Musk and Ramaswamy suggest federal RTO encourages 'voluntary layoffs'

This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.

Diving brief:

In their attempt to reduce the costs and size of the federal government, the future heads of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, recently called for a return-to-power mandate for the workforce federal work.
“Require federal employees to come to the office five days a week this would lead to a wave of voluntary departures that we welcome: if federal employees do not want to show up, American taxpayers should not pay them for the privilege of staying at home in the time of Covid,” declared the billionaires contacted by President-elect Donald Trump. to lead the newly created organization, wrote in a Nov. 20 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
Musk and Ramaswamy said Trump would have the authority to implement a number of rules that could “curb excessive administrative growth, ranging from large-scale layoffs to the relocation of federal agencies out of the Washington region.” DOGE leaders said the massive reductions planned in federal regulations “provide sound industry logic for massive workforce reductions across the federal bureaucracy.”

Dive overview:

A report released in August by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) found that about 50 percent of federal workers are not eligible to teleworksuch as those providing health services to veterans or inspecting the food supply. Those who are eligible perform 60% of their work on-site, the OMB found. If DOGE leaders’ suggestion is implemented, more than 1 million federal workers eligible to telework could be affected.

Musk has shown his disapproval of remote work in running his businesses. In May 2022, Tesla’s CEO sent an email to workers with the subject line “Remote work is no longer acceptable”, in which it required remote workers to spend at least 40 hours on site “or leave Tesla”. Musk also implemented a RTO requirement when it took over X, previously known as Twitter.

Twenty-five percent of senior executives and vice presidents and 18% of human resources professionals said they want RTO Policies to Drive Voluntary Turnoveraccording to a June report from Bamboo HR. Similarly, 37% of managers, directors and executives said they believed their company had made layoffs in the past year because fewer people than expected resigned after the RTO orders.

In another recent KPMG survey, 83% of global CEOs said they believe companies will need a “Complete” RTO for workers in the next three years.

Although blanket return-to-power policies may be tempting for employers, lawyers have cautioned against applying such a mandate too broadly. In some cases, companies face discrimination complaints filed by employees seeking accommodations for people with disabilities. This was the case with Musk’s RTO mandate on Twitter, when workers alleged the policy violated the Americans With Disabilities Act.