Federal workers ponder an existential question: Do I pack up and quit?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—Two million government workers opened their email inboxes this week to find a note from an obscure federal agency offering them a chance to resign on the spot. One employee said they thought the email, sent late Tuesday, was a phishing scam.
It didn’t look like a normal government communication with specific details about how the process would work. By Wednesday, government workers were attempting to make sense of the offer. Many didn’t know whether it was legal.
The obscure agency, called the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, told federal workers they could return to the office full-time or resign and get paid for the next eight months. Workers had until Feb. 6 to decide how to proceed.
A thread on the social-media platform Reddit used by federal workers lit up with defiant messages. One said they had been considering quitting but “now I am fired up to make these goons as frustrated as possible…. Hold the line!" Another said, “If we leave, we will be replaced by loyalists." The Trump administration’s offer, meant to aid Elon Musk’s effort to streamline federal spending, has sparked chaos and confusion among the workforce and prompted unions for government workers to push back.
A common concern: The Trump administration made clear that even those government employees who stay on could still eventually lose their jobs as the president works to downsize the federal government. “At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency," the OPM email said. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents federal workers in dozens of departments and agencies, sent a message to members urging them not to resign.
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