Trump offers buyouts to Federal employees resisting in-person work

Commuters at Farragut West station in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023. Subway riders in Washington are facing a tougher commute next year with the agency that runs the public transit system serving the nation's capital forecasting thousands of layoffs and service cuts to plug a $750 million budget hole. Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg

President Donald Trump is offering buyouts to agency employees who don’t want to comply with his demands that they return to the office as he looks to reshape the federal workforce in his second term.

The buyouts will run through Sept. 30 as long as the employees resign by Feb. 6. The Office of Personnel Management posted what it said was a copy of that email on a website page titled “Fork in the Road.”

The buyouts were offered in an email to federal employees that also warned that the administration was seeking a “more streamlined and flexible workforce.”

“While a few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force,” the email said. “These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.”

The Trump administration also plans for “meaningful consolidation and divestitures” of physical office space in the future, according to the memo.

Military personnel, the US Postal Service, and jobs related to national security or immigration enforcement were among a number of federal positions exempted from the offer. The buyout offers were first reported by Axios.

Federal workers who want to leave are instructed to simply reply to the memo from their .gov government email account. “Type the word ‘Resign’ into the body of this reply email. Hit ‘Send’.” Those who didn’t reply to the memo were given another way to quit, by sending an email to an OPM human resources email account with the word “Resign” in the subject line.

Federal Fight
Many of Trump’s actions are likely to face court challenges. The head of the American Federation of Government Employees in a statement Tuesday said Trump’s “goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”

“Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.

Trump in one of his first actions of his new administration, ordered government workers back to the office, revoking work-from-home accommodations under his predecessor Joe Biden.

On Monday, the Trump administration gave agencies until Feb. 7 to devise plans for the return of federal employees to in-person work. The return-to-office mandate applies to federal workers “unless excused due to a disability, qualifying medical condition, or other compelling reason certified by the agency head.” Military spouses working civilian jobs are also exempt.

In addition, separate guidance from the Office of Personnel Management on Monday gave Trump authority to hire and fire some employees who previously had civil service protection.

Return-to-work policies are a focus of Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla Inc. and SpaceX CEO heading the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk pushed for the mandate in an attempt to encourage some federal workers to simply quit or be fired as no-shows.

Many federal workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements, including one that Social Security Administration workers secured in the final days of the Biden administration, that allow more flexible work arrangements.

Data from the Office of Management and Budget show that about 10% of the workforce is permanently remote — including disabled workers with a documented accommodation, military spouses and those where the nature of the work is mobile.