The new U.S. president, Donald Trump, took office on January 20 and has since made his mark with key policy decisions. Among the various orders he has announced and signed is the directive for federal workers to end remote work.
“The heads of all executive branch departments and agencies must, as soon as possible, take all necessary steps to end telework arrangements and require employees to return to in-person work at their designated locations full-time, provided that department and agency heads make exemptions as they deem necessary,” Trump stated in a memorandum published in the local press.
In the fiscal year 2023, 43% of federal civilian workers teleworked “routinely or situationally,” according to the Status of Telework in the Federal Government Report to Congress from December, prepared by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
While Trump‘s directive may take longer than expected to fully implement due to practical or financial reasons, some companies have already begun taking the initiative.
For example, JP Morgan announced to its employees that they must return to the office five days a week starting in March, ending a hybrid work-from-home policy that was implemented during the pandemic.
Some office locations still lack the capacity to accommodate a full return of all employees, and the bank will confirm where it is feasible by the end of the month, according to a memo confirming a Bloomberg News report from mid-January.
“We know that some of you prefer a hybrid schedule, and we respectfully understand that not everyone will agree with this decision,” committee members said in the memo, as cited by AdvisorHub. However, the company argued that they believe “this is the best way to run the business.”
More than half of the bank’s nearly 300,000 employees already work in the office five days a week. For those affected by the new policy, JP Morgan said it would provide at least 30 days’ notice before requiring a full-time return. The option to work from home “based on life events” will remain available, according to the bank’s communication.
Last year, Amazon.com Inc. ordered its employees to return to the office five days a week starting in January, but the company had to delay that timeline for thousands of workers due to space constraints in some cities. Other companies have had to remind employees to comply with in-office requirements.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who were at the time nominated to lead Trump‘s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, pointed out that having a full-time return-to-office mandate was an invitation for many to resign.
“Requiring federal employees to be in the office five days a week would trigger a wave of voluntary departures that we welcome,” they wrote in The Wall Street Journal, as cited by CNN.
