Federal employee unions and lawyers are urging government employees not to accept an offer from the Trump administration to resign from their jobs by February 6 and receive their salaries until the end of September.
The offer came in an email telling employees they had until February 6 to accept the deal. Calling it a “deferred resignation program,” anyone wishing to resign was instructed to respond to the email with the word “Resign” and click “Send.”
Almost immediately after the memo hit inboxes, federal employees began sharing their confusion, anger, and disbelief on social media.
Several federal employees told NPR that before last week, they had never received any communication directly from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Some even questioned whether the email was real.
And many of them did not understand if, in the case of resigning, they would have to continue working until September.
“We represent people who do cybersecurity at NASA and elsewhere. We represent scientists, engineers. At the Navy shipyards, we represent people who prepare those submarines and aircraft carriers to go to sea to support our Navy personnel,” said Matthew Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) to NPR. The IFPTE represents about 30,000 federal employees, including employees from NASA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice.
“And if all these people accept the offer? What would their departures mean for the government’s ability to meet its responsibilities?
“The quality will drop,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, to The New York Times. “Because these are the people who have the expertise. And when the quality starts to drop, what else can you do but say: ‘The federal government has failed us.’”
She and others fear an exodus of experienced workers: more than a quarter of federal employees are 55 or older, according to the Pew Research Center. More than half have a bachelor’s degree or higher. At the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been a particular target in recent days, two-thirds of the more than 4,600 employees have a doctorate, master’s, or other graduate degree, according to Pew.
Trump’s allies dismissed such concerns. The White House said it expects 5 to 10 percent of the federal workforce, about 200,000 people, to accept the offer.
Crackdown on Remote Work
While some federal employees are fully remote, most on any given day are working in person in an office, according to a 2024 report from the Office of Management and Budget. Still, tens of thousands have been working remotely at least several days a week over the past few years, and the Trump administration has been straightforward in saying it wants all employees to work in an office full-time.
“We don’t want them working from home because, as everyone knows, most of the time, they aren’t working, they’re not very productive,” Trump said on Wednesday (29).
With the end of telework, he added, “We think a very substantial number of people will not show up to work and, therefore, our government will be smaller and more efficient, and that’s what we’ve been trying to do for many, many decades.”
Legality of the Offer
Union leaders, elected officials, and labor lawyers say the government’s offer may not even be legal, in part because it circumvents individual agency discretion and existing union agreements. Some said the Office of Personnel Management likely does not have the authority to make such offers. Additionally, it currently lacks the budget to back the offer, as the government only has an approved budget through mid-March.
Sources: NPR and The New York Times