Departure pushes the elaboration of concerns about the impact of public services

In the first week of the new Trump administration, the country’s more than two million federal workers were hit with quick fire messages that many years of job protection and telecommunications work were suddenly recalled. The second week brought a carrot of kinds: an offer that federal employees could continue to draw wages and benefits through the end of September if they agreed to resign on February 6.

The administration and its supporters trumpet the proposal with billionaire Elon Musk, which President Trump has utilized to reintroduce the government and described it as “Very generous. “

But for many of the workers it was anything but. Some saw the offer as non -enforceable, if not illegal, and both federal staff and union leaders described it as just another front in the administration’s daunting campaign to get as many of them as possible to leave.

What is still to be seen is not whether some will leave federal service, as masses have already begun to look for other jobs, but instead of how many and what their departure would mean for the government’s ability to perform its responsibilities.

“Quality will go down,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government -employees, the largest association of federal employees. “Because these are the people who have this expertise. And when the quality starts to go down, what else you can do besides saying, ‘the federal government has failed us.’ “

He and others fear an emigration of experienced workers: More than a quarter of federal employees are 55 years of age or older, according to Pew Research Center. More than half Hold bachelor or advanced degrees. At the US Agency for International Development, which has been a specific target in recent days, two -thirds of the more than 4,600 employees have doctorate, master’s programs or other advanced degrees, according to Pew.

“The amount of brain drains that come as people leave, retire or fire cannot be underestimated,” said a federal lawyer who plans to leave soon and as others spoke on condition of anonymity of fear of retaliation.

Trump -allies rejected such concerns. The White House has said that it expects 5 to 10 percent of the federal workforce, as many as 200,000 people will take the offer.

“These are talented individuals that I am sure will do well,” said Senator Ted Budd, Republican in North Carolina, who has a significant population of federal civilian employees. “If they do not work for the federal government, they do well elsewhere.”

Still has the scope and intensity of Mr. Trump’s campaign against bureaucracy raised some officials in places far from the Washington area, which is only home to one fifth of the civilian federal workforce. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are spread across the country and work in offices, job sites and laboratories in major cities and rural areas.

“I think this is proof that the White House is talking quickly, but has not really thought through everything,” said Lily Limón, a city council woman in El Paso, where more than 10,000 federal workers live. “There is a lot of pressure and a lot of trauma for people who are trapped in all this.”

On Wednesday, federal staff warned each other that resignation could be a set -up, and some supervisors even advised their employees not to accept it right away, according to people who know conversations in agencies. Mistillment was strengthened by warnings from lawyers, union leaders and democratic lawmakers who insisted that the Office of Personnel Management did not have the legal authority to make the kind of guarantees it was promising.

“Don’t be fooled!” said Senator Tim Kaine, the Democrat in Virginia, and insisted that the president had no authority to pay people for months who do not work.

Although some federal workers are fully remote, most people work on a given day personally at a job site or office, according to A report from 2024 From the Office of Management and Budget. Still, tens of thousands of thousands have been in telecommunications work at least several days a week for years, and the Trump administration has been directly with some of its recent orders, such as a requirement that all employees work in a full-time office was calculated to push to people to quit.

“We do not want them to work from home, because as everyone knows it mostly they do not work, they are not very productive,” said Mr. Trump Wednesday.

With the end of the telecommunications work, he added, “We believe that a very significant number of people will not show up to work, and therefore our government will be smaller and more effective and that is what we have been looking for to do for many, many decades. “

These clearly stated goals, plus the vague and in some cases conflicting guidance, left plenty of federal workers skeptical that everything that was severance offer was performed in their best interests.

In communication about the program, the administration gave confusing answers about the conditions of the offer. One E -Mail to Employees indicated that those who took the agreement should not return to the office and would be paid regardless of their “daily workload”; a memo To agency executives said that those who took the offer should be placed on paid administrative leave, but gave agencies the right to ask them to work through the transition; -one Question-and-Svar page Published by Office of Personal Management said employees should not work.

One X accounts for the new department of government efficiency, Which helps oversee the administration’s review of the workforce was even more tip.

“Can take the vacation you have always wanted, or just watch movies and chill while receiving your full government salary and benefits,” said a post.

Doreen Greenwald, the National President of the National Treasury Employee Association, representing about 150,000 federal workers in 37 agencies, called members not to take the offer. “Without any understanding of why this was offered employees without any guarantees in writing to the employees, there is no way we would ever recommend an employee,” she said.

The Union leaders, chosen officials and labor attorneys say that the offer may not even be legal, partly because it is by individual agency’s estimates and trade union agreements already in place. Some have said that the staff office probably does not have the authority to submit such offers. Furthermore, it does not currently have the funding to back up the offer, as the government is financed only through mid -March.

In addition to these issues, Kristin Alden said, a lawyer who specializes in federal employment issues, “there is not really a mechanism to enforce” the terms of the offer.

The situation left hundreds of thousands of anxious and confused federal employees who were already buffeted by a fusillade of orders in the past few days, with serious decisions to make and sparse information.

Some workers saw the offer as a small victory, a way to make the next few months less uncertain as they looked for other jobs. This view was repeated by Republican lawmakers.

“I’m excited,” said representative Joe Wilson, whose district in South Carolina includes a significant contingent of federal workers. “I think it’s a really positive way to tackle this problem. There have been legitimately people who have not returned to the office and this is a great way for them to quit. “

But many federal workers, including those who had planned to leave, were deeply skeptical.

“I don’t trust it a bit,” said an employee of the energy department, whose partner is also a federal employee. The offer, if something, convinced her to stay longer. “I don’t want to make it easy for you,” she said.

In addition to the proposed “vulnerable resignation” plan itself, the e -mail declared federal workers who announced the proposal, also that employees would in future be “subject to improved standards of fitness and behavior.” Some federal workers saw this as a sign that the administration would look closely at any possible reason for shooting workers who did not want to quit.

For Mr. Trump’s supporters have the abolition of federal bureaucracy been long too late. And many see the administration as being more than generous in the way it helps bring such an emigration.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said Senator Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, who is home to about 40,000 federal civilian workers. “I mean if they don’t want to return to work and they are looking for an output, then exit.”

Reporting was contributed Rebecca Davis O’Brien. Devlin Barrett. Reyes Mata III and Catie Edmondson.