US federal workers split on support for Trump's return to office mandate: Survey
Federal workers in the U.S. are split on their support for President Trump’s return to office mandate, according to a new survey.
The Washington Post-Ipsos poll, published earlier this week, found that half of Americans in the federal workforce oppose a five-day in-office mandate while the other 49 percent are supportive of the effort.
Among those who said their work could be done at home, an overwhelming majority, 85 percent, were not supportive of the administration's push to return to office. Among employees who said their work cannot be done in a remote setting, 70 percent said they support the mandate, per the survey.
Tech billionaire and Trump’s close adviser Elon Musk said roughly a month ago that federal employees who have not come back to the office will be put on administrative leave.
“Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Musk said on social platform X, which he owns. “Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”
His warning echoed a similar sentiment the president shared just over a week after the inauguration, when he threatened those who refused to return to office would "be terminated."
The latest survey also found that roughly 20 percent of federal workers are looking for other employment opportunities while the other 80 percent are not actively conducting a job search.
More than a third of current federal government employees, 37 percent, said they can do their jobs from home. The figure rises to 46 percent if U.S. Postal Service workers are excluded, according to the poll.
Over a third of government employees, who said their work can be accomplished from home, said they have not been assigned a workspace or desk at the office.
The numbers come as Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continue their efforts to slash federal spending and overhaul the workforce.
Nearly six-in-10 federal employees, 57 percent, think that most or all of the president’s executive orders impacting their specific agency are illegal, the data shows. A majority of those workers, 71 percent, were also concerned about the functionality of the federal government as the administration conducts mass layoffs.
The concern is also reflected among those who supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election — roughly 38 percent. Less than half of that number believe the cuts will bolster the agency's operation, per the survey.
The Post/Ipsos survey was conducted from Feb. 28 to March 10 among 614 civilian workers, including 571 currently employed with the federal government. The overall margin of error overall was 5.1 percentage points.
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