Hybrid positions for federal workers have plunged since President Donald Trump’s day-one order to end most remote work arrangements for agency employees, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Federal employees working fully on site now totals 46%, which is more than double the national average of 21%, according to Gallup. Since Trump’s executive order, hybrid work among federal employees has dropped sharply, from 61% in late 2024 to just 28% by the second quarter of 2025, according to Gallup.
“President Trump wants federal government employees to show up to work in person and to work as hard as the American taxpayers who pay their salaries,” White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Though hybrid work arrangements have not changed much across the U.S., the shift in federal employees’ work routines is noteworthy, according to Gallup.
“In Washington, the hybrid era is over. After President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, his administration ended remote work for most federal employees,” Gallup wrote. “As a result, the number of federal employees working in a flexible hybrid work model plummeted.”
Remote work has cratered among federal employees despite several of them protesting Trump’s order, with many legacy media outlets highlighting that some federal workers considered the commutes to be uncomfortable. One staffer told NPR in January that after her commute she was “just so brain dead” and she “cannot imagine trying to get in the car and go in a third day.”
Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst released a report on Dec. 5 that uncovered some of the problems with government employees working remotely. The report highlighted several problems linked to telework, including challenges with locality pay and the impact of largely vacant office buildings on the working environment.
“Bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business, and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time,” the report states.
Ernst has been calling out the abuses of telework by federal employees for years and told the DCNF that she will continue to fight for more government efficiency.
“From relaxing in bubble baths to sitting on the beach or even jail, I exposed that Biden’s bureaucrats were everywhere except the office,” Ernst told the DCNF. “I worked with the Trump administration on day one to end this nonsense and get these out of office federal employees back to serving the American people. The data is clear that the return to office order is working, but my efforts to downsize Washington and create a more efficient government is just beginning. Next, I’m working to consolidate unused office space and selling off the thousands of vacant and underutilized buildings that cost taxpayers billions to maintain.”
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