Federal employees in large numbers have been working from home since the Corona pandemic. Following President Donald Trump’s orders, federal employees have returned to their places of work. The head of the Government Efficiency Department and billionaire friend of the President, Elon Musk, warned employees on Monday via X that any employee unable to return to the offices that week would go on with administrative leave.
Some employees are exempted
New Administrator of EPA(Environmental Protection Agency), Lee Zeldin wrote on X, noting President Trump had terminated full-time work-from-home status. Zeldin explained that last year, on average, less than 9 percent of employees in headquarters reported for work on Mondays and Fridays. Other offices have limited capacity for all employees to sit. Hence, all employees’ return to work could take some time. Meanwhile, another consideration that left some employees off the hook is that the distance of 50 miles from the office will now exempt employees return to it and a little extra time.
Remote employees of the US Department of Health and Human Services were instructed to return to their offices even after being hired in remote capacities. The Pew Research Center estimated that, as of November last year, more than 3 million people were working for the federal government in the USA, accounting for about 1.9% of the total civilian workforce in the country.
Trump backs Musk
President Donald Trump sided with Musk in threatening to inform on federal employees for their recent achievements by Monday or else they would be fired. Trump sided with Musk in saying that if employees do not come back and tell him whether, indeed, they did their job, they would be fired by him. Trump mentioned that the Government Efficiency Department exposed fraud to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. An inquiry showed that even “ghost” employees were claiming federal salaries. Trump, however, did not provide any evidence to back this assertion.
