- The White House told federal workers they could voluntarily resign by February 6 and be paid through September.
- The offer follows the Trump Administration’s efforts to overhaul the federal workforce.
- Many workers BI talked to were defiant, but some are moving on, or taking a wait-and-see approach.
Shock and outrage. Hopelessness, suspicion, and defiance.
Federal workers say they feel a mix of all of the above and more after payout offers landed in their inboxes late Tuesday. The Trump administration says workers can either return to the office full-time and face likely downsizing, or quit now and keep getting paid for the next eight months.
“I voted for Donald Trump twice, and on January 20th, I had hope that he would fulfill his promises,” one federal employee told Business Insider. “However, when I received this email at 5:35 pm EST, that hope disappeared.”
A Social Security Administration employee said that workers aren’t the only ones at risk. “The public will suffer the most and the only group they can blame is the current one.”
Or, as a 15-year veteran of the State Department put it: “They can fuck off and we won’t be intimidated.”
Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen workers at departments across the government in the hours after the email was sent. They requested anonymity to speak openly about their jobs. Their identities are known to BI.
Some are digging in their heels.
“I have no intention of quitting,” one employee wrote in a text message.
According to a “deferred resignation offer” email sent by a White House office, workers have until February 6 to say whether they will voluntarily resign.
If they decide to leave, they will be exempt from in-person work, according to the email, and will receive pay and benefits through September unless they decide to leave earlier.
“I certainly won’t be accepting a buyout,” another employee said, adding that their teammates likely wouldn’t either. “It’s unpatriotic that he’s trying to put people out of work or provide incentives for people to leave their stable jobs.”
“I’m so sick of these stupid harassing emails,” they added.
Deepening distrust
Others worry the administration won’t stick to its word of steady pay and benefits through September — and aren’t even sure the offer is actually a buyout, despite the language used in some media coverage.
“Suffice it to say the people I’ve been talking to don’t trust how this will play out,” one Department of Justice worker said, adding that they didn’t see a budgetary or legal mechanism that would guarantee continued compensation.
The spotlight has encouraged at least one federal to look at the private sector.
“I will be seeking employment outside of government,” the worker said, though they caveated they might also look for a job in the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security. “I have no desire to work for an unappreciative organization.”
Administration officials previously told CBS they believe up to 10% of federal workers would depart due to the new directives.
Meanwhile, another is in wait-and-see mode. Trump’s second term has only just started, the employee told BI, and they want to give the administration the benefit of the doubt.
A break from historical precedent
The government has previously offered incentives for employees to leave as attempts to trim the federal workforce. In the 1990s, former President Clinton presented tens of thousands of workers with the option to leave their jobs.
A lawyer who works for the federal government questioned why it didn’t follow the precedent set by previous administrations.
“In the federal government, reductions in force are covered by a litany of laws and regulations,” said the lawyer, who specializes in employment issues. “Workers get severance pay, career transition assistance or job search help, and preference for other positions in federal government. This veiled threat about being laid off — it’s illegal, indefensible, and incorrect.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, the biggest union for federal workers, published a FAQ on Wednesday telling members to not take the email “at face value.” It was “riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainties,” the union said, and it was unclear if the office that issued the memo had the legal authority or budget to make good on its promises.
The National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald urged federal workers to reject the “request to voluntarily quit their jobs. It is a bad deal for employees and the American people they serve.”
The latest in a string of chaotic moves
The Tuesday email — which carries the same “Fork in the road” subject line as an Elon Musk memo sent to employees at X, then Twitter, in 2022 — is the latest in a string of chaos-causing, high-impact directives.
On Monday, the Trump administration announced that it was putting a “temporary pause” on federal grants and loans. A federal judge halted the freeze from taking effect before the administration itself rescinded the memo, BI reported.
“It’s kind of like Whac-A-Mole. What do you respond to? Personally, I think I’m a little bit numb to it,” said one federal employee who has worked in facilities management for more than a decade.
Federal workers have been a particular focus for the administration. Trump issued a return-to-work order for all federal employees on January 20, and has also put forth an executive order to reclassify certain civil servants, removing legal protections and making it easier to fire them.
According to a FAQ posted Tuesday, several categories of employees are ineligible for deferred resignation, including military personnel, USPS staff, and those working in immigration enforcement and national security roles.
The remaining federal workers will have six working days to weigh their options. If the initial offer had been more generous, the federal government lawyer said they may have taken it.
“If they were offering me a guaranteed check for seven months that I could take to the bank, I might consider it,” they said. “But it’s difficult to trust promises that aren’t legally binding.”
