Musk "would eliminate telecommuting for civil servants"...Proposing a Federal Government Restructuring Plan

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was selected by U.S. President-elect Trump as the head of the government's efficiency department, has said he will eliminate telecommuting to reduce the number of government employees.

Musk introduced the idea of a federal government restructuring in an article in the Wall Street Journal with businessman Vivek Ramaswami on the 20th local time.

Musk and Ramaswamy have argued that government agencies should be allowed constitutionally, identify the minimum number of personnel needed, and fire federal officials proportionate to the number of federal regulations being discarded.

However, he explained that he would help public officials who have lost their seats to move to the private sector and that the president could give incentives or voluntary retirement benefits to early retirees based on existing laws.

They said many people would voluntarily quit if federal officials were allowed to come to the office five days a week, and if they didn't want to go to work, the U.S. taxpayer shouldn't pay to work from home, a privilege during the COVID-19 era.

In his first group email to employees after acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk declared a ban on working from home and has been negative about working from home, including requiring Tesla executives to come to the office as well.

CNN described the idea as banning telecommuting and moving government agencies out of Washington, D.C., would allow many federal officials to voluntarily leave, allowing the new Trump administration to reduce the number of officials and save government budgets.

The U.S. Federal Office of Personnel Management says 1.3 million federal officials are currently authorized to work remotely, and they spend 60% of their working hours in the office.

Bloomberg and others predicted that if the White House pushes ahead with the suspension of telecommuting, it could clash with the federal civil service union.