01-30-2025
The new administration began efforts to change the federal government. First, an executive order (EO) changed thousands of federal employee classifications to make it easier to fire them. Schedule F changes civil service rules to allow the government to classify more career federal employees as “political appointments,” thereby removing their civil service protections. This order had been put in place during this administration’s first presidency (and rescinded by President Biden). The new administration wants mass government firings to attack the “deep” state, “a supposed permanent government of bureaucrats, operatives and agents dedicated to blocking radical rightwing reform” (The Guardian). Project 2025 calls for civil servants perceived as “politically unreliable” to be fired and replaced with conservatives. The planned “Department of Government Efficiency” (or Doge) will look to cut trillions of dollars from federal spending.
While various groups will undoubtedly make challenges, an expert cited in The Guardian believes it will take at least two years to resolve legal issues, giving plenty of time for the administration to establish a new way of operating. Experts anticipate that removing civil service protections will likely “degrade government performance.”
For those workers who keep their jobs, they will be performing them in person. A new EO is ending remote work for federal employees. Federal department heads received orders to “terminate remote work arrangements” and require all federal workers to return to work in person five days a week. Workers who refuse to comply will lose their jobs. Department and agency heads can make exemptions “they deem necessary.” About 10% of federal employees work fully remotely. Most federal employees work about 79% of their time in person (excluding eligible workers who do not have an in-person worksite). Collective bargaining agreements are in place that protect remote work for some branches of government. The EO pertains to remote work, not telework. Telework is where “workers are expected to report to an agency location on a regular basis and have regularly scheduled days where they work from an alternate worksite.” Remote workers do not report on-site on a regular basis. It is expected that some workers may choose not to continue their jobs.