Federal workers ordered to return to work may find no office space exists

At the height of the pandemic, many organizations eliminated business space by moving employees to remote or hybrid jobs. Some people were hired as fully remote workers, but they never were told to do in-person function, and they never received any instructions on where to work.

One national staff who works for an agency under the Department of Health and Human Services and has been working remotely since the pandemic after the local company was shut down in 2020, claimed,” For all I know, I may be working from a string vessel on the Anacostia River.”

” We had a meeting through]Microsoft ] Teams, and nothing was written. There hasn’t been any information about where precisely we are supposed to go, the employee said, despite the fact that the employee was being given the opportunity to speak freely and that it was kind of colloquial. It only stated that managers were required to travel on February 24 and that staff within a 50-mile radius were required to travel on March 17.

According to Trump’s executive order from the day of his opening,” Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of government shall, as soon as possible, take all necessary steps to cancel remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective work stations on a full-time base, provided that the office and company heads may make exemptions as they deem necessary.”

The White House’s Office of Personnel Management letter more explained the order, which directed authorities to cooperate within about 30 times.

Lingering shipping concerns remain over back-to-work get

Some of HHS’s more than 80, 000 people, several of whom spoke with the Washington Examiner on the condition of secrecy, are trying to figure out the back-to-work purchase.

No one on his staff knows what the future may hold, according to a National Institutes of Health worker who lives in Washington, D.C.

” I guess I would have to travel on campus, but they destroyed the business area that my group used to work in, so we really don’t know. Our boss said they really don’t know what’s going to happen”, the man said. &nbsp,

A separate staff at the Food and Drug Administration claimed he is a cross employee and that he visits the company’s Silver Spring, Maryland, office once a week to inquire whether there will be enough room to accommodate all of the people back at the office.

” There’s no adequate park to bring people up at once. There’s no sufficient parking and the office locations are cramped. There’s just no way this is possible”, the people said.

Potential problems at the White Oak school in Maryland, about 40 hours northeast of Washington, D. C., have been noted for decades. A 2018 report for the combination of the office noted the company needed “7, 436 more park places”, which amounts to one park space for every 1.8 employees. &nbsp,

The report specifically states” the lack of direct access to high-capacity transit, such as Metrorail, presents a challenge for FDA. FDA must employ a variety of strategies that go above and beyond teleworking, shuttles, and carpools/vanpools”.

Another FDA employee who also visits once a week described a terrible commuting situation where he is forced to take the metro and a shuttle to the headquarters. &nbsp,

” It’s probably two to three hours. Some days it’s probably closer to two hours if I make all my connections perfectly, if I don’t, it could be three hours or more per day”, the person said. It saps my energy during the day and makes me less able to concentrate at work or have a life outside of it, according to the article.

The government accountability office discovered that the campus was not up to par, and the agency’s plans to address cramped offices and parking spaces need more detail before being implemented, according to a report from the government accountability office in 2016.

Other federal agencies appear to be embracing the anxiety and uncertainty. Tucker Bingham, who works for the National Labor Relations Board, says they received the return to office directive, but it hasn’t been implemented yet.

At a rally earlier this week by the American Federation of Government Employees outside the Capitol, Bingham said,” We’re just anxiously watching what comes down the pipeline.” Because telework has been around for a long time, there would no longer be enough desks for everyone to sit at if they returned to the office tomorrow.

The cramped worries may be temporary because the return to work order comes at the same time as a significant effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce, the largest employer in the country. Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency, have prioritized reducing government waste, which has resulted in the elimination of numerous positions through resignations and looming layoffs by September 30 to the end of the fiscal year.

Concerns still exist about whether the buildings are operational or even fit for those ordered to immediately return to the office. The problems extend beyond the Washington, D. C., Maryland, and Virginia region which has the highest concentration of federal workers.

The 41-story Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City is the tallest federal office building in the country. But it also has an asbestos problem, with a 2024 government report calling for “immediate management attention” to protect occupants “from possible health and safety risks arising from asbestos-containing materials”.

Due to ongoing asbestos abatement in some of the skyscraper’s parts, some federal employees can’t safely return to work in Manhattan.

Federal buildings chief eyes 50 % space reduction

The General Services Administration’s announcement of the in-office order coincides with the General Services Administration’s plans to significantly reduce the federal government’s real estate footprint, which could increase the issue even more. In a recent meeting of the Public Buildings Reform Board, Michael Peters, the commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, stated that the administration is looking to “downsize the portfolio” by as much as 50 % in the area.

When asked specifically how organizations would respond to requests to accommodate all of their employees coming back to work in person, Peters acknowledged there is a “potential problem.”

” That’s the$ 64, 000 question these days, right? It’s about how many people will return and when will they do so. Therefore, a thorough analysis is being conducted to identify where there are shortcomings and determine how to address them, not just here in the district but actually across the country,” said Peters. We don’t have a strong piece of advice at this point, but we do acknowledge that there might be a problem.”

Officials at the GSA did not specifically respond to a request for comment on how organizations will handle returning employees to the office, but they claimed the organization is “leading the way to reduce government spending]ing ] and close the deficit in service of the American taxpayer.”

In a statement released to the Washington Examiner, the agency stated that “maximizing GSA’s real estate portfolio prioritizes reducing our deferred maintenance liabilities, supporting the return to office of federal employees, and taking advantage of a stronger private/government partnership in managing the workforce of the future.”

Conflicting information exists within the Federal government regarding the state of telework.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA ), chairwoman of the Senate DOGE Caucus, released a report last December stating that only 6 % of federal workers were in the office full-time. Not a single federal agency headquarters was found to be half-full, with an average occupancy of just 12 %, according to the report,” Out of Office: Bureaucrats on the Beach and in Bubble Baths but not in Office Buildings.” Additionally, according to the report, 23 % to 68 % of teleworkers received “incorrect locality pay,” with some working more than 2, 000 miles away from their jobs.

According to Ernst,” Federal buildings have resembled a ghost town for the past four years” in a statement released to the Washington Examiner. ” A crowded government office building is more likely to be spotted by the Loch Ness Monster or Sasquatch.”

” Thankfully, President Trump has ordered the out-of-office bureaucrats back to work. I will personally come down and assist any federal employee who is having trouble finding a desk,” she continued.

Some of Ernst’s statistics contradict a 2024 OMB report that has since been removed from the OMB website that found 54 % of the federal government’s 2.28 million employees work fully on-site. A separate memo from the Office of Personnel Management issued in December 2024 found in fiscal 2023, 43 % of all federal employees participated in “routine or situational” telework, down from 46 % the year prior. &nbsp,

This participation rate ( 43 % ) is the lowest percentage since the beginning of the year, which helps us understand how agencies are going about telework utilization.

Telework, according to the report, saved money for businesses:

” As in previous years, transit and commuting costs are top categories associated with telework-driven cost savings. However, agencies are also reporting significant increases in cost savings in human capital ( recruitment, retention, reduced turnover etc. ) and rent office space as a result of increased telework.

A federal judge upheld Trump‘s deferred resignation offer on Wednesday, giving federal employees the option to resign from their positions with full benefits and pay until September. This is in response to the demand to return to the office five days a week. &nbsp,

Less than 4 % of the more than 2 million federal employees currently employed took the resignation offer, which is roughly 75, 000 of the total. The Trump administration is now directing organizations to begin firing probationary employees with the least experience, far short of the 5%-10 % estimate White House officials were anticipating.

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Some federal workers are making the case that the looming purge at agencies, in addition to the in-office work requirements, won’t increase productivity or cut back on costs.

” I have no idea how they’re gonna reduce our workforce, when, in fact, our department isn’t even fully staffed”, said the employee who works at an agency under HHS. Their cost cutting will ultimately cost more.

Marisa Schultz contributed to this article.