In his most radical and swift reform of the administration, Donald Trump has made the most of his most radical and quick move by giving most federal employees the option to leave their jobs by the following week in exchange for eight months of severance pay.
As Trump attempts to fulfill one of his campaign promises to shrink the government, an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memorandum was released on Tuesday.
Additionally, the memo warned of potential downsizing and that the Trump administration would begin imposing “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct” on all federal employees.
People who voluntarily leave their posts will receive about eight months of pay, according to an email sent to millions of employees, but they must make a choice by February 6.
Katie Miller, a member of the Department of Government Efficiency, a Trump administration department under the leadership of Tesla’s Elon Musk, posted on X: “This email is being sent to more than TWO MILLION federal employees.
According to the Pew Research Center, over three million people were employed by the US government as of November, making up nearly 1.9 percent of the entire civilian workforce.
According to a Pew analysis of OPM data, the average tenure for a federal employee is nearly 12 years.
According to a senior administration official, the White House anticipated the departure of 5 to 10% of federal employees, which would have saved an estimated $100 billion.
Even a small percentage of the workforce who consents to buyouts could shock the economy and cause widespread disruptions in society as a whole, leading to unknowable and unfulfilled implications for the delivery, timeliness, and effectiveness of federal services nationwide.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, responded by saying that the offers should not be seen as voluntary buyouts but as a form of pressure on employees who are not expected to support the new administration.
According to Kelley, “Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have enormous, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.” It is obvious that the Trump administration’s goal is to make the federal government a toxic environment where employees can stay even if they want to, according to  .
When Musk acquired the social media platform in the late 2022, the email to public workers resembled the tweet sent to Twitter users. If they wanted to stay with the business, which Musk later changed to X, they requested an email response.
Source: Aljazeera
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