President Donald Trump has threatened to downscale the government by February 6th if federal workers are not back in the office.
He has given a hard deadline via a government-wide email on Jan. 28 aimed at employees with the immediate option to participance in a "deferred resignation program" which would give them the ability to decide whether to resign in September or not.
The program expects that up to 10% of federal employees —as many as 200,000— to quit their jobs, senior administration officials told CBS News. They also said only about 6% of federal employees work full-time in office.
"If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason)," the email states.
The website of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) gives an outline of the deferred resignation program, describing it as administrative leave with pay and benefits.
The email also described some of the Trump administration's reforms and their effects on the federal workforce. "The substantial majority of federal employees" working remotely since the pandemic "will be required to return to their physical offices five days a week," the email said.
It added that some agencies and parts of the military "are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments and reductions in force."
The decision was quickly condemned by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union in the U.S.
"Purging the federal government of dedicated career civil servants will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government," said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.
Kelley added that the offer sent out by the Trump administration "should not be viewed as voluntary," adding that it is clear the President's goal is to "turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to."
The voluntary program won't be available to personnel in the military, the U.S. Postal Service, immigration enforcement and national security or any positions specifically excluded by their agency, the email says.
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