WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Washington Post) — For the federal workers struggling to decide whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program offer, a Massachusetts federal judge’s order to delay the Thursday night deadline was a reprieve — a chance to take a few more days to weigh a life-altering offer to leave their jobs with pay through Sept. 30.
But for some of the tens of thousands of federal employees who have already accepted the deal, the Thursday afternoon ruling in a lawsuit seeking to nullify the program brought confusion about their status, regret that they’d jumped at the offer too quickly, questions about whether to try to take back the decision or fear that if the program is ultimately thrown out, they now had a target on their backs.
“They have this list of people who resigned,” said an employee of the Office of Personnel Management — the agency administrating the program — who had emailed her resignation notice before the judge’s ruling and requested anonymity for fear of professional retribution. “That’s an easy list of people to get rid of.”
The administration’s Jan. 28 blast email, titled “Fork in the Road,” set off a wave of questions and distrust, with many federal workers expressing little faith that the administration would follow through on its promise to pay workers who took the deal.
But some employees leaped at the chance to stop working and keep collecting pay, particularly those who already planned to leave or retire soon. So they followed the email’s instructions by replying with the word “resign” ahead of the Thursday 11:59 p.m. deadline. Administration officials claimed 65,000 workers had accepted the deal.
For many in that group, the decision by U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. to pause the deadline pending a Monday afternoon hearing injected another round of uncertainty into the process.
“So what’s the next step?” a Reddit user wrote Thursday on a forum for federal government employees, which was filled with a mix of celebration and concern after the judge’s ruling. “They accept the resignations and then don’t pay people when this is ultimately struck down?”
