Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s plan to end telework in the federal government will likely backfire as a new report by a government watchdog found telework helps recruit and retain employees who provide crucial services to the American people.
While the number of U.S population has soared, the size of the federal workforce is about the same 50 years ago. So the workloads have gone up while the number of people doing the work has not, causing delays in services the American people deserve and are entitled too.
The problem is about to get a lot worse as the incoming Trump administration has plans to end telework as a way to reduce the number of people serving the American people. Musk and Ramaswamy, who have been tasked by Trump to lead the newly created department of government efficiency, wrongly stated that most federal workers don’t show up for work.
According to a telework report released in August by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), more than half, or 54%, of federal workers work fully in person as their jobs require them to be at the worksite, such as Transportation Security Officers (TSOs), correctional officers, and food inspectors.
Employees who telework as their jobs can be done remotely still work. They, for example, field phone calls from customers or process benefits claims for veterans. In fact, telework eligible employees spend more than 60% of their time working in the physical offices. But being able to work from home allows them work-and-life balance that benefits mental and physical health. When employees are healthy and happy, they can focus on their work, which reflects in the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that telework indeed helps increase employee engagement.
The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), for example, told the GAO that telework likely helped retain and improve morale of employees who process claims for veterans.
“VBA officials said they also observed increased interest from job seekers looking for positions that offer more telework. However, VBA officials at multiple locations told us they are increasingly competing for talent with other federal agencies and non-governmental organizations that offer greater telework and remote work options,” the GAO said. “Our analysis of AES data found that in 2023, more employees intended to leave VBA for work-life balance reasons, including greater telework flexibility (around 5 percent of total respondents) than in 2019 (around 3 percent).”
The same is true for other agencies GAO reviewed.
The Farm Service Agency (FSA), which supports farmers and farming communities with programs like disaster relief, loans, and commodity price guarantee, has had difficulties hiring people post-Covid.
“FSA officials at state and county offices told us the agency’s relative lack of telework use following reentry compared to the private sector or other federal agencies likely posed a challenge to recruitment, hiring and retention,” the GAO said. “FSA officials at one county office said that they have had applicants take themselves out of consideration after learning that the position required them to be in the office most of the time.”
At the IRS, telework helped with both hiring and retention.
“IRS officials stated that they have observed that telework availability is a key consideration for applicants, and an important tool in helping the agency hire over 5,000 new CSRs in fiscal year 2023. Specifically, the officials stated that offering telework expanded the potential talent pool to people who lived further away from agency locations,” the GAO said. “The increased use of telework at IRS coincided with improved employee engagement, the sense of purpose and commitment employees feel towards their employer and its mission.”
As a result of the increased use of telework, the agency’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey show that its employment engagement went up from 68.6% percent in 2019 to 72.9% in 2023. The number of employees who were satisfied with their job went up too – from 67.6% in 2019 to 68.5% in 2023.
At the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), telework-eligible positions attracted more applicants between 2019 and 2023. Teleworkers also scored higher on performance.
“An agency analysis of its 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey data “found that frequent teleworkers scored higher on performance dimensions of accountability and customer responsiveness than employees who teleworked less frequently or not at all,” said the GAO.
It’s important to recognize that when agencies don’t have to keep hiring new people as a result of attrition, they save time and money spent on hiring and training new people. This certainly helps agencies provide better services to the American people.
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