Push’s resignation deepens concerns about the effect on state services

In the first week of the new Trump government, the more than two million federal employees in the country were affected by Rapid-Fire announcements that long-term occupational safety and teleworking were suddenly revoked. In the second week, a kind of carrot brought: an offer that the federal assistant could continue to attract payment and benefits by the end of September if they withdraw to resign until February 6th.

The administration and its supporters trumpeted the proposal with the billionaire Elon Musk, which President Trump described as “very generous” for the redesign of the government.

But for many of the workers it was anything but. Some saw the offer as incomprehensible, if not illegal, and federal employees and union leaders described it equally as another front in the unparting campaign of the government in order to make as many of them to leave as possible.

What can still be seen is not whether some will leave the Federal Service, since many have already started looking for other jobs, but how many and their drains for the government’s ability to fulfill their responsibilities would mean.

“The quality will fall,” said Everett Kelley, President of the American Federation of Government, said employee, the largest union of federal employees. “Because these are the people who have this specialist knowledge. And if the quality goes out, what else can you do except to say: ‘The federal government failed us. “

He and others fear an exodus of experienced workers: According to the PEW Research Center, more than a quarter of the federal employees are 55 years or older. More than half hold the bachelor or advanced degrees. According to PEW, two thirds of the more than 4,600 employees have doctoral students, master or other advanced qualifications at the US Agency for International Development, which has been a special goal in the past few days.

“The amount of brain drain that will come when people will retire or be released cannot be underestimated,” said a federal prosecutor who is planning to go soon, and, like others, said on the condition of anonymity Fear of retribution.

Trump allied tested such worries. The White House has announced that 5 to 10 percent of federal workers, up to 200,000 people, will accept the offer.

“These are talented people, from whom I am sure that they will do well,” said Senator Ted Budd, Republican of North Carolina, who has a considerable population of the federal government. “If you do not work for the federal government, you will do well elsewhere.”

Nevertheless, the scale and intensity of Mr. Trump’s campaign against the bureaucracy worried some officials in places that are far from the Washington area. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are distributed across the country and work in offices, installations and laboratories in large cities and rural areas.

“I think this is proof that the White House speaks quickly but didn’t really think everything out,” said Lily Limón, a city councilor 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 involved in all of this.”

On Wednesday, the federal employees warned each other that the withdrawal offer could be a setup, and some superiors even advised their employees not to accept it immediately, according to people who were familiar with discussions within agencies. Distrust was supported by warnings by lawyers, union leaders and democratic legislators who insisted that the office of personnel administration did not have the legal authority to make the type of guarantees that promise.

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

Although some federal employees are completely remote, most people work personally on a construction site or office on a certain day, as can be seen from a report from 2024 of the office for management and household. Nevertheless, tens of thousands have been on the phone for at least several days a week for years, and the Trump management was open that some of his recent orders, such as the prerequisite that all employees work full-time in an office, should urge people.

“We don’t want them to work from home because, as everyone knows, they don’t work very productively most of the time,” said Trump on Wednesday.

With the end of teleworking, he added: “We are of the opinion of decades. “

These clearly defined goals as well as the vague and in some cases contradictory guidance, numerous federal workers were skeptical that everything, including the withdrawal offer, was carried out in the best interest.

In communication through the program, the administration gave confusing answers to the conditions of the offer. An e -mail to the employees showed that those who have completed the deal do not have to return to the office and are paid regardless of their “daily workload”. In a memo of agency heads it says that those who accepted the offer should be transferred to paid administrative leave, but gave the agencies the right to ask them to work through the transition. A question and answer page published by the Office of Personnel Management said that the employees did not have to work.

An X -calculation obligation for the government’s new efficiency, which helps to monitor the overhaul of the administration’s workers, was still a pointed.

“Can go on vacation that you always want, or just films and relax while you receive your complete state payment and services,” says a post.

Doreen Greenwald, the national President of the National Treasury Employees Union, who represented around 150,000 federal employees in 37 agencies, asked the members not to take over the offer. “Without understanding why this was offered to the employees, without written guarantees to the employees, we would not recommend an employee,” she said.

Union leaders, elected civil servants and Labor lawyers say that the offer may not even be legal, also because it deals with the already applicable discretion and union agreements. Some said that the personnel office is probably not authorized to make such offers. In addition, there are currently no means to secure the offer because the government is only financed in mid -March.

In addition to these questions, Kristin Alden said a lawyer who specializes in federal questions in the federal employment, “There is no mechanism to enforce the conditions of the offer.

The situation left hundreds of thousands of anxious and confused federal employees who have already been burdened with serious decisions and economical information in the past few days.

Some workers saw the offer as a little victory, a way to make the next few months less precarious than they were looking for other jobs. This view was repeated by Republican legislators.

“I am excited,” said representative Joe Wilson, whose district in South Carolina comprises a considerable contingent of federal workers. “I think that’s a really positive way to tackle this problem. There were right people who have not yet returned to the office, and this is a great way to leave them. “

But many federal workers, even those who had planned to go, were deeply skeptical.

“I don’t trust him a bit,” said an employee of the energy unit, whose partner is also a federal employee. The offer, if at all, convinced that she stayed longer. “I won’t make it easy for you,” she said.

In addition to the proposed plan for the “pushed resignation” itself, the e -mail to federal workers who announced the proposal also explained that the employees would be subject to “improved standards and behavior” in the future. Some federal employees saw this as a sign that the administration for some possible reason to dismiss workers who did not willingly stop watching carefully.

Equipment of the German Bundesbureaucracy was long overdue for Mr. Trump’s supporters. And many see the administration as more than generous in the way it brings such an exodus.

“I think it’s great,” said Senator Markwayne Mulllin from Oklahoma, in which around 40,000 federal civil workers are located. “I mean, if you don’t come back to work and look for an outcome, then end.”

The reporting was contributed by Rebecca Davis O’BrienPresent Devlin BarrettPresent Reyes Mata III And Catie Edmondson.