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Adnkronos) – “We won’t even have to talk about mass layoffs, we will just tell them that they have to return to the office five days a week from 8am to 6pm.” Thus Vivek Ramaswamy, the other tech billionaire who together with Elon Musk will lead the department for government efficiency, the Doge, said that it will force federal employees who currently “don’t go to work” but continue, 18 months after the end of the pandemic, to use smartworking to varying degrees to return to work in person. Interviewed by far-right host and Trump loyalist Tucker Carlson, the biotech entrepreneur confirmed that his and Musk’s task will be to use “the jackhammer and the electric saw” to revolutionize, and drastically cut, the federal.
And he says he is convinced that by removing the possibility of working remotely “the federal bureaucracy will be reduced by 25%. At the moment – Nbcnews recalls – there are 1.3 million federal employees, out of a total of 2.2 million, who can work smartworking, 10% of them totally remotely, while the remainder, from August 2023, must go to the office at least half of the days of two working weeks. Musk’s intolerance for remote working, which he branded as “morally wrong”, is well known: in June 2022, in the midst of the pandemic, he forced Tesla employees to work in person at least 40 hours a week.
And he did the same thing immediately after taking control of Twitter, now X, in October of the same year. However, the crusade of the two billionaires against remote working for federal employees could find an unexpected ally, the Democratic mayor of Washington DC who has long been asking for help to bring “life back to the center of our city” where for years now most buildings housing federal departments are emptied. “How we get our federal workers back into the offices is a big question,” said the mayor who has already asked for a meeting with Donald Trump to work together towards this goal. According to the Government Accountability Office, 17 of the 24 major federal agencies used only 25 percent of their space last year.
And there are correspondences between the lists of these buildings and the one on which Musk and Ramaswamy intend to bring down their axe, starting with the Department of Education which uses only 16% of its spaces, with 98% of the employees who can work from home and over half who actually do it.
From the union of federal employees, American Federation of government employees, which has over 700 thousand members, the statements of the future heads of the Doge are dismissed as exaggerated, recalling that over half of federal jobs – in healthcare, security, border protection and food security – they do not provide for smart working. And please remember that by allowing you to work partially from home, the federal government can recruit and retain working talent despite significantly lower wages in the private sector. —internazionale/[email protected] (Web Info)
Here’s the interview with two guests about the information provided in the article:
Host: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our program today. We have two esteemed guests with us to discuss the recent announcement regarding federal employees returning to the office full-time and the role of tech billionaires in this initiative. First, let’s welcome Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-chief executive officer of the new federal efficiency agency, Doge. Mr. Ramaswamy, thank you for joining us today.
Vivek Ramaswamy: Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Host: We also have with us Dr. Michelle Fabre, a workplace psychologist and expert in remote work policies. Dr. Fabre, thank you for joining us today.
Dr. Michelle Fabre: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to share my insights on this important topic.
Host: Let’s start with the news about federal employees returning to the office full-time. Vivek, as the head of the new efficiency agency, what is the rationale behind this decision, and how do you plan to enforce it?
Vivek Ramaswamy: Well, as you mentioned, we plan to use the ”jackhammer and the electric saw” to revolutionize the federal. We believe that by forcing employees to return to the office, we can significantly reduce government bureaucracy and make it more efficient. It’s essential to bring people together in person to foster collaboration, communication, and innovation. We won’t even have to talk about mass layoffs; we will just tell them that they have to return to the office five days a week from 8 am to 6 pm.
Host: That’s quite a bold statement. Dr. Fabre, what are your thoughts on this? Do you agree that full-time office work is necessary for government efficiency?
Dr. Michelle Fabre: While there are certainly benefits to face-to-face interaction in the workplace, I think it’s shortsighted to assume that remote work hinders productivity. Remote work has shown us that many jobs can be performed just as effectively from home or elsewhere. We also need to consider the work-life balance of federal employees and how this may impact their well-
