Hundreds of federal employees who were swept out of their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting drive are now being asked to return, as the Trump administration scrambles to reverse the fallout from an overzealous push to shrink government.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees thousands of federal workspaces, issued a notice Friday giving laid-off employees until the end of the week to decide whether to accept reinstatement. Those who return are expected back at their desks on October 6. The recall effectively ends what has amounted to a seven-month paid absence, during which the government racked up heavy costs to maintain properties it had planned to vacate but never did.
“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official now representing landlords with government leases. He described the agency as being in “triage mode” for months, adding that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — known as DOGE — pushed cuts “too far, too fast.”
The GSA purge was one of DOGE’s most aggressive moves. Thousands of employees took early retirement or buyouts, while hundreds more were dismissed outright. Headquarters staff shrank by nearly 80%, portfolio managers by 65%, and facilities managers by more than a third. The result, according to a federal official, was that at least 131 property leases expired while government tenants remained inside, leaving taxpayers on the hook for steep penalties as landlords were unable to lease the space elsewhere.
The administration’s effort to dump leases was just as chaotic. More than 800 cancellation notices went out to landlords, many without warning to the agencies occupying the buildings. A highly publicized DOGE tally board once claimed $460 million in savings from the cancellations, but that figure has since been revised down to just $140 million. More than 480 leases initially slated for termination have already been spared, covering offices of the IRS, Social Security Administration, and FDA, among others.
Musk’s team had also drafted plans to sell off hundreds of federally owned buildings to generate billions in revenue, but widespread pushback slowed that effort as well. Becker noted that the sudden reversals have left the GSA with “costly confusion” instead of genuine savings.
The agency itself has declined to comment on staffing levels or the full financial toll, saying only that leadership was “making adjustments in the best interest of the customer agencies we serve and the American taxpayers.” Democrats on Capitol Hill have pounced, arguing that the reckless downsizing undermined services while delivering little to no benefit. “It’s created costly confusion while undermining the very services taxpayers depend on,” said Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, the top Democrat overseeing the GSA.
The shakeup has rippled across other departments as well. The IRS, Labor Department, and National Park Service have each begun quietly rehiring staff they once paid to leave.
Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office is reviewing the GSA’s workforce cuts, lease cancellations, and building disposal plans, with a report expected in the coming months. Until then, the administration faces the awkward spectacle of rehiring hundreds of workers it insisted were unnecessary, a reversal that underscores the risks of governing by blitz.