Resisting Resignation: Federal Workers Urged to Decline Buyout Offer

A Jan. 28 memo from the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM), with the subject “Fork in the Road,” offered more than two million federal workers the opportunity for a “deferred resignation,” meaning they would resign immediately but continue to be paid through September.

Government employee unions and attorneys have been quick to urge federal workers not to accept the deal.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, released a statement the same day the memo was issued, predicting that a purge of the federal government would have “vast, unintended consequences” for government workers as well as those they serve.

“This offer should not be viewed as voluntary,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”

Jim Eisenmann, a partner with Alden Law Group, which represents federal employees, told NPR that “this ‘fork’ thing is not a buyout. It’s not based on any law or regulation or anything really other than an idea they cooked up to get federal employees out of the government.”

Eisenmann went on to tell NPR that the offer may appear “like a soft landing” for federal employees who are hesitant about returning to in-person work on a full-time basis. But, he added, “there’s no guarantee other things won’t happen to them between now and then, like they won’t get fired for some other reason or they won’t get laid off pursuant to a reduction in force.”

The OPM memo has also sparked confusion and chaos among the scores of government employees it affects.

(The Associated Press has provided a summary of what to know about the buyout proposal, including what the offer entails, who is affected and what happens to workers who decide to stay.)

“A federal workforce of some 2 million people is still reeling after receiving a mass email that offered them a chance to preemptively resign ahead of additional and unspecified Trump administration efforts to shrink government,” wrote Politico’s Eli Stokols.

“With the terms of a stark but murky ultimatum unclear and likely subject to legal interpretations and challenges, upwards of hundreds of thousands of individual employees were struggling with what to do, increasingly uncertain about the stability of their jobs and their agencies.”

One Department of Justice (DOJ) employee—who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity, out of concerns about retribution—described the aftermath of the email as “chaos, mistrust [and] confusion. There’s also a deep suspicion, especially among people who think they may be on the chopping block, that this is the last lifeboat in town.”

A second anonymous DOJ employee characterized the fear the memo has engendered throughout the government as “unfathomable. And it is intentional. The new head of OMB [Russ Vought, who has not yet been confirmed by the Senate] said he wanted to traumatize the federal civil servants into leaving and it’s working.”

Some federal employees, however, are opting to stick around, with support from their colleagues throughout government.

For example, many have taken to Reddit to encourage their public sector peers to stay in their jobs, saying their presence is “the last line of defense against fascism.”

“I didn’t dedicate years of my life serving this great country to be bullied into quitting my career by a bunch of fascists,” one Reddit user wrote. “We are being led by the same types of people our grandparents fought against in WW2. They don’t care about us, regardless of the fact that one-third of us are veterans and many are military family members.”