Hybrid work is still extremely popular, but not for these workers

Hybrid work schedules for federal employees have collapsed under President Donald Trump, although they remain widespread for other US workers whose duties do not require that they are on the site.

Data published by Brief On Wednesday it shows the prevalence of hybrid arrangements, a combination of work at home and in the office, has decreased only slightly for the workforce in general in the last two quarters, falling from 55% to 51%. At the same time, the number of those who work completely remote has increased by 2%.

But the federal workforce is a different story. While 61% of the federals worked under a hybrid model at the end of 2024, only 28% reported that they did it in the Gallup surveys carried out in May, after the Trump administration began its repression in the programming of the work of the cases.

So, despite the fact that hybrid work in general has endured after the pandemic, “the hybrid era has ended” within the federal government, Gallup reported.

Bringing federal workers back to the office full time has been a priority for the White House since Trump was inaugurated. Although administration officials argued that employees are more productive in person, it is also clear that they wanted to make the jobs more stressful and less pleasant for many people to renounce.

Many workers saw the elimination of hybrid work, along with more minor demands, such as making employees justify their work in weekly emails, as a change destined to encourage Trump’s “deferred resignation agreement”, in which they could give up their work and be paid until September. Some 150,000 workers ended up accepting offers to buy the administration.

In addition to killing hybrid agreements, the White House has also moved to end totally remote positions for many people living more than 50 miles from an agency office. These workers were Given the choice of moving their families or leaving their job.

Bloomberg through Getty Images

Federal unions have erred before administration’s mandates, pointing out that often violate Hybrid and remote work stipulations described in collective bargraft agreements insured under Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden. The Trump administration said that these protections were “illegal and cannot be enforced”, since they entered into conflict with their executive order that forced workers to return to the office.

Trump had promised after winning the elections in November that fire workers who did not begin to appear in person.

“If people do not return to work, they return to the office, they will be fired,” said the president -elect in December.

Gallup data suggests that these drastic changes make the federal government an atypical case, not part of a wider trend that spends the death of working from home.

There have been many stories recently about High profile companies Hybrid schedules caught and dragging employees back to the office to increase productivity. But surveys indicate that flexible arrangements have been persistent in the private sector, with only “minor changes” in survey data since 2022, Gallup said.

And although hybrid workers appear in the office more frequently, change has only been modest.

While these workers reported that they spent 42% of their time in the office in 2022, now they spend 46% of their work week on average. And according to Gallup, that increase in office time happened for 2023, without any change during the past year.