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(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump puts an end to telecommuting for federal employees, with one of his first executive orders the federal workforce back to the office full time.
Half of the federal workforce has been allowed to work remotely. It’s part of a larger culture shift that occurred during the pandemic, and for many workers, the desire to remain aloof has taken hold.
But it has left large federal facilities like the Department of Energy empty, with less than 1% of office space being used, according to the Public Buildings Reform Board.
Beyond to bring workers back to the empty desksTrump says he wants to sell unused federal buildings.
Research shows there are nearly 8,000 vacant buildings costing taxpayers about $8 billion to maintain. That’s on top of another $7.7 billion spent on energy bills to keep them running.
A 2023 Government Accountability Office report said 17% of the 24 federal agencies use as little as 9% of federal buildings and only as much as 49% of their buildings’ capacity.
Several unions have pushed back, including one that represents 800,000 federal workers.
“President Trump’s order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons,” said American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley. “It will take hundreds of thousands of federal jobs away from the nonpartisan government and make them accountable to the will of one man.”
While some employees are fine with going back to the office, others are facing great upheavalto have arranged responsibilities such as childcare around a job from home.
