The most challenging day in decades for air traffic controllers, safety inspectors and other Federal Aviation Administration employees started with profound questions about a deadly crash the night before — and ended with an email urging them to resign from their jobs.
The email, sent from President Trump’s Office of Personnel and Management to employees across the sprawling federal government, arrived just before 8:30 p.m. Thursday — almost exactly 24 hours after an air crash in Washington that killed 67 people. The message reiterated an offer earlier this week from the administration encouraging federal employees to seek new jobs in the private sector — and did so in terms that appeared to denigrate their contributions, if not cast them as lazy.
“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,” stated the email, which was reviewed by The New York Times.
From the Department of Homeland Security to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the message was regarded by many federal employees as an astonishingly tone-deaf missive to deliver in the midst of a crisis. Workers from the Commerce Department to the Army Corps of Engineers described the email as the latest assault on one of the nation’s largest workforces from an administration scrambling for ways to deliver major spending cuts.
“There are so many public servants working in government because they want to serve the public — that is what motivates them,” said Max Stier, the president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that promotes best practices in government. “This series of hammer blows that federal employees have experienced has created fear and disorientation and distraction, and shows the administration has not read the room at all.”
Two White House spokesmen and a spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management did not respond to requests for comment.
In the past week, hundreds of federal employees have been fired, reassigned or designated to be laid off, including the removal of as many as 17 inspectors general, whose job is to conduct objective audits of federal agencies and promote efficiency.
Thousands more could be affected by Mr. Trump’s move to freeze trillions in federal grants. On Thursday, the president cited his own common sense for his conclusion that the deaths from the airliner crash could be blamed at least in part on efforts to hire more minorities.
The email sent to federal workers on Thursday evening aimed to answer what it said were some frequently asked questions following its original proposal on Tuesday, but only seemed to add to the existing confusion.
It was more explicit about a promise that any employee who quit by Feb. 6 would continue to be paid through late September. It encouraged workers to find private sector jobs “as soon as you would like to.”
But the email did not address how that offer would dovetail with federal law that limits administrative leave, ethics policies that prohibit government workers from holding a private job or provisions in union contracts aimed at protecting the civil service from political interference and pressure.
While the administration promised that workers participating in the “deferred retirement program” would continue accruing leave and vacation days and receive full pay through Sept. 30 — even if they accepted a private sector job sooner — there remained doubts it could ensure the payouts. Federal spending is determined first by Congress, not the White House, and current funding is set to expire on March 14.
Among the remaining uncertainties was whether Mr. Trump still intended to push for a federal cost-cutting effort that he had said, after winning the election in November, would match the ambition of the Manhattan Project.
So far, his administration has looked to shed spending that could skirt the need for congressional approval, a focus that would significantly shrink the scope of his promise. In 2022, the federal government spent $271 billion to employ 2.3 million civilian workers. Elon Musk, the billionaire named to oversee a government efficiency drive, originally suggested that at least $2 trillion could be slashed from the overall federal budget, which last year totaled $6.7 trillion, though he later acknowledged it was unlikely the administration could reach that goal.
Mr. Trump’s repeated degradations of federal workers also may not have the intended effect. Some workers said on Friday that they were increasingly motivated to keep their jobs to ensure government services would be delivered to citizens.
Granted anonymity to discuss the latest email, workers across the government reacted with anger, shock and gallows humor, with some saying they were more likely to trust an email from a supposed Nigerian prince promising instant wealth than more than promises from the administration.
“Already signed on to the buyout!” one federal employee said sarcastically. “All it took was me buying a Trumpcoin and one Trump Bible, and my voucher for 8 months of salary (in Mar-a-Lago Bucks) is in the mail!”
The Thursday night message, in the form of F.A.Q.s — or frequently asked questions — suggested that if the employees agreed to depart, they could take a second job or travel to their “dream destination” while still on the public payroll for months before leaving permanently.
But employees have been informed over the years that it is illegal for them to take a second job while working for the federal government, raising questions about whether the government can deliver on that offer.
As a result, individual federal agencies were bombarded with questions from employees about the administration’s email.
Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services received an unsigned email from the department notifying them that the Office of Personnel Management verified that its own emails were “valid, lawful and will be honored even in the lapse of appropriations.”
Just past noon, Jolene Ann Lauria, the assistant attorney general for administration, emailed similar language to Justice Department employees.
On Friday afternoon, Treasury Department employees received an email from the agency’s office of the assistant secretary for management that the management office confirmed the legality of the offer. But the email also urged workers who accepted the administration’s offer to consult with their bureau’s ethics official before accepting any private-sector work.
The tone and timing of the Thursday night email from the Office of Personnel Management hit hard at the F.A.A., current and former employees said, given its proximity to the fatal air crash that may have stemmed in part from reduced staffing.
In a statement, Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents air traffic controllers, said that while it was “not yet clear” how the resignation program would affect the union’s workers, it was “concerned” about the impact of losing “experienced aviation safety personnel during a universally recognized air traffic controller staffing shortage.”
An F.A.A. spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
The post Official Email Urges Federal Workers to Find ‘Higher Productivity’ Jobs appeared first on New York Times.
