CNN
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President Donald Trump’s offer to most federal employees to resign now and be paid through September stunned the workers who received it – angering some, confusing many and raising questions about whether the offer is even legal.
When a US Department of Agriculture staffer based in Mississippi received the deferred resignation offer on Tuesday, they read through it, laughing because it was just “nonsensical,” and then deleted it.
“I’ve got my whole entire life invested in the federal government,” said the staffer, who also spent time in the military. “I’m not going to throw everything away.”
Across the United States, multiple federal workers who spoke with CNN said they weren’t willing to sacrifice benefits beyond their salaries – including health and retirement benefits and student loan forgiveness – not to mention careers. They requested their names not be used for fear of retaliation.
Federal workers’ unions quickly lashed out at the deferred resignation offer, stressing that it was not a buyout and that the administration might not be able to follow through on it.
“Employees should not take the Program at face value,” the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workforce union, told members about the offer in an FAQ on Wednesday. The communications from the Office of Personnel Management are “riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainties. It is also unclear whether OPM has the legal authority to support the Program or its alleged benefits, and the eligibility criteria are vague.”
The union warned that the offer contains no guarantees that employees whose resignations are accepted “will receive the benefits that the Program purports to offer.” And it noted that the federal government is only funded through mid-March, so the Trump administration cannot make payment promises beyond then until Congress passes a spending bill.
The backlash prompted the Trump administration to send another email to employees on Friday, this time coming from their individual agencies. It reinforced, in underlined text, that the offer is “valid, lawful, and will be honored by” the respective departments. Also, those who accept the offer will “not be subject to a reduction-in-force or other premature separation,” will not be expected to work during the roughly eight-month period (with rare exceptions) and can take a non-governmental job during that time.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller said, without evidence, that “a significant number of federal workers have accepted the buyout offer” during a gaggle with reporters at the White House Friday.
But workers CNN interviewed are not jumping at the chance to jump ship.
The Mississippi USDA employee, who said accepting the offer is out of the question, was most offended that the OPM email referenced that federal employees should be “loyal.”
“When I raised my right hand way back a long time ago, I swore to defend the Constitution,” they told CNN. “So I’m not loyal to anybody. I’m loyal to my country.”
The OPM email, which contained the subject line “Fork in the Road,” had many similarities to an email that X, then called Twitter, sent to its employees days after Elon Musk took over the company. Musk now leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked with shrinking the federal workforce as one of its mandates.
The offer came as Trump seeks to reshape the federal workforce – including reducing its size, replacing career workers with political appointees, wiping away some civil service protections, ending diversity efforts and more.
Some 2.4 million people work for the federal government, not including postal workers, who are not eligible for the package. Also excluded are military personnel and those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, among others.
Those who qualify have to decide by February 6.
A US Department of Agriculture employee, who is nearing retirement, said they won’t take Trump up on the incentive and don’t expect anyone else in their field office in Illinois to, either.
“They’re trying to change everything overnight,” said the employee. “They’re trying to reinvent the government, and I don’t think they can do it.”
“I retire by 60. I have my 25 years. I’m vested. I’m not going anywhere,” they continued.
Trump’s administration is also seeking to crack down on federal employees working from home or in hybrid roles, rather than in their offices full-time.
But much of the federal workforce is located outside the nation’s capital, and Trump’s offer was met with confusion and skepticism in many of those offices. While some workers said it was unclear from the original email if they’d have to continue working through September, an FAQ on the OPM site said that employees would not be expected to work and were encouraged to find private sector jobs.
“You are most welcome (to) stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination. Whatever you would like,” the FAQ read.
Others didn’t like the ominous warning in the OPM email that if they opt to stay, “we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency.” They also bristled at the OPM FAQ that encourages workers to move from “lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector” to boost American prosperity.
A Labor Department employee told CNN they initially considered the offer, but said, “as time passes, more skepticism grows,” in part because of their doubts that the Trump administration will follow through on the eight months of pay it offered.
One Department of Veterans Affairs worker said the Trump administration’s offer had backfired.
“Before today, I heard nothing except folks wanting to leave,” the worker said a day after receiving the offer. “Today folks are determined to stay.”
The initial offer to quit raised eyebrows among some who said the emails they’ve received lately from the OPM did not look legitimate. Some thought the initial test emails OPM sent last week were phishing scams, prompting them to ask their managers what to do.
Some federal workers said Trump’s changes will uproot their lives – and said the offer diminishes the value of work they believe helps Americans.
One Internal Revenue Service worker told CNN that the offer angered them, although a few of their colleagues have expressed interest in it.
“Do they think we’re stupid enough to do it?” said the staffer, who intends to stay with the federal government until retirement, which is still years away. “They are going to have to fire me.”
The worker, who lives in the South with their spouse and young child, said they find it fulfilling to help people.
“I really do love it, especially when I’m on the phone with someone getting their problems sorted out and [the taxpayer is] having money coming their way that they’ve been desperately trying to get ahold of on their own,” the IRS staffer said.
Some workers found the OPM email disturbing. One Department of Interior employee – who said their division is already understaffed and has had to hire contractors, who are paid more – couldn’t sleep on Tuesday night after receiving the deferred resignation package.
“It’s intimidation. It’s harassment,” said the worker, who lives in Oklahoma. “It’s questioning all the hard work and importance of what we do. Being treated like this is not humane, and it’s not professional.”
The OPM email was written in a manner designed to coerce federal employees to resign, Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, told CNN in an interview.
“It was written in a very negative tone, in a threatening manner,” she said. “It provided no clarity on what was being offered.”
After OPM announced the offer, the union sent an urgent notice to members “strongly” urging them not to resign. The NTEU wanted to reassure employees that they had a choice, Greenwald said.
“There were no answers provided in that document, and so we had to provide that information to our members to protect them,” she told CNN.
Plus, having a mass exodus of federal employees “would be catastrophic to the federal government and the services that Americans depend on every day,” Greenwald said.
Other federal employee unions had similar messages for their members, all questioning the legality of the offer.
“Unlike structured programs that the federal government offered in the past to decrease the number of federal employees, this maneuver is intended to panic civil servants into accepting what seems like a sweet deal but is probably a scam,” Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said in a statement Wednesday.
“The offer is a scare tactic designed to pressure federal workers into quitting while promising under an illegal and unenforceable agreement to pay them until October.”
