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U.S. federal deferred resignation program

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"Fork in the Road" is the title and subject line of a memo sent on January 28, 2025 by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to all employees of the U.S. federal civil service. The memo, the first ever mass message to all roughly two million federal employees, offered a deferred resignation program for those unwilling to work under the second presidency of Donald Trump. The memo led to confusion about its authorship and legality, with several federal employee labor unions and political leaders advising employees not to accept the offer.

Background

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Further information: Civil service reform in the United States and Unitary executive theory

During the 2024 United States presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump proposed downsizing the federal civil service and publicly considered a potential role for businessman Elon Musk.[1] After the election, Trump and Musk announced the Department of Government Efficiency, intended to eliminate wasteful spending.[2] Several high-profile members of what Politico and Vox call the "tech right", including Musk and Marc Andreessen, have expressed desires to restructure the federal civil service to better support Trump's agenda.[3][2]

On the first day of Trump's administration, he issued the presidential memorandum "Return to In-Person Work", directing agencies to cancel all remote work agreements.[4][5] Similarly, the administration directed OPM to categorize some employees under the controversial Policy/Career appointment authority, removing competitive service job protections for positions considered "policy-related".[6]

In the first week of Trump's administration, rapid changes to federal programs and reassignments of career staff led to confusion and fear amongst federal employees.[7][1] On January 25, OPM began sending test emails to all civil servants. As communications in the government are generally kept within each agency, the emails were often flagged as spam and confused employees.[8]

Offer

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On January 28, 2025, an email entitled "Fork in the Road" was sent to the roughly two million civilian employees of the US government.[9] Besides the immediately preceding test emails, it was the first-ever mass email to all two million federal civilian employees.[8] According to the memo, employees who accept the deferred resignation would be placed on administrative leave and paid through September 30, 2025, but have no work duties.[10][11] On January 31, OPM approved Voluntary Early Retirement Authority for all agencies.[12] On February 3, a new deferred resignation agreement form was sent that provided more details and legal assurances.[13]

OPM excluded from the offer military and U.S. Postal Service workers, as well as immigration enforcement and national security positions.[14] It also allowed agencies to exempt further positions. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection exempted their entire staff, and the Social Security Administration exempted a vast majority of its positions.[12][15] The Department of Veterans Affairs stated that its agencies reserved the option of rejecting resignation requests from those in essential services such as health care, public safety, and law enforcement.[16]

Authorship

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Several publications noted the similarities to an offer given to Twitter employees after its acquisition by Elon Musk, including an identical title.[17][3][18][19] A January 28 Wired article uncovered that several high-ranking OPM staff were former employees of Musk, including a recent high school graduate,[20] which Fortune connected to the memo's similarities to that of Twitter.[21] The Washington Post reported that the memo had been drafted and sent entirely by staff close to Musk, bypassing political officials in the White House.[22] Reuters likewise reported that employees of Musk had moved beds into OPM to stay in the director's office around the clock and had locked out career staff, a situation one of the career staff described as a "hostile takeover" of the agency.[23]

Response

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Labor unions representing federal civil servants opposed the memo and advised their members not to take the offer. The American Federation of Government Employees stated that the resignation scheme should be viewed as coerced rather than voluntary as it immediately followed the annulment of remote work and other workplace benefits.[18] The National Treasury Employees Union likewise indicated that the offer was intended to "scare" employees into accepting, and strongly urged its members to ignore it.[24] The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers found the offer to be too vague to advise members to accept.[25]

Others questioned the legality of the offer.[22] Patty Murray, vice chair of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, warned that Congress had not given statutory authority or allocated appropriations for the offer.[25] Senator Tim Kaine likewise cautioned that there may not be authority to pay those who take the offer, warning employees that they may be "stiffed" by the administration if they resign.[11][1] The government only has funding through March 15, 2025, as it is currently funded by a continuing resolution, despite the offer promising salary payments through September 30.[22]

More than three-quarters of employees surveyed by Federal News Network told the news agency that they did not plan to accept the offer. Of the 11% who intended to accept, more than half already had plans to retire from or otherwise leave the civil service.[26]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Davies, Emily; Stein, Jeff; Siddiqui, Faiz (January 28, 2025). "White House incentivizes federal workers to resign". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Robertson, Derek (December 10, 2024). "How the tech right wants to run America". Politico. Archived from the original on December 14, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Prokop, Andrew (January 29, 2025). "Trump and Musk's plan for a massive purge of the federal workforce, explained". Vox. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025.
  4. ^ Satter, Raphael (January 20, 2025). "Trump orders federal workers back to office, weakens job protections". Reuters. Archived from the original on January 21, 2025.
  5. ^ Wagner, Erich (January 23, 2025). "OPM demands agencies comply with Trump's telework order within 30 days". Government Executive. Archived from the original on January 23, 2025.
  6. ^ Gibson, Kate (January 29, 2025). "As Trump seeks to reshape the federal workforce, unions blast his Schedule F plan". CBS News. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
  7. ^ Green, Erica L.; Robertson, Campbell; Scheiber, Noam (January 25, 2025). "Trump's moves to upend federal bureaucracy touch off fear and confusion". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025.
  8. ^ a b O'Keefe, Ed; Brown, Kristin (January 24, 2025). "Trump administration confuses government workers with email test message". CBS News. Archived from the original on January 24, 2025.
  9. ^ Cameron, Chris; Ngo, Madeleine; Green, Erica L. (January 28, 2025). "Trump administration entices millions of federal workers to resign". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 1, 2025.
  10. ^ Hsu, Andrea (January 28, 2025). "Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September". All Things Considered. NPR. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Wu, Daniel; Brasch, Ben (January 28, 2025). "What federal workers should know about Trump administration's 'deferred resignation' offer". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
  12. ^ a b Wagner, Erich (January 31, 2025). "OPM will grant VERA authority to all agencies, as confusion around 'deferred resignation' program continues". Government Executive. Archived from the original on February 1, 2025.
  13. ^ Weinger, Mackenzie; Curi, Maria (February 3, 2025). "Federal workers receive 'deferred resignation' form agreement". Axios. Archived from the original on February 3, 2025.
  14. ^ Hetzner, Christiaan (January 29, 2025). "Trump to federal employees on 'fork in the road': Quit now and collect eight months' pay for nothing". Fortune. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
  15. ^ Heckman, Jory (January 31, 2025). "Agency exemptions to OPM's deferred resignation offer come into focus". Federal News Network. WFED. Archived from the original on February 4, 2025.
  16. ^ Patricia, Kime (February 3, 2025). "VA emails employees resignation buyout offer as senator urges caution before accepting". Military.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2025.
  17. ^ Dayen, David (January 29, 2025). "Elon Musk offers federal workers an unauthorized buyout". The American Prospect. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025.
  18. ^ a b Schiffer, Zoë (January 28, 2025). "Elon Musk is running the Twitter playbook on the federal government". Wired. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025.
  19. ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Mattu, Ravi; Warner, Bernhard; Kessler, Sarah; de la Merced, Michael J.; Hirsch, Lauren; Lee, Edmund (January 29, 2025). "Shadows of Musk in the government's buyouts plan". DealBook. The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025.
  20. ^ Elliott, Vittoria (October 28, 2025). "Elon Musk lackeys have taken over OPM". Wired. Archived from the original on January 28, 2025.
  21. ^ Rogelberg, Sasha (January 29, 2025). "Top hires in Trump's Office of Personnel Management reportedly include a 21-year-old and a freshly graduated high-schooler". Fortune. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
  22. ^ a b c Davies, Emily; Stein, Jeff; Siddiqui, Faiz (January 29, 2025). "Musk team's push to gut federal workforce bypassed key Trump officials". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
  23. ^ Reid, Tim (January 31, 2025). "Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say". Reuters. Archived from the original on January 31, 2025.
  24. ^ Reid, Tim; Gardner, Timothy; Douglas, Leah (January 29, 2025). "Unions warn government workers not to trust Trump's offer to quit". Reuters. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025.
  25. ^ a b Wagner, Erich; Katz, Eric (January 23, 2025). "Employee groups, Democrats, experts warn feds not to accept 'deferred resignation' offer". Government Executive. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.
  26. ^ Heckman, Jory (January 29, 2025). "Survey: Most feds say OPM's resignation offer too uncertain to accept". Federal News Network. WFED. Archived from the original on January 30, 2025.

See also

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