'We were blindsided': Federal workers react to buy-out offer
Getty ImagesThe late-night announcement was an email, sent to some two million federal workers. Subject line: Fork in the Road.
In it, federal employees were advised they could take part in a "deferred resignation program", an offer akin to gradual buy-out. Anyone who opted in could stop work immediately but be paid as normal for eight months, before formally leaving their role in government at the end of September.
"My email came through at 10:51 last night," said Monet Hepp, a medical specialist at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), one of the country's largest federal agencies with more than 300,000 people on staff. "So people came into the office and were greeted by this. It was the first thing everyone was talking about."
The directive is part of an ongoing effort by the White House to slash the size of the federal government and weed out employees who do not Donald Trump's second term agenda. The istration said it expects as many as 200,000 - roughly 10% of the federal workforce - to accept the offer, which expires on 6 February.
But many federal employees say the proposal has come as a shock, with still unanswered questions about the process piling on uncertainty to an already hectic start to Trump's second term. And several workers who spoke to the BBC referred to what they called a "threatening" undertone to the offer, the suggestion that even for those who stay, their once-secure government roles are now up in the air.
"At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency," the OPM statement read.
"The tone of the initial email was like 'you may be cut anyway,'" Hepp said. "People were blindsided by it."
As Wednesday morning unfolded, federal employees scrambled to find more information, slowly filling in the gaps left by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's human resources agency and the body that sent the Tuesday evening missive.
The message had been so unexpected, so tonally distinct from typical government communication, that some thought it was spam, and promptly deleted it.
"I want to confirm that this is a legitimate communication from OPM," a public affairs officer with the VA wrote in an email that was sent to employees and shared with the BBC.
Employees said they volleyed questions back and forth to each other, realising their managers knew no more than they did. How would this affect retirement benefits? What about those who quit in the past several days, before the buyout offer?
"Leadership absolutely has no idea what is happening," said an employee at the Department of Labour, a young mother of a baby daughter who spoke to the BBC on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters.
"So when you ask your boss like, 'hey, what does this mean":[]}