On January 20, 2025, a signed Return To In Person Work memo landed on agency desks and sent calendars scrambling. At the Social Security Administration, managers watched routine telework collapse within weeks, even as phone lines stayed jammed.
A fresh watchdog report shows the human cost: the very flexibility that drew talent in now pushes talent out. The report comes from Trump’s own Government Accountability Office, and it focuses on how the decree rippled through hiring, training, and retention.
SSA already carries a heavy service load, so every resignation shows up in longer waits and slower decisions. GAO’s findings, paired with broader federal research, point to a simple lesson: telework works best when leaders manage it, measure it, and use it to keep skills in house.
GAO tracked SSA telework from July 2019 through May 2025 and found a sharp cliff after the White House memo. Telework hours fell from 35% of total hours in January through March 2025 to 13% in April through May 2025, a telework hours drop that matched the new posture. That speed matters because SSA employees had built their lives and budgets around flexibility.
Agency leaders told GAO that telework acted as a recruitment lever during a tight labor market. In a fiscal year 2023 new hire survey, more than half of new employees said telework ranked as a very important factor in applying and accepting the job. Managers also described candidates who expected hybrid schedules as a baseline benefit, especially in high traffic metros.
Retention signals flashed even before the decree. GAO reports that around 37% of SSA respondents to the 2024 employee viewpoint survey planned to leave within a year. Among those planning an exit, almost half said telework or remote options in their unit shaped that decision. Frontline staff singled out newer hires and retirement eligible experts as the most ready to move, since both groups value lighter commutes and focused work time. GAO then warned about skills gaps in mission critical roles, right as SSA pursued a 50,000 employee target announced on February 28, 2025 in an agency workforce plan aimed at cutting costs.
Federal law already treats telework as a management tool and a continuity asset through the Telework Enhancement Act that requires policies, training, and reporting. That framework exists because agencies use telework to keep services running during weather events, security incidents, and public health disruptions.
OPM’s fiscal year 2023 telework status report describes agencies that used hybrid schedules to lift recruitment and retention while sustaining performance. In the same report, Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau credits telework with shrinking its Washington, DC footprint by 22% and saving nearly $1M in facility costs, a concrete real estate savings example that private employers envy. EPA also reports about $7M a year in avoided transit subsidy spending at current telework levels, another budget relief that frees funds for mission work.
Those dollars connect directly to retention because agencies reinvest savings in better tools, training, and workspace design. When leaders pair clear performance standards with predictable flexibility, they win a recruiting edge and keep accountability high. That formula matters more in government than in most sectors because hiring cycles run long and specialized knowledge takes years to build.
Long before the pandemic, the Merit Systems Protection Board laid out a business case: with solid supervision, telework delivers benefits while maintaining productivity, as detailed in its telework evidence. The board also highlights continuity of operations, reduced real estate pressure, and better work life balance from shorter commutes.
GAO’s own prior work urged agencies to measure telework impacts on customer service, training, and organizational health, which appears in the November 22, 2024 performance evaluation report. In the new SSA study, GAO repeats that call and presses the agency to update its human capital plan and keep evaluating telework where offices still use it.
Trump’s administration framed the return push around supervision and fairness, echoing language from the January 22, 2025 guidance memo. GAO’s SSA findings show the hidden trade: forcing the same schedule on every job drains the very talent that the public relies on for timely benefits decisions. A smarter approach uses job based eligibility, transparent metrics, and targeted onsite time for training, mentoring, and complex customer work. Agencies that build that system keep their best people longer, save money, and deliver service with steadier staffing.
Return mandates feel decisive, yet GAO’s audit trail at SSA shows decisive moves can create staffing turbulence. Employees who joined for flexibility now scan the market, and managers lose years of expertise with every departure.
Government has tools to do better: law, reporting, and research tying telework to continuity and cost control. Leaders can honor in person collaboration by designing office time around work needs and using data to adjust. When the federal workforce stays whole, the public feels it first.
