The majority of federal employees were shocked by President Donald Trump's offer to leave immediately and continue to collect their salaries through September; some were incensed, many were perplexed, and some questioned if the offer was even lawful.
On Tuesday, a Mississippi-based employee of the US Department of Agriculture read the offer of deferred resignation, laughed because it was "nonsensical," and then erased it.
The staffer, who also served in the military, stated, "I have dedicated my entire life to the federal government." "I will not discard everything just yet."
In interviews with CNN, some government employees around the country stated that they would not be prepared to forgo advantages beyond their pay, such as retirement and health insurance, student debt forgiveness, and even their careers. For fear of reprisals, they asked that their identities not be used.
The offer of a deferred resignation was promptly criticized by federal workers' unions, who emphasized that it was not a buyout and that the administration might not be able to carry it out.
In a frequently asked question on Wednesday, the largest federal labor union, the American Federation of Government Employees, advised members not to take the Program at face value. The Office of Personnel Management's statements are "filled with uncertainties and inconsistencies." The eligibility requirements are likewise ambiguous, and it is uncertain if OPM has the legal right to endorse the Program or its purported advantages.
There are no assurances in the offer that workers whose resignations are accepted "will receive the benefits that the Program purports to offer," the union said. Additionally, it pointed out that the Trump administration cannot promise payments after mid-March until Congress approves a spending bill because the federal government is only financed to that point.
The Trump administration responded to the criticism by sending out another email to staff members on Friday, this time from their respective agencies. The offer is "valid, lawful, and will be honored by" the relevant departments, it was reaffirmed in emphasized text. The offerees will also "not be subject to a reduction-in-force or other premature separation," will not be required to work for the approximately eight-month term (with very few exceptions), and are free to pursue non-government employment during that time.
In an interview with reporters at the White House on Friday, Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy, said that "a significant number of federal workers have accepted the buyout offer" without providing any supporting data.
However, employees CNN spoke with are not seizing the opportunity to defect.
The OPM email's allusion to government employees' "loyalty" most angered the Mississippi USDA employee, who stated that accepting the offer was out of the question.
They told CNN, "I swore to defend the Constitution when I raised my right hand a long time ago." Therefore, I have no loyalty to anyone. I'm devoted to my nation.
The actions taken by Trump to change the government
Days after Elon Musk took over the company, X, then known as Twitter, sent an email to its staff that had a lot of parallels to the OPM email with the subject line "Fork in the Road." Musk is currently in charge of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, one of whose missions is to reduce the size of the government workforce.
The offer coincided with Trump's efforts to restructure the federal workforce, which include cutting back on diversity initiatives, replacing career employees with political appointees, eliminating some civil service protections, and more.
With the exception of postal workers, about 2.4 million federal employees are not eligible for the package. Military personnel and those working in national security and immigration enforcement roles are also not included.
By February 6, those who are eligible must make a decision.
According to a US Department of Agriculture employee who is getting close to retirement, neither they nor anyone else in their Illinois field office will accept Trump's offer.
The worker claimed, "They're trying to change everything overnight." "I don't believe they can successfully reimagine the government as they are attempting to do."
By the age of sixty, I retire. I have twenty-five years. I have a stake. "I won't be leaving," they added.
Additionally, Trump's administration wants to take tough measures against government workers who work from home or in hybrid positions instead of being in their offices full-time.
However, a large portion of the federal workforce works outside of the nation's capital, and many of those agencies were perplexed and skeptical of Trump's offer. An FAQ on the OPM website stated that employees would not be required to work and were urged to look for private sector employment, despite several employees claiming that it was unclear from the initial email if they would have to continue working through September.
"You are more than welcome to travel to your ideal location or just rest at home. "Anything you want," the FAQ stated.
The gloomy warning in the OPM email that "we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency" if they choose to stay did not sit well with some. The OPM FAQ, which promotes people to transition from "lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector" in order to increase American prosperity, also infuriated them.
An employee of the Labor Department told CNN that while they first thought about accepting the offer, "as time passes, more skepticism grows," partly due to their uncertainty about the Trump administration's ability to fulfill its promise of eight months of compensation.
The Trump administration's offer, according to one Department of Veterans Affairs employee, has backfired.
One day after getting the offer, the employee remarked, "Before today, I heard nothing except folks wanting to leave." "People are determined to stay today."
"Do they believe that we are foolish enough to do it?"
Some expressed skepticism about the initial offer to resign, claiming that the emails they had recently received from the OPM did not appear to be authentic. Some questioned their bosses about what to do after believing that the first test emails OPM delivered last week were phishing attempts.
According to some government employees, Trump's proposals may force them to relocate, and the offer undervalues the work they do, which they believe benefits Americans.
While some of their coworkers have shown interest in the offer, one Internal Revenue Service employee told CNN that it infuriated them.
"Do they believe that we are foolish enough to do it?" "I plan to remain with the federal government until retirement, which is still years away," the staffer stated. "They will have to let me go."
Helping individuals brings them fulfillment, according to the worker, who lives in the South with their spouse and little child.
"I truly enjoy it, particularly when I'm on the phone helping someone with their issues and [the taxpayer] receiving money that they've been frantically attempting to obtain on their own," the IRS employee remarked.
A few employees were disturbed by the OPM email. After receiving the package of deferred resignation, one employee of the Department of the Interior, who said that their division is already understaffed and has had to hire contractors who are paid more, was unable to sleep on Tuesday night.
It's a form of intimidation. The Oklahoma-based employee called it harassment. It's casting doubt on all of our effort and the significance of our work. It is not professional or humane to be handled in this way.
Federal employees are urged by unions to decline the offer.
In an interview with CNN, Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said the OPM email was crafted to pressure government employees to quit.
According to her, "it was written in a very negative tone, in a threatening manner." "It did not make clear what was being offered."
The union "strongly" urged members not to resign in an urgent notice issued to them after OPM made the offer public. According to Greenwald, the NTEU sought to convince workers that they had options.
"We had to provide that information to our members in order to protect them because there were no answers provided in that document," she told CNN.
Furthermore, Greenwald stated that a mass departure of federal workers "would be catastrophic to the federal government and the services that Americans depend on every day."
Similar mailings were sent to members of other federal employee unions, all of which questioned the offer's legitimacy.
In a statement released Wednesday, Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said, "This tactic is meant to scare civil servants into accepting what appears to be a sweet deal but is probably a scam, unlike structured programs that the federal government offered in the past to decrease the number of federal employees."
"The offer is a scare tactic intended to coerce federal employees into resigning while guaranteeing them payment until October under an unlawful and unenforceable agreement."