The Trump Administration offered deferred resignation to millions of federal employees, turning a once secure job into another uncertain opportunity for recent graduates.
The offers, dubbed “buyouts” by many news outlets, claim to be an effort to improve government functionality and decrease federal deficit.
The Administration was heavily critical of the federal employee workforce during its first term and ran a campaign that vowed to remove wasteful labor that annually cost taxpayers billions.
Approximately 75,000 of the more than 2.3 million existing federal employees resigned before the program ceased on Feb. 12.
In the memo sent to employees via their work email from the Office of Personnel Management, those who chose to resign would be placed on paid administrative leave from Feb. 28 until Sept. 30.
Select employees who chose to resign may still be required to work beyond this period, includ- ing IRS positions deemed necessary for a smooth, upcoming tax season.
The move was heavily con- tested and the National Treasury Employees Union — the largest union for federal employees — sued President Trump on behalf of their members claiming that this executive order was unconstitutional on Jan. 20.
The case was then dismissed by a federal judge in Boston on Feb. 12 on the grounds that the union was not directly impacted by the order and therefore could not move forward with their case.
The union and other dissidents of the program have heavily scrutinized the validity of some claims within the offer—namely, the claim that deferred employees will be able to receive payment through the end of September, especially as Congress has yet to ap- prove spending past mid-March.
Trump’s limited powers do not allow him to grant these funds directly, though a Republican majority in the Senate may be sym- pathetic to his cause.
The resignation offer is just the first step in an intricate plan to reduce the federal workforce, including an ongoing hiring freeze.
This freeze comes at a time when there are concerns about the gap between college graduates and employment opportunities.
Federal jobs are known for providing benefits and job security, which can be less common in the private sector.
For these reasons, some post- graduates seek federal employ- ment rather than private sector work and are willing to take lower initial salaries.
This is no longer an option to those looking for a stable position to advance their career. The move intended to attract only the best that America has to offer for all new positions, but it contrasts with Trump’s stated preference for appointing his loyalists to government positions.
The resignation program has been criticized for lacking empathy, especially as the gutting of the federal government continues and people are notified of their termination by email blasts containing their misspelled names and unedited subject lines.
There are ongoing discussions about the federal bureaucracy shared by the general public and political elite, with some calling for changes to reinvent the public sector.
