An anxious federal workforce bids goodbye to job stability and remote work

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump’s pledge to upend the federal workforce began rippling through Washington on Tuesday after he moved to force government employees back to the office five days a week and weakened their job protections. Inside a number of federal offices, a sense of anxiety and confusion permeated the atmosphere as employees parsed a flurry of executive orders and memos handed down by the new administration.

Federal workers unions rushed to shield employees from the changes, with one filing a lawsuit over an executive order aimed at peeling back civil-service protections. “It’s leaving a lot of uncertainty that folks have never really had to feel," said Michael Gibbons, 43 years old, a product-support manager for the Navy, adding that the environment undermined one of the key selling points to working in the federal government—stability. “It seems like there is a level of distrust with how things are working." Human-resources managers across the government had to call recent hires with start dates after Feb.

8 to inform them their offers had been rescinded. Managers fielded panicked inquiries from staff over returning to the office and from transgender employees about whether gender-neutral bathrooms would be eliminated from federal offices. Employees expressed concern over whether the Department of Government Efficiency teams dispatched to agencies would have the security clearances to review sensitive information.