The White House issued a memo Tuesday offering to pay federal workers who don’t want to return to the office through Sept. 30, as long as they resign by Feb. 6.
Why it matters: The action, first reported by Axios, marks an acceleration in President Trump’s already unprecedented purge of the federal workforce.
Driving the news: The Office of Personnel Management described the offer as administrative leave with pay and benefits.
- More information was shared by OPM later on Tuesday online in a memo titled, “A Fork in the Road.”
State of play: Employees who wish to resign were told: “1) Select “Reply” to this email. You must reply from your government account. A reply from an account other than your .gov or .mil account will not be accepted. 2)Type the word “Resign” into the body of this reply email. Hit “Send.”
- The subject line, and some of the wording, echoed an email Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees in 2022 giving them a similar ultimatum: to either leave, or stay and become “hardcore,” The Verge points out.
- Musk himself appeared to acknowledge this in a post on X Tuesday evening.
Zoom in: “The government-wide email being sent today is to make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards. We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable,” a senior administration official tells Axios.
- The White House expects 5% to 10% of federal employees to accept the offer, which would potentially mean hundreds of thousands of people.
- The administration projects the buyouts could ultimately save taxpayers up to $100 billion a year.
- The offer applies to all full-time federal employees, except for military personnel, the Postal Service, and those working in immigration enforcement or national security.
Trump offers buyouts to all federal workers
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