- Marc Andreessen reiterated the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) plans to call federal employees back to the office for more than one or two days and questioned whether President-elect Trump could order people back to in-person work.
Venture investor Marc Andreessen described a return-to-office initiative for government employees as a main priority of the Department of Government Efficiency. According to Andreessen, DOGE is focused on headcount, government spending, and regulations in its efforts so far, and the team has “very clever ideas” in all three areas.
Speaking in a Hoover Institution podcast, the cofounder general partner of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and self-proclaimed “unpaid intern” at DOGE claimed that federal buildings have 25% occupancy rates, on average. Addressing the number of federal employees who work remotely is an issue for contemplation among the DOGE team, he explained.
“The Washington, D.C. federal building complex is basically a ghost town,” Andreessen said. While security agencies are still full time in the office, other agencies aren’t, he said.
Some federal employees have unionized, noted Andreessen, and their agreements allow them to work remotely, while others show up to the office one or two days a month. Some are pairing the days, Andreessen claimed, showing up for two days every two months.
“You ask any CEO in Corporate America, like how is this whole thing going, what are your employees doing,” said Andreessen. “Every CEO will tell you… ‘What on earth is happening, are these people working?’” He questioned whether Trump, as president, had the authority to order people back to work.
“Does it count to be an employee of the federal government, if you’re not in the office?” he questioned.
In December 2024, in an effort to reduce spending, Trump advisors and billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy told Congress they would cut “government waste” by $2 trillion.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is a proponent of DOGE and the rumored return-to-work proposal. Her office released a report claiming that only 6% of government employees work regularly in the office.
Musk followed this report by posting on X that that excluding security and maintenance personnel meant full-time staff would be closer to 1% of federal employees working 40-hours a week in the office.
While DOGE remains an unofficial government agency with an end date slated for July 4, 2026, these claims of the advisory board remain advice.
“As it should be; it will be the decision of the president,” Andreessen said.