Federal workers and their advocates on Wednesday condemned the Trump administration’s attempt to encourage them to resign en masse, describing an unprecedented email from the government’s human resources department office as a ham-handed attempt to create hostility in their workplaces and offer a false promise of an easy transition out of government service.
On Tuesday, the US office of personnel management (OPM) sent nearly all of its 3 million employees an email offering them deferred resignations and warning that, if they choose to stay, they may be laid off or reassigned.
The message shows signs of being connected to Elon Musk and the “department of government efficiency”, the effort sanctioned by Donald Trump that puts the multibillionaire entrepreneur in charge of dramatically downsizing Washington DC’s federal agencies. While Trump is far from the first president to promise Americans a leaner and more responsive government, the attempt to cut federal workers regardless of their titles has sparked alarm for its potential impact on the range of services these agencies provide.
“The Trump administration’s recent efforts to encourage the bulk of the federal workforce to resign are perplexing, of questionable legality and dangerous,” said Max Stier, president and CEO at the Partnership for Public Service, which advocates on behalf of civil servants. “Americans rely on federal workers to fly safely, help veterans and seniors access their benefits, keep our food and water safe, protect public health, respond to natural disasters, and maintain the rule of law. Stripping away expert talent through such a non-strategic approach puts all of us at risk in a profound way.”
The OPM’s email offers federal workers “deferred resignation” effective at the end of September, until which they can keep their positions and, if they choose, continue working from home, a practice the Trump administration is otherwise trying to curtail.
The offer is available to all federal workers except for postal and military service members and “those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security”. For those who remain in their jobs, the email says: “At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.”
“It’s obvious that this is a scam built on a Musk template,” a federal employee told the Guardian on condition of anonymity. “Taking this buyout – a voluntary separation – would mean forfeiting benefits like the pensions many of us are building toward, or reduced pensions for those who would be eligible. It’s a cruel joke and the various mocking lines about thanking people for their service are salt in the wound.”
A second federal employee described the email as heedless of the arrangements many workers already had, noting that before the Covid-19 made remote work common, they only occasionally worked in their office. They also noted how the email outlined four pillars of a “reformed federal workforce” that were either misleading or already standard parts of government employment.
One of the pillars is “enhanced standards of conduct”, which describes employees as “reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work”.
“This reads as a threat,” the employee said. “It’s already expected that we, as feds, do not take bribes, uphold laws, and are held to higher standards of conduct outside of normal American expectations.”
Federal workers were already braced for chaos and unpredictability under an administration that has promised to upend Washington, but the employee said that the tone-deaf nature of the message seemed to have hardened the resolves of their colleagues to stick around.
“This reaction I’m seeing has gone from a ‘I might have to leave my stable job that I love because it’s chaotic and targeted’ to a sense of ‘fuck you, I’m not leaving’. This email has started solidifying the resolve of the federal workforce,” the employee said.
Others doubt that the Trump administration will follow through on the email’s promise of “a dignified, fair departure” from federal service.
“They don’t have the authority to offer this to people. They don’t have the funding, they are not to be trusted. They just want us out,” a third federal worker said.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union for federal workers, warned that the Trump administration was attempting to create “a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to”.
“The number of civil servants hasn’t meaningfully changed since 1970, but there are more Americans than ever who rely on government services. Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” Kelley said.
Adding to the turmoil caused by the message are signs of Musk’s direct involvement in its phrasing. The email’s subject line: “Fork in the Road”, was the same as one sent to employees of the social media platform then known as Twitter in 2022, when Musk bought the company and cut staff in droves. The OPM’s new chief of staff, Amanda Scales, previously worked at one of Musk’s companies.
Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator representing Virginia, where many federal employees live and work, warned against taking the offer, pointing to the president’s own history of stiffing employees. “Don’t fall for it! Trump told innumerable contractors he’d pay – then stiffed them. He has no authority to promise severance pay. Wait him out!” Kaine wrote on X.
