U.S. — With President Donald Trump ordering all government employees to come back to working in person by February 6, federal workers expressed concern that returning to the office would interfere with them not working.
Thousands of federal employees who had been afforded the opportunity to work remotely following the COVID-19 pandemic said they were disappointed that being required to return to working in person would negatively impact their desire to collect paychecks without actually working.
"I'm not sure I want a job where I have to work," said IRS case analyst Steve Reaves. "That's not what I applied for a government job to do. Once COVID hit, we were all allowed to just sit at home, wear our pajamas all day, take naps, and just generally not do anything that amounts to work. This order from Trump will really cramp my style. If it's all the same, I'd much prefer to keep doing my job from home where I can spend more of my time not working."
Trump's order was met with opposition from across the federal workforce. "Are they expecting all of us to just, you know, come into the office and, like, do work?" asked Sheila Dobbins, an EPA administrative assistant. "That's ridiculous. Requiring employees to do their jobs is an obvious abuse of power. We won't stand for it."
At publishing time, thousands of federal workers were reportedly preparing to stand on street corners holding signs reading "will sit at home and do no work for food."
Travis is back on his mission to interview everyone. Next on the list is celebrity chef and restaurateur Andrew Gruel.
