Musk threatens federal employees still working from home with administrative leave
Elon Musk warned Monday that government employees who have not yet returned to working from their offices full time will be placed on administrative leave, escalating his effort from within the Trump administration to tighten the screws on the federal bureaucracy.
Musk’s threat follows an executive order from President Donald Trump last month ordering federal employees back to their offices and curtailing work-from-home practices.
“Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Musk posted to X, replying to a Fox News clip from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).
“Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”
Forcing federal workers back to the office was one of many Day One executive orders signed by Trump. The return to in-person work order requires department heads to “as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.”
The Monday morning post underscores Musk’s view of the Department of Government Efficiency’s authority over the federal government — one that has seemingly breached the advisory role the Trump administration carved out for him in court filings last week which restricts the tech billionaire from making government decisions himself, said Mark Maxin, an attorney who specializes in federal sector employment law.
This order undercuts the return-to-office plans of many federal agencies like the General Services Administration and National Institutes of Health, which set in-person work deadlines for most staffers around March to May, according to three federal staffers familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak. Many of those agencies don’t have fully developed office spaces to accommodate the complete return of their workforces yet.
“Legally, only your supervisors can direct you when to come into work,” Maxin said about Musk’s administrative leave threat, though it’s unclear whether agencies or Musk will try to override this rule. If they do, the agencies can only issue administrative leave — or paid time off for work purposes — for a maximum of 10 workdays, according to rules established by the Office of Personnel Management.
“We are telling individual employees to consult their supervisors,” said Steve Lenkart, the executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees union. “That’s the simplest way to stay out of trouble. Send them an email and ask them what to do.”
White House DOGE adviser Katie Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By announcing that workers will be placed on leave this week, Musk, the de-facto leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, is again placing himself in between workers and their normal chain of command.
Over the weekend, Musk’s team created mass confusion across agencies by sending an email asking workers “What did you do last week?” and requesting five bullet points of accomplishments. Immediately, a power struggle emerged, with Trump loyalists at departments across the government instructing their employees not to reply.
FBI Director Kash Patel instructed agency staff to “please pause any responses,” and an email to State Department employees made clear that “no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.”
Those directions were in conflict with Musk, who said that failure to reply would be “taken as a resignation.” (The resignation line was not in the email sent by OPM Saturday afternoon.)
Despite frustration and backlash from the agencies, many Republicans in Congress supported the email.
“I don’t think this is a request that is that difficult,” Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, though he encouraged “a little compassion and, quite frankly, dignity, in this as well.”
Agency heads at GSA and the Treasury have directed employees to respond to these emails.
At some federal agencies, Musk’s return-to-office directive has largely escaped scrutiny as staffers scramble to respond to the five bullets email.
“X is not an official organ of the government, and [Musk] is an adviser to Trump,” said one GSA manager who was granted anonymity to avoid retribution. “Why would I keep up with, or treat as official, what he posts on a … site I no longer use?”
Musk has already exerted immense influence over the federal government as thousands of government workers are being placed on leave or fired, though some efforts are being held up in court. On Friday, Trump administration officials told POLITICO that the break-neck pace may slow down following criticism over the speed and scope of the changes.
Trump himself continues to advocate for Musk’s work, and said over the weekend he hopes Musk will work even faster.
“ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE,” he posted to Truth Social. “REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the network to which Sen. John Curtis gave an interview on Sunday. He appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
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