Elon Musk may terminate remote work for millions of federal employees, as he steps into his new role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E).

The tech titan and outspoken Trump supporter outlined plans to announce a mandatory return to office policy to reduce the size of the US government workforce and cut costs, according to an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal, at the end of last year.

“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome”, Musk said in the piece, co-written with conservative political leader Vivek Ramaswamy.

He argued that taxpayers should no longer foot the bill for what he deemed “the COVID-era privilege of staying at home”.

“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them”, he said.

Companies like Amazon and Walmart have already announced full 5-day week return to office mandates, leading in an exodus of high performing employees.

Amazon said it planned to return to an “office-centric culture as our baseline”. It added, “we believe it enables us to invent, collaborate, and learn together most effectively”.

Fortune Magazine reported that Amazon experienced a mass departure of employees after implementing its return to the office policy.

It’s recent survey found that 73 per cent of workers in similar situations considered quitting when faced with such requirements.

In the UK, over half of workers (51 per cent) would forgo a pay rise in order to not work from the office full time, according to figures by Morgan McKinley.

On Monday, a petition for ad giant WPP to revoke its new office policy attracted over 10,000 signatures in only four days, four days after CityAM revealed it would be forcing staff to come in four days a week.

Musk’s approach was therefore seen as less about fostering collaboration, and more about encouraging resignations.