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multiple reports have emerged this week
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that new buyout offers are being put on
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the table for many federal employees
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This time however they're coming from
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the individual agencies themselves and
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not the Office of Personnel Management
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Hello everyone I'm Ian Smith with
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fedsmith.com Here are the details on
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these new buyout offers that have
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emerged Washington Post and Bloomberg
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have reported that five agencies have
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made offers and Politico reported that
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as many as seven agencies have made
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these buyout offers to their employees
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The agencies in question are the General
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Services Administration the Department
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of Energy Department of Transportation
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Department of Agriculture Department of
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Defense Small Business
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Administration and the Department of
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Housing and Urban Development These new
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buyout offers are similar in nature to
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the Office of Personnel Management's
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Fork in the Road Deferred Resignation
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Program that was offered to most federal
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January And about 75,000 federal
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employees ended up taking that offer And
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like that original offer these new ones
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would allow federal employees to resign
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now and keep their pay and benefits
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through the end of the fiscal year which
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is September 30th However any federal
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employees who decide to take this have
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to make a quick decision because the
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deadlines are coming up quickly
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Bloomberg reported that the acceptance
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deadlines at three of these agencies are
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as follows The Department of
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Transportation is April 7th The
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Department of Energy is April 8th The
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General Services Administration is April
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Politico these offers and these fast
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deadlines are not a coincidence Politico
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said in its report that the offers are
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federal employees last chance to get out
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of their positions before they risk
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being laid off when reduction in force
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or riffs start at at many agencies in
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the government In fact a White House
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official told Politico quote "We're
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getting close to an official plan that
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will be announced And in order to get
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that final number of RIFF people we want
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to see if there's any stragglers." So
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the Trump administration is working to
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cut the size of the federal workforce
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and that's what's happening here In this
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case also the office of personnel
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management issued a directive to
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agencies back in February and it
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instructed them to develop agency
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reorganization plans which are designed
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to increase productivity while also
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reducing staff positions and the plans
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include using riffs reduction in force
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to eliminate non-essential functions
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Now that directive had two phases with
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two separate deadlines The first one was
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back in March The second of these is
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coming up fast on April 14th And so
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seeing this um these fast uh deadlines
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for making a decision on these new
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buyout offers and why you're seeing the
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offers too It's the administration's
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attempt to get people to resign
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voluntarily before the riffs really
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start happening When the Office of
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Personnel Management originally issued
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its fork in the road deferred
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resignation program offer it had a
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warning of sorts for any federal
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employees who chose to stay And that
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would certainly still be applicable here
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because we see these restructuring plans
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happening and OPM has said that that
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riffs are going to be starting soon as
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it works to reduce the size of the
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What OPM outlined in in that original
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offer in its email to that went out to
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most federal employees were four general
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principles The first was a return to
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office Most federal employees will
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return to their offices 5 days a week
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relocations due to office
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consolidation The second was performance
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performance culture Updated performance
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standards will reward high performers
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and address those who do not meet
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expectations Number three more
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streamlined and flexible federal
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workforce While a few agencies and even
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branches of the military are likely to
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see increases in the size of their
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workforces the majority of federal
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agencies are likely to be downsized
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through restructurings realignments and
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reductions in force And the last point
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was enhanced standards of conduct The
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federal workforce will be held to higher
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standards of suitability and conduct And
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for any employees engaging in unlawful
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behavior or misconduct they will face
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investigation and discipline up to and
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including termination Thank you for
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watching I know this is a difficult time
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for a lot of you especially if you're
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working in one of these agencies where
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this offer has come up and now you've
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got a difficult decision to make in a
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short amount of time as to what's best
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for you and your family But I hope this
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information helps at least in some small
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way with making that decision And we
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have a number of other resources on our
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website and also on our YouTube channel
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that may assist you as well I'll include
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some links in the description to some
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other articles on our site related to
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this topic that I hope will be useful to
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you Thank you for watching Good luck and
