The Number of Federal Workers Still Working From Home Is Outrageous

If someone asked you what percentage of the federal workforce still works mostly from home, what number would you guess?

Maybe 20%? Maybe even 50% since a lot of office jobs can be done at a computer anywhere.

Well, you’d be wrong on both accounts and probably just about any other guess. The real answer is a staggering 94% of federal employees are still working at least part of the time from home leaving only 6% that show up at the office five days a week. On the flip side, we’re still paying to maintain and heat buildings all over the country that remain mostly empty. The level of government waste is so much more than even seems fathomable.

Inquiring minds are very interested to know how USDA inspectors manage to protect America’s food supply while **checks notes** working in their bathrobes:

94% of feds are still working from home–the EPA had poisonous water *in its own headquarters* because it was sitting in the pipes stagnant from disuse.

USDA inspectors claim they inspect food facilities for safety issues *from home*.

"As if it's March 2020," @SenJoniErnst said

— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) December 5, 2024

What does this all mean in practical terms? Well, for starters, coming in the new Trump administration will be an edict from the top that all federal employees are to return to the office five days a week. The result will mean some workers simply decide to quit and the ones who stay will be more effective. It’s a “soft power” play to kickstart the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Among the options for trimming government, looking at the federal workforce is a literal buffet of waste, inefficiency, and excess. To make matters worse, many of these remote workers are filling roles that already explicitly require them to show up in person, according to ABC News:

The Federal Office of Management and Budget released a report in August that found “as of May 2024, approximately 50% of federal workers worked every day in roles that are not eligible for telework, including those who work onsite providing healthcare to our veterans, inspecting our food supply, and managing Federal natural resources.”

Musk shared a new report from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the chair of the Senate DOGE caucus, which claimed only 6% of federal workers show up in person to work on a full-time basis. Many others work from home part-time, and roughly one-third work from home full-time, according to the report.

“If you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%! Almost no one,” Musk posted in response to the report.

How has this been allowed to fester so long? How do you provide “on-site healthcare” via remote work from your couch? How do you perform food inspections without actually inspecting food manufacturing facilities? As Musk notes, the percentage of 5-day in-person workers are basically security guards and building maintenance staff. It’s difficult to guard a door or change a lightbulb on a Zoom call.

It really shouldn’t be that surprising since the unaccountable Biden administration, which couldn’t care less about wasting taxpayer dollars, has been in charge and allowing lax attitudes to thrive while expecting little in terms of productivity.

Can Musk and Ramaswamy even make a dent in the federal bureaucracy? It’s going to be hard and tedious to put points on the board for American taxpayers but it will happen little by little. The empire will strike back, however, and it’s already starting:

A union representing thousands of federal and government workers landed members a work from home deal ahead of the incoming Trump administration’s efforts to force workers to return to office.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) reached an agreement with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to protect telework, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing messages viewed by the outlet.

The updated contract, which affects 42,000 government employees, will allow workers to stay hybrid until 2029.

The deal was signed by President Biden’s former SSA Commissioner, Martin O’Malley.

Of course, the outgoing Biden administration wants to keep the bloated bureaucracy afloat and hand out preemptive contracts that protect remote work as much as possible. After all, the federal workforce in and around Washington DC is a large donor base of the Democratic Party.

This is an effort to DOGE-proof the federal government so as to protect the bloat and wasteful budgets as much as possible.

It’s not even that all remote work is to be frowned upon. However, some roles require in-person attendance at a workplace and accountability to taxpayers flipping the bill. This isn’t rocket science.

These types of battles will be difficult but necessary if the federal government is to be brought to heel for the American people. Taxpayers are in charge, not bureaucrats.