White House to push out federal workers through buyout offer

The White House has told federal workers to return to the office full time or resign and get paid for the next eight months but even those who stay on might still lose their jobs in federal cuts.

Donald Trump, watched by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks to reporters. Picture: AFP.

The White House gave federal workers a choice: return to the office full time or resign and get paid for the next eight months.

In a Tuesday night email, the Office of Personnel Management told federal workers that they have until Feb. 6 to decide how to proceed. If they step down, they will continue to receive all pay and benefits and will be exempt from in-person work requirements until Sept. 30.

But the Trump administration made clear that even those government employees who stay on could still eventually lose their jobs as the president works to downsize the federal government.

“At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions,” the email says. The White House said it is considering relocating some government offices and downsizing agencies through restructuring, furloughs and reclassifying employees so they have fewer job protections.

OPM posted the email with a headline “Fork in the Road.” White House officials estimated that the in-office requirement will prompt 5 per cent-10 per cent of federal employees to quit, and they said it could lead to $100 billion in savings annually. They provided no information about how they reached that estimate.

A Pew Research survey in November 2024 found the federal government employed just over 2.4 million people, when the military and Postal Service are excluded.

The program, which the White House calls “deferred resignation,” will be available to all full-time federal employees except for military personnel, the US Postal Service and positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, according to the administration.

To step down, employees need to send an email to a human-resources address from a government email account and put “resign” in the subject line, according to OPM’s instructions.

“If they don’t want to work in the office and contribute to making America great again, then they are free to choose a different line of work, and the Trump Administration will provide a very generous payout of 8 months,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Officials at the State Department, the US Agency for International Development and others were unclear whether the exemption for national-security staff applied to them. The email wasn’t specific and left hundreds of diplomats and aid workers wondering whether they could take the severance offer.

“It’s so confusing,” a State Department official said.

Most of federal employees are already working in the office at least some of the time, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. Nearly 80 per cent of the working hours of all federal employees were in the office in 2024, according to a White House budget-office survey, except for fully remote staff. Of those eligible for telework, 61 per cent of working hours were in person. About 7 per cent-10 per cent of federal employees worked remotely full time in 2023, according to the public partnership. The Department of Veterans Affairs employs the most workers, with 486,000 people, according to Pew. The Education Department has the least, with 4,245.

“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,” said Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents many federal workers.

The program is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to shrink the federal workforce. President Trump signed executive orders on his first day in office requiring federal employees to return to in-person work and removing civil-service protections for some federal workers. The Trump administration has also targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and signed an executive order ending DEI offices and initiatives across the federal government.

The email comes a day after a White House order sought to pause billions of dollars in federal grants, loans and other financial assistance-programs, a move a federal judge temporarily blocked on Tuesday.

Dow Jones