As the second Trump Administration begins with a tidal wave of executive orders, funding freezes and payment system takeovers, a government agency that previously toiled in obscurity has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM.)
Acting as a kind of HR department for the federal government and tasked with managing that workforce, the OPM made headlines last week when it sent millions of federal workers a “buyout” offer, or the chance to turn in a deferred resignation. Employees have until Feb. 6 to decide if they want to stay in their roles and return to the office five days a week, or step away from their duties but continue collecting a salary through September. The offer email was sent out to workers with the subject line “Fork in the Road,” the same language that Elon Musk used when he cut thousands of jobs from Twitter after taking over the company.
The resignation push follows promises from Trump and key ally Elon Musk to dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce via the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which Musk heads up. In under three weeks since Trump took office, efforts on that front have included the termination of all federal job roles related to DEI initiatives, and an attempt to eradicate the USAID agency which provides foreign assistance to countries struggling with issues like poverty, HIV and starvation. Musk and his team have also gained access to Treasury Department data and the federal payment system, which allows them insight into government spending and has led to worries that they could potentially cut off various payments.
Fortune spoke with Rob Shriver, the former acting managing director of the OPM from May 2024 through part of January 2025, to get his thoughts on the dramatic changes to his former agency, and the effect it will have on the federal workforce moving forward. He now works as the managing director for Civil Service Strong, a coalition that operates as part of Democracy Forward, a national legal organization.
The Trump administration did not immediately reply to Fortune’s request for comment.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Fortune: What do you make of the moment we're in broadly? Can you put into context what's happening with federal workers right now?
Shriver: It’s very clear to me [that] the broad context of what's going on here is a strategy to drive out career expert, non-partisan civil servants through all means possible; block federal agencies from back-filling those positions by having a hiring freeze and then surging in unqualified, unvetted political appointees who are loyal only to the president.
All of these different actions have the same theme to them: how can we drive out these federal employees? Now, [the Trump administration] is saying they want to do it to shrink the size of government and that may be part of it too. But at the same time, they are changing the rules to allow for a surge of political appointees to come in.
What do you make of Trump's buyout offer?
It is unprecedented. There are established programs for the federal government to offer people early retirement or to pay them financial incentives to resign. These are programs that are set up under the law, implemented through regulations—federal workers can count on those programs. My question is: why are they bypassing those for this “fork in the road” type deal that's based on what Elon Musk did at Twitter? And so it makes me very skeptical, given that there are these other programs that they could have made use of, and they're not.
I think there are questions about the legal viability of using all of this appropriated money to pay workers not to do their job instead of paying them to do the job that Congress wants them to do.
How is that buyout offer playing out among federal employees? Are they considering it, or shying away?
We’ll see what the final number is, but I would imagine that there are a lot of people who are taking all the time that's available to make a decision, because the initial offer raised so many questions.
First of all, [federal employees] are being just tormented right now with all of these threats of being put on administrative leave, being subjected to a reduction of force, being terminated without going through the legally required processes. Federal employees know that all of this is going on, and it has them scared, and so I think this is all part of the same strategy. You’re trying to make federal employees feel as anxious and unsettled as possible to convince them to take this deal.
Federal employees often are rule followers, and this is something that is not within the normal rules. So I think they're going to struggle with that.
What kind of effect will the RTO mandate have on the federal workforce? What changes are you expecting?
What’s unfortunate is there's not a fact-based discussion about this issue coming out of the administration. You know, 54% of federal workers are not eligible for telework because of the nature of the job they do. The other 46%, if you look on average, they're spending three out of every five days in the office. So you know, the numbers that are thrown around by the administration are not accurate. I am really concerned about the impact on the American people of a kind of one-size-fits-all return to the office five days a week, with a strict deadline for doing so.
I’ll give one example that is particularly on my mind. It’s well documented there is a huge shortage of cybersecurity talent in the country across all sectors. That is a profession that largely works from home. The federal government has a huge need for cyber security workers. If they are required to come to the office five days a week, they have a lot of opportunities in the private sector. So I am very concerned about an exodus of cyber security talent from the federal government.
What do you expect the federal workforce to look like six months from now? A year from now?
The fight has just begun. There are legal rights that federal employees have and they have them for really good reasons. We can't have people inspecting the meat who are hired because they voted a certain way, rather than based on their skills. As the administration attempts to carry out efforts in a way that doesn't comply with those rules, we’re already seeing a lot of litigation to try and stop this stuff and slow it down.
I wouldn't say that just because [it’s] their goal that they're going to succeed in making immediate huge cuts to the government.
What kind of conversations are you having with federal employees right now?
They’re heartbreaking. I've worked with a lot of federal employees in my career. I've represented federal employees. I've led OPM as a champion of federal employees. And what I've learned over all those years is federal employees care about the thing that they work on, whatever that thing is. They really care deeply about it; they just want to be part of the conversation and they want to be helpful.
They understand that, as career federal employees, the political leadership changes, and they view their role as providing the political leadership with their expertise and the historical knowledge they may have. They understand that then the political leaders make whatever decision they have to make, and then [the federal employees] go and implement it. When you have that mindset, it's very hard to understand that you're now being punished for doing the very thing that you thought you were supposed to do.
It's very hard to be totally cut out of what's going on in your agency, and have people from the outside–from the Elon Musk world–coming in and taking over and completely shutting you out and not being able to contribute anything at all.
What did you make of President Trump encouraging federal workers to quit their “lower productivity jobs” and find work in the private sector?
In what other business does the head of the business denigrate and go to war with his own employees? It just doesn't make any sense.
I know these guys are business people, and maybe they have a bias toward that. I think they should spend some time with federal employees. I think they should talk to them. They should start to understand what the job is that they do and what motivates them.
Are you a current or former federal worker with direct knowledge about what’s happening in the government right now? I’d like to hear from you! Please contact me using a private device at sara.braun@fortune.com, or through secure messaging app Signal at sarabraun2.26
