a streamlined Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), set to lead cost-cutting initiatives when Donald Trump takes office in January.
In a typically blunt joint statement this week, Musk and Ramaswamy emphasized the need to end what they called “the COVID-era privilege of working from home” for federal employees, adding that returning to in-person work would naturally lead to headcount reductions.
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“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them,” the duo argued, continuing to position themselves as champions of workplace accountability and government cost efficiency.
Ramaswamy has suggested that enforcing a five-day, in-office policy could immediately trim federal staff by 25%. Musk, who spearheaded a similar return-to-office mandate after acquiring Twitter in late 2022, has long maintained that on-site work is essential for productivity and collaboration.
Their proposals come as private sector leaders like Amazon, Disney, and JPMorgan Chase also roll back remote and hybrid work arrangements, signalling a broader corporate attempt to move back to in-office work.
According to the Office of Management and Budget, as of May 2024, 79.4% of federal work hours - including roles unsuitable for remote work - were spent in person. For remote work eligible employees, the figure stood at 61.2%.
DOGE objectives
The DOGE initiative, as outlined by Musk and Ramaswamy, aims to reshape the federal workforce drastically. Their primary focus includes identifying the minimum staffing levels required for departments to perform “constitutionally permissible” functions and eliminating redundant personnel and regulations.
Musk has vowed to slash the federal budget by over $2trillion annually and reduce the number of agencies from more than 400 to 99.
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Critics warn that such drastic cuts could destabilize essential services, but proponents argue they are necessary to rein in federal spending and enhance efficiency. The pair has also expressed support for reinstating Schedule F, an executive order from Trump’s first term that allowed the reclassification of certain government employees as “at-will” workers, making them easier to terminate.
Likely outcome of DOGE plans
While the exact achievable scale of potential cuts remains unclear, Musk and Ramaswamy’s plans are based entirely on shrinking the federal government’s footprint. DOGE’s implementation could result in sweeping layoffs across multiple departments, aligning with broader goals of fiscal conservatism and workplace reform.
Whatever the extent, the US public sector is very much in the firing line and wholesale changes will create a mountain load of administrative and possibly legal issues for HR departments to deal with.
As the debate over federal workforce efficiency heats up, the proposed changes signal a seismic shift in how public sector work is managed, and could redefine the future of government employment.
