Some federally employed military spouses are still grappling with uncertainty in their careers, as agencies aren’t consistently exempting them from the return-to-office mandate for federal workers, according to advocates and lawmakers.
And lawmakers are demanding immediate action to make the exemption clear to federal agencies.
“Despite the guidance to agencies, many military families have yet to receive clarity from their employing agency that they are able to continue working remotely or via telework,” 13 Democratic lawmakers wrote Monday in a letter to Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The letter, signed by a dozen Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and one on the House Armed Services Committee military personal subcommittee, comes after the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, issued guidance earlier this month stating that federally employed military spouses are “categorically exempt” from President Donald Trump’s return-to-office directive.
However, the lawmakers stated some military spouses have lost their telework or remote agreements that predate Trump’s Jan. 20 directive, and it’s unclear if or when new agreements will be offered.
The lawmakers demanded OPM take immediate action to ensure all federal agencies reinstate or approve remote work and telework agreements that were in place or in process before Jan. 20.
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OPM’s guidance has led to agencies treating military spouses differently, creating a “have and have-not” situation, 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 and co-runs a Facebook page for federally employed spouses.
Moreover, some spouses are being treated differently within their own agencies, according to Gruesen. In one instance, a military spouse working for an Air Force command received a telework exemption. Meanwhile, another spouse, teleworking for a different team in the same command, was denied the exemption, Gruesen said.
Despite sharing the same human resources team and command, the spouses’ teams interpreted the policy differently, according to Gruesen. The exempt spouse raised concerns that the other spouse “wasn’t getting equal treatment” and was “chastised,” Gruesen said.
“That’s exactly the problem we’re seeing, a lack of standard implementation across government agencies,” Gruesen said.
Another challenge, Gruesen said, is the lack of information for spouses on how to elevate or appeal these decisions outside the chain of command that denied the exemptions.
Information on how spouses can appeal such decisions was not immediately available from OPM.
Meanwhile, an active-duty Air Force member, said his wife, a Defense Department employee in the Washington, D.C., area, must now work in the office full time after her hybrid telework agreement was canceled.
Military spouses with telework agreements are being required to return to the office unless their position is classified as remote, according to the service member, who requested to remain anonymous.
OPM defines telework as an arrangement in which employees work off-site on regularly scheduled days and on-site at their agencies on other ones.
On the other hand, a remote work employee works at an alternative location and is not expected to work at an agency worksite, even if they work within the local commuting area.
The latest OPM memo doesn’t fully clarify whether telework is included in the military spouse exemption, Gruesen said.
Additionally, OPM’s guidance may also impact federally employed military spouses working remotely overseas, lawmakers said.
In order to work remotely overseas, federal employees must get approval from their agency and the State Department under the Domestic Employees Teleworking Overseas, or DETO, program.
In April 2024, Defense Department and State Department officials signed an agreement aimed at removing many of the barriers to remote work overseas for military spouses.
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But lawmakers said they’ve heard about military spouses whose agencies would no longer process new DETO agreements and others unable to get clarity on their agreements that were pending approval before the Jan. 20 directive.
“Ultimately, the uncertainty these families are facing is a threat to our military readiness and negatively impacts our national security, as service members are asked to make the impossible decision between serving our nation or separating early,” the lawmakers wrote.
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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