US civil servants are plotting to sabotage Donald Trump’s ban on working from home by “relaxing” during office hours and taking more time off.
Disgruntled federal workers are publicly discussing plans to work less and “relax” more in response to the president’s “fascist” demand that they return to the office.
One of Mr Trump’s first actions after being sworn in last week was to order heads of government departments to “terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations”.
“[Funnily] enough, it’ll be the opposite of ‘return to work’ because I’ll just be using more leave,” one civil servant wrote on a Reddit forum popular with federal workers.
Another said the “return to work” policy should be renamed “return to distraction”, vowing: “My productivity will be going down as people want to talk or have nice long conversations around me in our open office environment.”
A third individual, who appeared to work in public health, labelled the move “return of fascism” and said: “It’s straight BS… I’ll be doing much less, if anything.”
“Sick leave will become more now because if we have a [doctor’s appointment] we can roll back to home easily,” one unnamed worker claimed, adding: “If I have to go downtown, I either need to find parking or find a transit centre to ride the bus or rail in. All that takes time.”
“I will never volunteer another second of my day to answer a text or email or Teams message that would normally take seconds,” said another civil servant, calling Mr Trump’s end to remote working a “slap in the face”.
Other federal workers suggested that they would be able to get around the ban by claiming they could not work in an office because they suffered from anxiety.
Users on TikTok, which Mr Trump gave a stay of execution last week by delaying a congressional ban, went viral with their complaints about being ordered back into work.
Genesis Cuesta, who works at a federal probation agency, railed against Donald Trump’s plans on TikTok – TikTok
Genesis Cuesta, who works at a federal probation agency, criticised the “Cheetos”-coloured president and said the edict made her “so mad”.
“Five o’clock on a Friday, got our notice, effective Mar 10, we’re back in the office five days a week – no telework, and that’s the most f—–d thing,” she said in a video which has since been deleted.
However, the end to remote working was welcomed by Muriel Bowser, Washington DC’s mayor, a long-time Trump critic. Ms Bowser said the return to office working will revitalise the city’s downtown area.
Some federal workers in Washington DC have vowed to boycott local businesses and public transport if they are “forced back to their respective offices”.
Mass resignations
Unions have claimed that the end to remote working will prompt mass resignations from the federal government – something that members of the Trump administration have publicly encouraged.
Elon Musk, the government’s efficiency tsar, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last year: “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome.
“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.”
There are still questions to be answered about how Mr Trump will be able to implement his working from home directive when government agencies, under the Biden administration, signed multi-year contracts guaranteeing remote work.
A day after Mr Trump’s election victory last year, the Social Security Administration signed a deal that extended remote work until 2029.
The president has previously pledged to scrap the agreement: a move that would almost certainly prompt a clash with federal workers’ unions and a legal battle.
It comes amid reports that Mr Trump will offer a payout to all federal workers who do not want to return to the office, as long as they resign by Feb 6.
The White House was due to send out an email on Tuesday inviting government employees who insist on remote working to accept a “deferred resignation” package equating to roughly eight months’ pay and benefits, according to Axios.
The Trump administration is said to expect between 5 and 10 per cent of workers to accept the offer, leading to hundreds of thousands of resignations that could save taxpayers up to $100 billion a year.
Karoline Leavitt, the new White House press secretary, said in her first official briefing on Tuesday that taxpayers deserve federal employees “who actually show up to work”.
She said: “If they don’t want to work in the office and contribute to making America great again, then they are free to choose a different line of work, and the Trump administration will provide a very generous payout of eight months.”
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