Federally employed military spouses who work remotely for their agencies “should” be allowed to continue to do so, according to a joint memo from the federal agencies in charge of budget and personnel.
Despite the guidance, some spouses with federal jobs continue to feel uncertainty and angst following President Donald Trump’s new policy requiring in-person work.
In a Jan. 27 memo about the return-to-office requirement for federal workers, the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget included a footnote that stated agencies “should also exclude military spouses working remotely based on the Military Spouse Employment Act.” That law includes a provision that authorizes military spouses to telework from remote locations.
But some advocates are concerned that the guidance does not explicitly require federal agencies to exempt military spouses from the return-to-office requirement, meaning policies could differ from agency to agency.
For spouses who work remotely – whether in the continental United States or overseas under a Domestic Employee Teleworking Overseas (DETO) agreement – there is uncertainty about whether they will be able to continue their careers. Any roadblocks to working for the federal government would add to the many difficulties military spouses face in their battle for employment.
Exceptions to the return-to-office policy will likely apply to military spouses working both remotely in the continental U.S. and overseas, said John Hatton, staff vice president for policy and programs at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, or NARFE. However, Hatton said the specifics won’t be clear until guidance flows down to the agencies, and from the agencies to their employees.
As a result, the policy is sowing angst among military spouses who work for the federal government, said Emmalee Gruesen, a Navy wife and Navy civilian employee who volunteers as an advocate for federally employed military spouses. Gruesen lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she works remotely for a Navy office in Norfolk. She and Army wife Maria Donnelly administer a Facebook page for other federally employed spouses.
“A lot of spouses want to proactively submit requests” for exemptions, Gruesen said. “We’re telling them to wait for the agency.”
She told Military Times the departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services have issued clear instructions that do exempt military spouses from the return-to-office requirement.
“We’re trying to calm a whole community,” Gruesen said, noting that the time lag between the return-to-office order and any clarification about the policy has exacerbated the worry.
“The unfortunate thing is, people are making geo-bach decisions now,” she said. In those cases, some military families are deciding that the service member will move ahead to the next duty station while the spouse stays behind to be near work in case remote work isn’t allowed.
All federal employees are prohibited from teleworking overseas without approval from their agency and the State Department. An agreement signed in April 2024 between the departments of State and Defense was designed to make it easier for military spouses to work overseas under these DETO agreements.
Gruesen has heard from some spouses that their approvals for DETO have been put on hold, she said.
“People are fearful. There are a wide range of these executive orders,” NARFE’s Hatton said. “It’s disappointing to see the range and breadth and scope of these orders. The concern is that it’s not clearly tied to some productivity measure that had been going down because people were working from home versus in the office.”
Taken together, Hatton said, these executive orders “show a lack of appreciation for the work that federal employees are doing day in and day out … [seeing] them more as expendable and part of the problem, rather than part of the solution to what we need to help discover and operate and work on behalf of the American people.”
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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