US President Donald Trump begins his first full day in office Tuesday, January 21. Trump took over as 47th US President in an Inauguration ceremony that set fundraising record of $250 million and counting. Just hours after takin oath, Trump signed several executive orders on everything from immigration to the environment and culture wars.
Donald Trump signed orders freezing government hiring as well as an order requiring federal workers to immediately return to full-time in-person work. In a memo, Trump asked federal workers return to the office full-time. The language in the statement is said to underscore the challenges that the new Trump administration is likely to face, given the strong opposition to ending remote work by unions representing public sector workers.
Here’s the memo titled ‘Return to In-person Work’
Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, 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, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.
This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law.
Companies that have ended work from home
Amazon, JP Morgan, Disney, Dell, Zoom, IBM< Tesla, Snapchat, Uber, Twitter, Starbucks and Walmart are among the private companies that have ended work from home completely in the US. Most of these companies have seen resentment from some employees over the return to office mandate.
A memo from JPMorgan’s operating committee stated that over half of its 316,000 global employees already work in the office full-time, and that “Now is the right time to solidify our full-time in-office approach” . “We think it is the best way to run the company,” the executives wrote in the memo. Despite this justification, some JPMorgan staff expressed their displeasure with the directive on the company’s intranet, citing concerns about increased commuting and childcare costs, as well as mental health and stress. Reportedly, the comment page was locked after more than 300 comments were posted within the first hour.
