For some federal employees, returning to the office meant an increased obligation to clean toilets and take away the trash. For others, they commute to federal government buildings just to continue their work through video conferencing.
Some appeared in the office just to be sent home. Others appeared early and had nowhere to sit. Some employees with the Federal Aviation Administration have returned to the office where lead was detected in the water. And freezing meant that toilet paper was lacking in some buildings.
Federal workers have been returning to their offices in stages ever since President Trump issued an order to do so shortly after he was sworn in. He explained that he believes there is an additional benefit of allowing more government employees to resign as a way to ensure workers are actually at work.
“We think so many people won't show up at work, so government will be smaller and more efficient,” Trump said.
Interviews with dozens of federal workers say the process has led to a lack of planning and coordination by the administration, disruption, a plunge in morale, and more inefficiency, leading to speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of it being undermined.
They described the basic supply logistics, cramped conditions and shortages associated with such a dull policy change for nearly a million employees who worked hybrid or completely remotely when Trump returned to his oval office. At the beginning of the year, the private federal workforce was estimated at around 2.3 million, according to the Human Resources Administration.
On March 17, when Food and Drug Administration employees returned to their offices at the White Oak campus, an agency outside Washington, there was little parking space and meandered around the block with people waiting for security.
Soon the bathroom was running out of toilet paper and paper towels. The cafeteria had not stored enough food and there was not enough office supplies. And that was just part of the problem.
Scientists from institutions hired in remote positions must share office spaces and generate ethical and practical concerns while working on sensitive and unique projects.
At Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, employees were told to fit limited parking on the two agency campuses. “Driving to Corporate Square and sitting in the overflow space of 11 buildings,” read the sign posted on the agency's intranet. “Be prepared to work with your laptop and Wi-Fi.”
On one campus, it can take 90 minutes to depart because the parking lot is so full and choke points are on each turn. One employee said it could be difficult to retreat from the space.
The CDC campus is crowded, as it is not designed to allow all employees to work in the office. Over the past decade, there has been a long-term plan to reduce the number of leased properties used by agents, and increased remote work has been required. But the Trump administration has banned that option.
The Internal Revenue Service was facing similar problems.
Jeff Eppler, a retired manager at the Internal Revenue Service, said some of the employees who work directly with Americans on their tax returns appeared in the office on the first day they were due to return home on March 10, and some of the employees sent home were competing.
“So instead of working that day, they spend their time wandering around in the office and eventually being sent back home and doing the work they would have done all day,” he said.
In some cases, the IRS manager would contact the employee the weekend before the return date and tell them to continue working remotely. One IRS employee explained that he must choose to report to an office that knows there is not enough space or that he knows he is continuing to work from home in violation of agency rules.
Another IRS employee explained that he was working while sitting on the floor on part of his first day back to the office as the cubicles he had booked had become unavailable.
A doctor at the Veterans Affairs Bureau said he was dominated by organizing his seating charts, setting opening hours and finding equipment for himself and his colleagues after working remotely for the past two years.
The Biden administration aimed to get employees back in half the offices each week. However, the Trump administration has called for all civilian employees to return to the office full time, including those employed in remote locations.
Some agencies have given workers weeks of notice about when they need to report to their offices. Others received their heads up a few days ago.
One Forest Service employee said he was hired remotely without a specific physical office. In fact, when she was hired, government documents stated that her “place of mission” was the address of her home.
In some cases, forest department employees were told to look for federal buildings within 50 miles of where they lived. It didn't have to be a building leased by the parent agency, the Department of Agriculture.
As a result, she and some colleagues have reported to the office where there are available desks. They continue to hold virtual meetings, as they did while working from home. In some locations, wireless signals are very weak so that employees are either not receiving messages or can log on to video conferences.
Federal employees in some locations must take part in cleaning operations as contracts have been reduced by administration attempts to impose a cut and freeze on spending. Some people say they clean the toilets instead of doing the jobs they hired. This will reduce productivity, Forest Service workers said.
Returning to office requirements ignores union contracts that include remote work.
As of May 2024, more than half of all private employees were already working in federal offices, according to data from the Office of Management and Budget.
Neither the White House nor the Office of Management and Budget answered questions about how many workers there were in the office full-time. And only five of the more than 12 agents contacted by the New York Times provided updates.
The Treasury said as of late March, 85% of agency employees had returned to the office. Many workers have also returned to small business managers, a source there said. An Environmental Protection Agency official said 68% of Washington-based employees returned to the office full-time. The approximately 10,000 employees with veteran issues have returned to in-person work since January 20th, with more coming back in the coming weeks, the spokesman said. And 120,000 private employees from the Department of Defense have resumed in-person work since January 20th.
In-person work duties are just a small part of the larger ones. and a devastating overhaul of the federal workforce driven by tech billionaire Elon Musk. This includes bulk shooting, rehearsals, court-mandated reinstatement, and spending freezes.
Despite the name of the group led by Musk, federal employees say there is little efficient in how the Trump administration is being cut. It led to major schedule changes involving duties from the office, encouraging federal workers to take their lives to be forced to leave them or rehire them.
Many said it as workers are worried that they will be fired and unable to support their families.
Federal employees are fighting logistical challenges regarding everyday changes, including school drop-offs and pick-ups, and are looking to participate in pre-care and aftercare programs in the mid-mid-term school, but they also recognize that they may be in the next relaxed group of federal employees.
For some departments, the agency's leadership said employees must return to their Washington area offices by May 5th. For some, that means deciding to pick up and move, without even knowing whether it will become part of the next layoff.
Andrew Duren, Christina Jewellett and Apoorva Mandavilli Reports of contributions.
