President Donald Trump recently offered the vast federal workforce a buyout that would be hard to refuse, and many seem to be taking him up on the deal as the administration proves they are serious about downsizing.
At the end of January, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to most federal employees presenting them with a “fork in the road” in the form of a “deferred resignation offer.”
Anyone uncomfortable with the higher performance standards and the end of remote work can simply take a “deferred resignation” that will allow them to “retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload,” plus an exemption from “all applicable in-person work requirements,” through the end of September.
Reuters reported on the basis of comments from a White House source that some 20,000 people, or 1 percent of the 2.3 million employee government workforce, have taken Trump up on the deal.
That’s a good deal short of the 5 percent to 10 percent initially expected by the White House to take the offer.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that there were more than 40,000 workers who took the deal.
She said that the administration expects “that number to increase” and advised them to take advantage of the arrangement.
“We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer,” she said.
“If they don’t want to show up to the office, if they want to rip the American people off, then they’re welcome to take this buyout, and we’ll find highly competent individuals who want to fill these roles,” Leavitt added.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is encouraging all federal workers to take Trump’s “very generous” buyout offer. Leavitt says at least 40,000 workers have accepted the offer so far.
Leavitt spoke before a federal judge temporarily blocked the plan: https://t.co/neErMuPaIV pic.twitter.com/BQ4qcFF0OP
— The National Desk (@TND) February 6, 2025
Those who have not yet taken the deal are surely wondering whether they should.
The downsizing of the federal workforce comes as Elon Musk and his crack team at the Department of Government Efficiency spend their time erasing entire federal agencies.
In Musk’s own words, they just “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.
Could gone to some great parties.
Did that instead. https://t.co/0V35nacICW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
Though many workers may have laughed off the buyout offer, they may be taking it a bit more seriously at this point.
There is, of course, talk about entirely abolishing the Department of Education, but that rhetoric was featured on the campaign trail, and Republicans have been talking about it for a generation.
The effort to overthrow the woke patronage and money-funneling network enabled by USAID is a bit different.
No specific campaign promises were made about USAID.
Before anyone knew what was happening, Musk was shining a light on the wasteful and woke spending from the agency, and the entire entity was being dismantled before the nation’s eyes.
Surely some of those federal employees are wondering whether they are next.
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