By JOE MURCHISON
President Donald Trump launched a drastic campaign to reduce the federal workforce immediately after being sworn in for his second term on Jan. 20. Here is a look at how one Laurel resident, who has worked at a federal agency for three decades, has experienced this campaign. The Laurel Independent has agreed to change her name to protect her privacy.
Elizabeth’s agency had prepared for the change in administrations. “Any time there is a change in administrations, there are changes we have to go through,” she said. “We understand that.”
She continued work remotely, as usual, for the first three days after the inauguration. Then something strange happened. She received what she deemed a “very suspicious email” on Jan. 24 with a subject line “email test.” The email read, “This a test of a new distribution and response list. Please reply yes.”
There was no signature on the email. The sending address was hr@opm.gov, suggesting the federal Office of Personnel Management, but Elizabeth had never seen the address before. “Everyone I talked to thought it was a phishing email,” she said. Later a supervisor told her that the agency’s information technology office had approved the email as legitimate, so she responded.
On the evening of Jan. 26, a similar test email arrived. Elizabeth responded.
Then, on the evening of Jan. 28, she received a lengthy email from the same address with the subject line “Fork in the Road.” Key paragraphs read as follows:
“The federal workforce should be comprised of the best America has to offer. We will insist on excellence at every level — our performance standards will be updated to reward and promote those that exceed expectations and address in a fair and open way those who do not meet the high standards which the taxpayers of this country have a right to demand. …
“While a few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force. …
“If you choose to remain in your current position, … we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.
“If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal workforce, we thank you for your service to your country and you will be provided with a dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred resignation program. This program … is available to all federal employees until February 6. If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 …
“Upon review of the below deferred resignation letter, if you wish to resign: 1) Select “Reply” to this email. … 2) Type the word ‘Resign’ into the body of the reply email. Hit ‘Send.’”
There was no signature, but a disclaimer read, “OPM is authorized to send this email.”
Elizabeth said, “It didn’t look like any other email I’d ever received. …Whoever heard of saying, ‘Type resign and reply.’ It’s insane.” She said her supervisors could not shed further light on the email because they were all seeing it for the first time too. But soon the media were reporting that the government-wide email was the work of billionaire Elon Musk and the nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency which Trump had appointed Musk to run.
A series of follow-up emails arrived almost every day afterward with FAQs (frequently asked questions) about the resignation offer. One dated Jan. 30 said:
“Q: Am I allowed to get a second job during the deferred resignation period?
“A: Absolutely! We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so. The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.”
“This is what boiled my blood,” Elizabeth said. “So my whole career has been ‘low productivity’? Measured how? You don’t even know what I do.” Elizabeth said she passionately believed her agency’s work was crucial for the nation’s well-being, and she had been moved to tears hearing testimonies of its impact from beneficiaries.
“I don’t know anyone who has accepted the resignation,” she said. “Why they think this is appealing, I don’t know.”
Elizabeth was angry, but she was also afraid — and stressed. “I try not to watch too much TV because it’s so upsetting,” she said. “There’s no guarantee they won’t decide to let a large number of us go. … I don’t have a next step. What would I do?” she added. Competition for private sector jobs in her field would be all the more intense if thousands of other fired federal employees were also scrambling for work, she said.
For the moment, Elizabeth said her best coping mechanism is to just keep working. She tries not to dwell on what Donald Trump and Elon Musk will do next, but it’s hard. “Who’s going to stop them?” she said. “I don’t know. I have no idea. None.”