The Trump administration is mandating that federal workers return to the office full time as soon as possible.

Federal agencies are supposed to submit plans for how they will do that by 5 p.m. on Friday and employees will likely have to return to the office within 30 days.

That’s bringing up a lot of questions for federal employees who live outside of Washington, particularly about how long their commute will be and if going into the office five days a week is worth the job.

Layne is a federal worker who currently goes into the office two days a week. WYPR is only using her middle name because she fears reprisal for speaking out about the Trump administration’s telework policy.

She says she drives 20 minutes to the train station when she needs to get to D.C.

“The train ride is anywhere from about 40 minutes to an hour. I wake up at 4:10, in the morning, and I get to work bright and early, about between about 6 a.m. and 6:15,” she said.

She leaves the office at 3 p.m. and gets home around 5.

Most weeks she works in-person on back-to-back days.

“I'm so exhausted at the end of the day,” Layne said. “By that third morning, when I'm waking up and teleworking. I am just so brain dead, it's actually hard to focus that next day. I cannot imagine trying to get in the car and go in a third day.”

Many other federal workers are facing the same dilemma. There are about 300,000 who live in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area.

But even more commute in from West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Layne said some of her colleagues rent shared rooms for the days they work in the office so they don’t have to drive all the way home and commute back the next day.

Those extra people on the road could add more of a headache for everyone as more cars clog up the highways. In Baltimore, the lack of the Francis Scott Key Bridge also puts a snarl in things as it limits routes to leave and enter the city.

The MARC train says it is prepared for an influx of passengers.

“We are currently at about 50% pre pandemic ridership, so we do have capacity to accommodate additional passengers,” said David Johnson, the deputy director of MARC. “In the afternoons, we have introduced more limited stop service, which will reduce travel times. It'll really be a bonus for folks returning to the service, they'll find their definitely their trips home much quicker than the prior pandemic.”

However, finding the right work/life balance after spending years in a hybrid or fully telework environment may be difficult.

The Trump administration’s memo on telework claims telework has degraded government services and made it difficult to supervise workers.

However, federal agencies have had telework policies and agreements with employees for 15 years.

While most workers were teleworking during the pandemic, a report published last year by the Office of Management and Budget found that teleworking federal employees now spent about sixty percent of their time in the office.

That’s on par with the teleworking statistics across private industry.

The Office of Personnel Management has produced numerous studies that show federal teleworking improves morale, retention and stress.

Some agencies have done studies that showed productivity increases or stays the same when people telework because they have more flexibility.

Many federal workers live outside of D.C. to make ends meet.

According to Zillow, the average home in D.C. is more than six hundred thousand dollars and the average rent is between twenty two hundred and twenty five hundred dollars.

Layne moved from D.C. to Baltimore about forty miles away twenty years ago, when her spouse got a job there.

“We were actually able to buy a house here, where we couldn't in D.C. due to cost,” Layne said. “At this point, we have a life here, so moving back to the D.C. area is not something that's particularly financially feasible, and not a particularly pleasant option either.”

Layne says for her and many other employees, full-time, in-person work may make her reconsider her job.

“If it hadn't been for the flexibilities that my agency has offered, I would probably not still be working there,” she said. “It's those that life work flexibility that was offered is part of the reason I was able to stay at that job and still serving my country in that way.”

For now, federal workers are at the whim of the administration. Lawmakers and unions are working to challenge the White House order.