The program envisions that employees generally would no longer report for work, as agencies consolidate and reorganize with the positions vacated. Image: STILLFX/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Trump administration has offered the government’s largest “buyout” (key differences to standard practice) ever in both the number of employees eligible and the amount offered—paid administrative leave through September 30 if they agree to resign or retire—but generally giving them less than two weeks, through February 6, to make their decision.
The “deferred resignation” program applies to all full-time federal employees except for military personnel of the armed forces, the U.S. Postal Service, positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, and any positions exempted by an employing agency.
The offer was announced Tuesday (January 28) through a new email system intended to reach all federal employees and which includes a way to accept the offer. “Employees have no obligation to respond to the email. Accepting deferred resignation is in employees’ sole discretion and is completely voluntary,” says a question and answer document posted on chcoc.gov.
Employees who accept the offer “will receive an email confirming receipt with additional information on next steps. Given the volume of emails, this confirmation email may take up to 48 hours. Employees should retain the record of their resignation email.”
The program envisions that employees generally would no longer report for work, as agencies consolidate and reorganize with the positions vacated. Employees would continue to accrue retirement benefits through September 30; presumably they would remain eligible, as employees on administrative leave, for continuation of other employment benefits although the guidance does not specify that.
Further guidance is likely on that and other issues, such as how agencies are to decide on excluding positions from eligibility, standards for accepting an employee’s request to change their mind, and making accommodations for employees who would become retirement-eligible shortly after September 30.
Federal agencies have had authority to offer buyouts for downsizing and restructuring since the last major workforce cutbacks, during the Clinton administration, although the maximum of $25,000 has not changed since then.
As a practical matter, most of those who have accepted buyouts in the past take them into retirement, having already been eligible or becoming eligible with an accompanying early retirement offer. In such cases, the payment goads someone to retire earlier than they had expected.
That could prove to be the case again in the latest offer, with 15 percent of federal employees already retirement-eligible. The guidance document mentions early retirement—which lowers the requirements for age and years of service—but does not specifically authorize agencies to offer that as well.
Take-up has been much lower among those not retirement-eligible, with the $25,000 maximum considered not a sufficient incentive for those who would have to look for other employment. Whether the larger amount now on offer would change that pattern is to be seen.
One key factor for many may be that while buyouts impose a general bar against returning to federal employment within five years, “Deferred resignation does not affect employees’ ability to apply to work for the federal government in the future,” says the guidance document. However, the government currently is under a general hiring freeze, with agencies told to produce long-term workforce reduction plans in April.
Eligible employees further will have to make their decision without solid information regarding the security of their current jobs as the White House and congressional Republicans seek substantial reductions in the federal workforce along with agency spending—cuts that would have to pass Congress with only narrow majorities in both chambers.
To date, only employees in DEI-type functions have been specifically told their jobs are to be eliminated, although the administration has sent some other types of signals—for example, by telling agencies to compile lists of employees still in their probationary periods and reminding them that such employees can be laid off without standard civil service protections.
The AFGE union said that the program “will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government. This offer should not be viewed as voluntary. Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”
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See also,
What to Know About the New Federal Application Process
Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees
A Pre-RIF Checklist for Every Federal Employee, From a Federal Employment Attorney
Work Longer or Take the FERS Supplement Now: Which is Better?
