Elon Musk has big return-to-office plans for federal employees and he’s saying the quiet part out loud

The return-to-office debate got a bit spicier last week with Elon Musk’s latest promise to make the government more efficient.

In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire appointed to head up the new Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) along with his co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy, laid out plans to reduce the overall size of the government and cut costs. And one part of that blueprint included mandating a full return-to-office for all Federal workers.

“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the COVID-era privilege of staying home,” they wrote.

In doing so, Musk and Ramaswamy seem to be openly announcing what some critics have long argued is a disguised impetus behind strict RTO mandates: Job cuts. One survey this year of more than 1,500 U.S. managers found that a quarter of C-suite executives were hoping that return-to-office policies would encourage employees to voluntarily quit. After all, it’s certainly cheaper than having to do layoffs and pay severance.

Other CEOs have discussed potential attrition due to five-day RTO mandates. Last month, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman told staffers during an all-hands meeting that it’s “OK” if people don’t want to work in an office environment because there are “other companies around.” That led many employees to sign an open letter to corporate leadership noting his remarks were “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees” and “misrepresenting the realities of working at Amazon.” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy pushed back against allegations that the company’s RTO requirement was an excuse to lay off workers and said the decision was “not a cost play.”

The Federal government is the nation’s largest employer, with over 2.2 million civilian staffers. Until now, each agency has been able to decide what workplace policy works best for them. Of the total number of Federal workers, roughly half work on-site, according to an August report from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. While remaining employees are eligible for remote work, the report found that only 228,000, or roughly 10%, were in remote positions where there was no expectation that they work in-person. And those who have the option to work remotely spent about 60% of working hours in-person at various job sites.

It’s unclear if Musk and Ramaswamy will actually be able to implement a five-day RTO for Federal workers. And of course, the question remains: Will these CEOs return to the office themselves? That’s yet to be seen.