How Trump's return-to-office order affects Washington state
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President Trump's executive order mandating that federal workers return to the office full time stands to affect thousands of U.S. government employees in Washington state.
By the numbers: Washington is home to roughly 178,000 federal workers, a figure that includes military members, per the U.S. Census Bureau.
- An estimated 9.5% of the state's federal employees said they worked from home at least some of the time in 2023, per a Census Bureau survey.
- That's nearly 17,000 people.
Between the lines: Return-to-office pushes can be a way for companies (and governments) to conduct layoffs without technically having to fire anyone, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
- With the Trump executive order, that appears to be the plan.
- "Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome," Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump tapped to lead his new Department of Government Efficiency, wrote in an opinion piece last year.
- Ramaswamy has since stepped down from the department.
The latest: Federal agency heads had until Friday to revise their remote work policies to require that most employees come in full time, per a memo issued last week by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
- The memo recommended that federal agencies aim to fully implement their return-to-office policies in 30 days.