President Donald Trump wants to buy out employees of the federal government in his latest effort to downsize the federal workforce.
The United States Office of Personnel Management sent an email to the federal workforce on Tuesday presenting them with a “fork in the road” in the form of a “deferred resignation offer.”
The agency warned employees that the “reformed federal workforce” will have some significant changes: An expectation to work in physical offices five days per week; a culture focused on performance and excellence; a projected downsizing of many federal agencies; and an enhanced standard of conduct.
Those uncomfortable with that new arrangement are eligible for “deferred resignation” that will allow them to “retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload” and an exemption from “all applicable in-person work requirements” through the end of September.
In other words, those who wish to resign will receive eight months of pay and benefits, and will essentially be eligible for “paid administrative leave” for that period.
For many federal employees, that’s an offer that will be tough to refuse.
For taxpayers, that may seem like a lot of money to pay in exchange for zero work, but the White House projects that the “deferred resignation” program will downsize the federal government by 5 percent to 10 percent, as well as save taxpayers $100 billion per year, according to a report from Axios.
The offer was made available to the entire federal workforce except for military personnel, the Postal Service, and those who are in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security.
Those who wish to take the “fork in the road” out of the federal government have until Feb. 6 to make the decision, and they can execute that move in a very simple way.
Should the number of federal government employees be drastically reduced?
They can merely “reply” to the email blast from their official government accounts, type the word “resign” into the body of the reply email, and then hit “send.”
Axios noted that the move resembles the way in which Elon Musk — heading up Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency — cut down the size of X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, when he bought the company three years ago.
He had communicated to employees that downsizing was coming and that much more intense expectations would be forthcoming, then gave employees who were not on board with that decision the chance to exit.
America PAC, the political entity founded by Musk, made note of the move on X, while Musk shared the post and acknowledged the “fork in the road.”
An unnamed senior administration official confirmed to Axios that the mass email “is to make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards.”
“We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office,” the official added. “That is unacceptable.”
Trump, and probably Musk, indeed know exactly what they are doing with this move.
They are offering the least devoted and laziest federal employees the chance to self-select out of a workforce that will hopefully be much more efficient and much less bloated.
In the process, the government will achieve a leaner workforce, thanks to the removal of the dead weight.
Plus, the Trump administration has now made clear that people uninterested in producing excellent work will not be welcome in the federal workforce and simply need not apply.
This truly is an unprecedented “fork in the road,” not only for federal employees, but for the way our country is fundamentally governed.
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