Trump's incentive for federal workers to resign sows doubt
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
With a typical buyout, a company offers workers money and maybe some benefits, and in exchange they quit. It's a gentler way to reduce headcount, and things typically go fairly smoothly.
Why it matters: Smooth is not the word for what's happened to the federal workforce over the past day and a half, not that things were going great before that either.
- An offer to pay federal workers through September, if they resign in the next week, is creating confusion, sowing doubt and surfacing mistrust among government employees, who together comprise the biggest workforce in the U.S.
The big picture: The fallout echoes what happened after Elon Musk famously emailed Twitter employees in 2022 trying to get them to quit.
- Both missives were titled "A fork in the road."
- Musk's Twitter pitch was more straightforward — he offered three months severance — but it was met with confusion and the fallout was rocky.
- Some who quit were later called and asked to reconsider. Thousands claimed they hadn't gotten their severance, and their lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
State of play: Federal workers have been confused about this White House deal since it went out late Tuesday afternoon.
- Workers say the documents they've received are unclear as to whether they'd be asked to work after tendering their resignation.
- The White House, the Office of Personnel Management and Musk (via a post on X) say employees won't have to work if they resign.
- That hasn't been reassuring to many employees, who are more apt to believe official documents over social media posts.
- Some were left wondering on Wednesday if they'd really get paid through September if they chose to resign.
What they're saying: "We're telling our members not to resign because there's really no guarantee" that "they'll get paid," said Everett Kelley, president of AFGE, a union that represents 800,000 federal workers from lawyers to janitors.
- Kelley notes that the federal government is only funded through March 14, so the White House can't guarantee workers will get paid after that.
The other side: An administration official tells Axios that people who choose to take what it calls "deferred leave" are in no different a situation than other federal workers when it comes to budget talks.
- Whether you choose to stay in your job or take the deal, everyone is in the same boat on March 14.
Zoom out: Federal workers were already anxious over the return-to-office order that's been issued, as well as the White House push to make it easier to fire career civil servants by reclassifying them as "Schedule F" employees.
- Kelley's union teamed up with the ACLU and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to file a lawsuit over the reclassification effort on Wednesday.
The bottom line: Since taking office, President Trump has made federal workers super uneasy, part of his push to make the government leaner and more efficient.
- Reassurances on social media probably aren't enough to quell the fear and confusion.
