.jpg?disable=upscale&width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&w=1200&resize=1200,630&ssl=1 "Trump’s Federal Worker Buyout Could Squeeze IT")
The Trump Administration late Tuesday offered almost all federal employees a buyout that covers nearly eight months of salary if workers choose to resign — which could have a profound impact on the tens of thousands of federal IT workers.
In an email from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which serves as the federal government’s human resources agency, workers were told: “If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal workforce, we thank you for your service to your country and you will be provided with a dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred resignation program.” Workers were told to simply reply with “Resign” to accept the offer.
The subject line of the email, “Fork in the Road,” mirrored Elon Musk’s similar 2022 letter to Twitter employees after buying the social media platform. Musk has vowed to help the Trump Administration drastically cut government spending in his role as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Reports said Musk visited the OPM building on Friday.
As one of “four pillars” to reform the federal workforce, the email also announced a full-time return to office for the “substantial majority” of federal workers who have worked remotely since the COVID-19 pandemic. The other pillars included new performance standards, a warning of downsizing for most agencies, and standards of conduct that call for workers to be “reliable, loyal, trustworthy …”
The American Federation of Government Employees blasted the move, saying it would cause “chaos,” pressuring workers not deemed loyal to the new administration to quit.
“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,” the union’s president, Everett Kelley, said in a statement. “Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”
According to the email, the program was effective Jan. 28 and available to all federal employees until Feb. 6 and employees accepting the buyout would be exempted from in-person work requirements until Sept. 25.
Potential IT Impact
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), there are about 4.5 million federal government employees, split evenly between military and civilian personnel. National security and homeland security workers are exempted from the buyout offer. That leaves about 2 million workers that could be impacted.
The White House said it expects up to 10% of federal employees to resign.
Information technology and computer science account for about 79,000 federal jobs and more than two-thirds of agencies have at least one IT employee, according to non-profit Go Government.
According to a May report from the Office of Management and Budget, 10% of the civilian federal workforce, or 228,000 employees, worked entirely remotely. The report found that of the employees who worked a hybrid office/home schedule, 61.2% of their work hours were spent in a traditional office setting.
The report was produced under the previous Biden Administration, which advocated a hybrid work approach that would reduce the footprint of physical office space. Trump signed an executive order in his first few days of office requiring federal employees return to office full-time.