Vivek Ramaswamy to federal workers: Get back to office 8 to 6

State of play: Even though federal agencies have dialed up in-person work, the policies are still a hodgepodge.

• Part of the job cuts sought by DOGE and Trump could come by way of a strict in-person work requirement.

"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome," Ramaswamy and Musk write in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

• "If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," they write.
• Ramaswamy told Carlson the 8am-6pm, five-day workweek could produce a "25% thinning out of the federal bureaucracy."

By the numbers: There are 282,700 federal civilian workers in the greater DMV area, per government data.

• Trump has said that "as many as 100,000 government positions can be moved out — and I mean immediately — of Washington."

To that end, Musk and Ramaswamy write they are "assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire a lean team of small-government crusaders."

• DOGE will try to rescind regulations, reduce headcount and save costs, though the panel will serve as "outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees."
• The group will conclude their work by July 4, 2026, Trump said in an announcement earlier this month.