Elon Musk, Ramaswamy push to end remote work for federal employees in DOGE plan: 'If they don't show up, taxpayers shouldn't pay'

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have teamed up to unveil their ambitious vision for the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a co-authored op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. The duo, both billionaires, have been appointed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to spearhead the department and one of the first things they are doing is ending work from home.

In the joint op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy detailed their vision for overhauling federal operations as leaders of the newly created Department.

Tasked by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, they aim to cut costs and streamline bureaucracy by tackling what they describe as inefficiencies in the civil service.

“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome,” the duo argued.?

They criticised the widespread remote work culture among federal employees, with around 228,000 workers—or 10% of the civilian workforce—fully remote as of August 2024.?

“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” they wrote.

Musk, the visionary behind SpaceX and Tesla, and Ramaswamy, founder of Roivant Sciences, claimed that civil service protections have enabled an inefficient, “antidemocratic” system that unfairly burdens taxpayers.?

Their proposed reforms for DOGE will focus on “regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings.”?

They also pledged to work closely with the Trump transition team to assemble a lean, skilled group of small-government advocates, who will collaborate with the White House Office of Management and Budget to implement these sweeping changes.

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