Federal workers report lower productivity after RTO
MARYLAND, UNITED STATES — A Federal News Network survey of 7,463 federal employees found that 76% reported lower productivity after the Trump administration’s January 2025 executive order requiring them to return to the office (RTO) full-time — with more than 80% describing the overall experience as negative.
Government mandates in-office work over worker objections
The executive order, signed in January 2025, eliminated federal telework agreements, with full-time telework hours falling more than 75% by October 2025. The Federal News Network (FNN) survey captured 7,463 self-identified federal employee responses in May 2026.
Of respondents, 53% described the RTO experience as “very negative” and 30% as “somewhat negative,” leaving fewer than 7% reporting positive experiences.
Dissatisfaction extended beyond morale: 57% were dissatisfied with their physical workspace, 65% reported difficult commutes, and approximately 70% said their work-life balance had become “much worse.”
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor defended the policy in a January 2026 blog post, writing that ‘strong connections are a feature of strong teams; those connections are much harder to build virtually.’
The survey data, however, showed that 56% of respondents reported no improvement in team collaboration, while 35% said it had worsened.
The administration argued that physical presence would restore team cohesion and reduce distractions — the data suggests neither claim has materialized.
Survey data contradicts administration’s in-office rationale
“Even for jobs that can be done largely in isolation, that productivity can be impacted by distractions that pervade at the home,” OPM Director Kupor wrote, defending mandatory in-office attendance.
Respondents cited noise, equipment shortages, and outdated facilities as causes — and 35% reported team collaboration had worsened, not improved, since returning.
Only 23% of respondents agreed that top agency leadership had supported the RTO transition, compared to 60% who credited their direct supervisors — a gap that compounded delays in accommodation approvals and workspace assignments.
Ninety-three percent of respondents called for flexible schedules or hybrid work options — the most requested change by a large margin.
The mandate reversed a working productivity model — the gap between administration expectations and employee experience is documented in 7,463 data points.
For business process outsourcing (BPO) providers, the survey reinforces that productivity in knowledge work is environment-dependent — and blanket in-office mandates often produce the opposite of their intended effect. BPO operators with structured hybrid models retain output quality across both settings. Flexibility grounded in evidence, not policy, is what sustains worker performance.
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Disclosure: Outsource Accelerator uses AI tools in the backend of its editorial workflow. Every article is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication.
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