In the first week of the new Trump administration, the country’s more than two million federal workers were hit with rapid-fire announcements that longtime job protections and telework were suddenly being revoked. The second week brought a carrot, of sorts: an offer that federal employees could continue drawing pay and benefits through late September if they agreed to resign by Feb. 6.
The administration and its supporters trumpeted the proposal, with the billionaire Elon Musk, whom President Trump has tapped to remake the government, describing it as “very generous.”
But to many of the workers it was anything but. Some saw the offer as unenforceable, if not illegal, and federal employees and union leaders alike described it as just another front in the administration’s unsparing campaign to get as many of them as possible to leave.
What remains to be seen is not whether some will depart federal service, as plenty have already begun looking for other jobs, but instead how many and what their departures would mean for the government’s ability to carry out its responsibilities.
“Quality is going to go down,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees. “Because these are the people that have that expertise. And when quality starts going down, what else can you do besides say, ‘The federal government has failed us.’”
He and others fear an exodus of experienced workers: More than a quarter of federal employees are 55 or older, according to the Pew Research Center. More than half hold bachelor’s or advanced degrees. At the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been a particular target in recent days, two-thirds of the more than 4,600 employees hold doctorates, master’s or other advanced degrees, according to Pew.
