By Scott Kupor, Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management
January 2, 2026

Return to office (RTO) policies have been a hot topic – particularly in the private sector as many companies have sought to return to pre-Covid in-office policies. Given that, I wanted to provide some perspective on the federal government remote work situation, particularly in light of President Trump’s memorandum from earlier this year on RTO.

At the start of this administration, we had about 2.4 million civilian employees. About 10% of them were fully remote – meaning they never had to step foot into an office. Another approximately 40% were teleworking at least part-time. (These individuals were expected to be in-office two days per every two-week pay period. Rumor has it many employees showed up on the last two days of the pay period and the subsequent first two days of the new pay period to satisfy this requirement). As a result, on any given workday, it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for half of the federal workforce – about 1.2 million employees – to be out of the office.

Rewind the clock a few years pre-COVID and the numbers are starkly different. At that time, about 3% of federal workers were fully remote (vs 10% in January 2025) and another 19% were partial telework (vs 40% in January 2025).

But employees loved it! So, why change?

Because communication and collaboration are sub-par when nobody is in the office. While video calls are good for one-way information dissemination or small meetings (e.g., your weekly 1:1 with an employee), they are less effective for meetings that require discussion, broader information exchange, decision-making, etc. And there are a lot of these meetings generally – whether in government or any other organization.

And, yes, we somehow survived this way during Covid. “Survived” is the operative word; we did not build the type of relationships with colleagues that enable optimal information sharing and decision-making. Human nature is such that I am much more likely to reach out to someone with whom I have some familiarity or prior working relationship; it takes time and engaged human interaction to foster trust. Strong connections are a feature of strong teams; those connections are much harder to build virtually. Proximity is especially important for new employees who may need more training, supervision, and mentoring.

And lack of collaboration can lead to inefficiencies – everything from wasted office real estate (GSA estimates that overall occupancy in federal buildings is around 25-30%) to duplication of resources because I don’t know what my colleagues down the virtual hallway are working on. It’s not surprising as a result the size of the federal workforce grew significantly during the last administration; optimal planning requires coordination.

I understand not all jobs are created equally – and many don’t require day-to-day coordination and collaboration with teammates. But it’s also the case even for jobs that can be done largely in isolation that productivity can be impacted by distractions that pervade at the home. Supervising a massive, largely remote federal workforce is not something the federal government is well equipped to do. The missions of federal agencies—including veterans’ health care, national security, and scientific research—are simply too important to allow slippage in service delivery.

One size does not fit all

The president’s memorandum correctly recognizes individual circumstances matter and made clear that agencies should review these to make reasonable accommodations where appropriate. Examples of what has been implemented include accommodations for employees who have disabilities or primary care-giving responsibilities that make commuting difficult, for military spouses, for “fed-to-fed” families (where one partner has been assigned a specific location and the spouse/partner therefore can’t move) and for exceptional roles that cannot otherwise be filled in-office. But – and I realize many people may disagree with this – commuting time alone is not grounds for an accommodation.

Across the government, roughly 10% of employees have been granted exemptions under the president’s guidance. And, when accounting for these exceptions, the government is now seeing in-office rates around 90%; that’s a massive difference from the roughly 30% that we were seeing just nine months ago.

So, where do we go from here?

The reality is we’re in a re-baselining period. After years of operating at levels of remote work and telework well beyond pre-pandemic norms, the government needs to reset expectations, tackle issues like excess office space, modernize our tools, and rebuild confidence that we can deliver consistently no matter where we work.

Ultimately, this is a matter of fundamental fairness to the American people – they pay our salaries and have the right to ensure the government is working diligently and efficiently on their behalf. If we could credibly demonstrate the government is a well-oiled, maximally efficient provider of services to the American people, then we might have a better leg to stand on in terms of advocating for a different policy. The Trump Administration is working hard to earn back that trust.