The Trump administration’s HR office instructed agencies to further crack down on telework by federal workers in 2026, saying that almost no remote work should be allowed outside of a few limited circumstances.
In guidancepublished Wednesday the Office of Personnel Management said that remote work can’t be used to help employees “avoid working full-time, in-person from an agency worksite on a regular and recurring basis.” Telework may not be used to “shorten” the workday, either, the OPM said—signaling that the Trump administration would also purge the government of hybrid arrangements that have become common in the private sector.
The move builds on President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order that instructed agencies to take “all necessary steps” to end remote work arrangements. Forty percent of federal workers participated in some type of telework during the 2024 fiscal year, the OPM toldCongress this month.
The guidance provides a few narrow exceptions, including for military spouses, people with disabilities or certain medical conditions and other “compelling” reasons.
It also instructs agencies to accommodate “situational” telework requests for religious reasons, including “holiday observance, scheduled prayers, services, meditation, fasting, or other religious obligations.”
Trump’s effort to limit remote work coincided with aggressive efforts to shrink the federal government. Billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s former ally who led the Department of Government Efficiency, threatened in February to suspend employees who didn’t return to the office immediately.
Trump himself has said he doesn’t believe in working remotely.
“Nobody’s going to work from home, they’re going to be going out, they’re gonna play tennis, they’re gonna play golf,” the president said in February. “They’re gonna do a lot of things—they’re not working.”
About 317,000 federal workers left their jobs in 2025, according to data provided by the OPM.
A number of agencies have offered telework to federal workers. The US Patent and Trademark Office allowed remote work for nearly 30 years. The agency said in June it was struggling to keep up with an 800,000-plus backlog of applications as a result of the in-office policy.
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