The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has told more than 5,500 hybrid and teleworking employees that must return to a work schedule from the entire site.
The effective movement ends remote work in JPLThat had been a fixed element in the Pasadena laboratory, California from the pandemic. Many of the almost 5,500 JPL employees work at hybrid or totally removed schedules. The employees were notified by email on Thursday (May 22) that the end of teleworking would enter into force on August 25 for general employees within California and on October 27 for teleworkors living outside the state.
“The employees who do not return on their required date will be consulted to resign,” JPL officials said in an email from the entire workforce that Space.com obtained.
The decision is produced in the middle of a generalized budget throughout the space agency, since NASA faces a potential 25% reduction in funds Through the request for “Skinny Budget” of the Trump 2026 administrations. The proportion of proposal is to generate broader concerns throughout NASA about the future of key programs, including planetary defense efforts and the upcoming space science missions, many of which are directed by JPL, the main center of the Agency for Robotic Planetary Exploration.
JPL is funded by the Federal Government, but administered by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Last year, through two separate rounds of layoffs in February and NovemberJPL dismissed more than 12% of its workforce, around 855 employees. The laboratory yielded budgets and financing deficit linked to the restructured Mars sample return Mission campaign, that the budget proposal of the Trump 2026 administrations Cancels directly.
The new end of teleworking means that employees now face the option to return to the office full time or lose their work without quality for the benefits after employment or the possibility of requesting INEPLEYENT. And those in the JPL workforce that live outside California now face Wheter’s decision or not uproot their lives to move through state lines.
“It is clear that it is a silent dismissal of the more than 1,000 remote employees to those who do not want to pay compensation,” a NASA employee in JPLS not authorized to talk about the Toold Space.com agency.
Some of JPL teleworkors may not be able to choose at all. Some of them are still recovering from the damage and displacement caused by the Palisades fire in January, which led to the laboratories Temporary closure and housing options and claims affected for laboratory employees throughout the south of California. People in this position can be given “limited” exceptions, but those will be “extremely rare,” email told employees, and will require the approval of the JPL director and the leadership of the site.
JPL employees have until July 20 to indicate that they intend to return to work in the office, or ostible resigned from their work.
The new requirement in person has introduced a new uncertainty to a concern that is felt throughout NASA, since the agency aligns with new federal mandates. For example, some JPL employees who return to work on the site may not find a dedicated space to do their job. “There is not even enough parking,” said JPL employee. JPL officials dispute this, they tell Space.com in an email, the installation could be lodged on the return of teleworking employees if everyone chooses to return.
The policy change also produces only two weeks after the director of JPL, Laurie Leshin, announced that it would be Withdrawing from your position Leading the laboratory, as of June 1. He wrote the recent email of the entire employee with the incoming director Dave Gallagher. The decision, according to JPL officials, is one that was taken within JPL, and not directed by NASA.
