The Trump Administration is offering early outs to federal employees. If they accept, they will be paid through September. This brings up some questions in my mind.
- Was this deal offered to all Social Security employees?
- Early outs have certainly been offered in the past. Is this deal different than what has been offered in the past?
- If this deal is being offered to payment center employees, does the Trump Administration have any idea of the problems that will be created at an agency already facing a massive challenge to implement the implementation of the WEP/GPO bill? And I don’t mean to suggest that other agency employees aren’t also essential.
- Does Frank Bisignano have any idea of the disaster he may inherit if he’s confirmed as Commissioner?
I hate what may happen at Social Security but the antigovernment incompetents running things in the Trump Administration richly deserve what’s heading their way.
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As far as I know it was offered to everyone. At least everyone in operations. What is even more concerning is the first page of the notice where it states that most of the government is going to have a drastic downsizing and reorganization including furloughs and RIFs and the conversion of most employees to at will. It literally says that he cannot guarantee we will have a position going forward in the future. If enough people don’t quit, there will be layoffs. Service delivery is at the bottom of the priority list. Making a statement about power seems to be the driving factor.
This is NOT early out. This is “resign and we’ll keep you on the rolls until September.” No authority to do this, very very different than past offers. Is similar to the email sent to Twitter employees after a change of ownership.
Looks lika an absolutely dreadful deal. I don’t see why anyone would take this deal unless they’re ready to retire by 9/30 anyway. And even then it looks like more trouble than anything else.
To the first bullet point, my understanding is that the e-mail went to everyone who is on the new OPM HR list.
To the second point, this seems to be a sweetener to ensure that OPM/DOGE/Project 2025 hit their target for resignations, just in case the order returning everyone to an office full-time doesn't get it done. Taken at face value, the plan appears to be to identify workers who aren't loyal to the new regime and pay them to do nothing through Sept. 30. Of course, it's foolish to take anything they say at face value. If the government's ability to pay lame-duck workers to do nothing for 8 months is successfully challenged, I suspect Trump's administration would still use the resignation e-mails as proof of disloyalty and fire those employees later.
Given that most federal employees are already back working in their offices, and given that this isn’t even actually a buyout, I can’t figure out why President Elon thinks more than maybe 1% of feds will even seriously consider this “deal.”
This was sent out to ALL federal employees. It is NOT considered an early out (early retirement).
This is completely incorrect. They are not offering early out. This is not retirement. This is not a buyout. This is just offering the employees the chance to resign in advance.
It is not an early out under VERA. You agree to resign and they put you on administrative leave through September.
It was offered to ALL federal employees
It was offered to all federal employees
Here you go! If you complain how bad it is at SSA here is the perfect opportunity. You can leave and get paid, or there will be opening all over to transfer. If you stay it is 100% on you!!!! and we do not want to hear it.
I work in a PC. Folks started the email late yesterday afternoon, but everyone didn't get it at the same time. I got mine in the early evening. Others got it late in night. It's all very weird. Why send it after business hours? It's petty, unprofessional and threatening.
Looks like Musk doesn't mind creating a hostile work environment.
I hope it's just more ammunition for the unions' fight.
I have been giving this a lot of thought. I am now okay with it. I do actually want to see it all burned down. The lawyers have made and absolute mess out of SSA. All the benefits are a nightmare to get through any longer with too many regulations, rules and exceptions. If nobody is able to learn the system in 2 years, it is too complex to continue as is. If there is a mass abandonment of the agency, maybe they will be forced to correct the monstrosity that has been made. Burn itdown, all of it.
They aren’t even promising you’ll be put ob leave
If, as it kind of appears, they are willing to pay people for the next 8 months to do nothing, and then the resignation takes effect, effectively eight months of severance, I can see a large number of people taking it, particularly anyone who could start collecting a pension or their own SS benefits. It will hollow out the Government and make service at all agencies and particularly public facing agencies like social Security way worse than it already is. God help us all.
Did Bisignano's nomination get withdrawn? https://www.congress.gov/nomination/119th-congress/12/4
Correction: they might put you on admin leave, if and when they are able to arrange for your duties to be handled by another employee (which ain’t happening at the chronically understaffed and overworked SSA).
If they voluntarily resign (take the "deal") then that would likely disqualify or complicate their ability to claim unemployment benefits later if they were to need them.
The offer was made to SSA Operations employees too, including PC employees who work court remands and other critical workloads.
Anyone who is eligible for retirement will likely take this offer. It will be many more than 10% who take this. , 8 months of administrative leave, full salary, and then submit the retirement papers.
The federal employees received an interesting email at the end of the day today,” Kaine said on Tuesday, referring to the buyout email. “So tender your resignation, and then boy it’s just gonna be a gravy train, you’re just gonna get paid for seven months without working. The president has no authority to make that offer!
ACOSS is currently determining which employees based on job they will "allow" to take this offer.
It would seem fair for SSA to offer VERA in conjunction with this OPM offer. It would give employees some additional options in this current environment.
@10:19
But is it 8 months of administrative leave? Where is specified that ALL employees would be placed on admin leave? The letter explicitly states otherwise in the third paragraph (they could reassign you and still force you to show up). Seems more like a cynical rug pull set-up. Why would anyone trust this deal without more specifics?
Plus your annual leave continues to go up to make a nice payout with switching to retirement on 9/30. Lots of people will take this if considering retirement in the next two years.
Would this apply to state DDS examiners since they are 100% federally funded?
The problem is, you're burning it down with people still inside. Claimants will suffer and die unnecessarily while it burns and rebuilds, if it rebuilds at all.
Elon Musk Offers Federal Workers an Unauthorized Buyout
That seems 100 percent unlikely.
I trust this offer as far as i can throw it
They're not federal employees
no, they are state employees
Only rarely when anyone have to work during the 8 month administrative leave period. This is covered in the "OPM FAQ" with the "Fork in the Road" Email.
"Frequently Asked Questions
Am I expected to work during the deferred resignation period?
No. Except in rare cases determined by your agency, you are not expected to work."
There is no appropriation for this offer and it likely violates multiple regulations. Don’t trust this at all.
Last I checked, FAQs are not legally binding contracts.
So all the Trumpers in the Agency ideologically HAVE to take this resignation offer right?
Otherwise they aren't REALLY down with the cause to reduce the size of the federal government, right?
I mean, how could Trump or Elon trust anyone in their midst that doesn't fully agree with their cause, who isn't willing to put the success of cause before their own desires?
Especially one as important as reducing the size of the federal government they hate so much.
End your suffering now and take the resignation so you can end the burden of being tethered to a federal government you don't believe works and that you believe is bloated and full of dreaded incompetent government workers.
Prove you're really true to the cause!
cant make an omelet without breaking eggs
DDS employee so does not apply to me but the fork in the road email we did get seems that they are threatening you have to decide in the next five days and if you don’t take it you might get fired anyway
It’s all just a scare tactic. They’ll have to pry my job out of my hands. I’ll show up to work until I hear otherwise. They can go through the trouble to fire employees and then be on the hook for unemployment too.
No. We haven't received anything.
OPM also outlined four pillars for what it said the Trump administration plans to use as the central points for its efforts to overhaul the federal workforce: returning to the office, performance culture, a more streamlined and flexible workforce, and enhanced standards of conduct.
The pillars align with many of President Donald Trump’s executive actions involving the federal workforce so far, including a return-to-office directive, a federal hiring freeze and an effort to remove civil service protections from certain career federal employees.
“At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency,” the email states.
By Tuesday morning, a consensus had emerged among unions and other federal employe associations: Don’t take the deal. Between the questionable legal authority to grant deferred resignations, a lack of guarantee that an employees’ resignation will be accepted and that their pay and benefits will actually continue, and Elon Musk’s involvement and past history with mass resignation efforts, feds should be wary, they said.
SSA Acting commissioner sent out Email today saying we will be notified once decisions are made about SSA positions which may be excepted . Presumably meaning that some employees would have to keep working until September even if they accept the resignation offer.
SSA needs to speed up their decision making process, employees only have 6 days to decide on this..
Which, they cannot legally do because the actual law states a federal employee cannot be put on admin leave for more than 10 days.
The way that email was worded was very misleading. It hints at things, but promises nothing. A federal employee, by law, cannot be placed on admin leave for more than 10 days.
Essentially, if you accept it, they can immediately reassign your work, eliminate your position, and lay you off. You'll get no money, no severance (which they have to pay you if they RIF you - retirement eligible people might be eligible for up to 52 weeks of severance pay if they are RIFed), no unemployment (as you resigned before being formally notified of a RIF), and no legal recourse to try to fight it. The same person who wrote Musk's infamous Twitter email was the same person who wrote this one - she even recycled the title. And, we all know how that panned out for those people.
Anyone who accepts this offer is an absolute fool. They will get something, but it won't be what they want or expect.
@4:52pm,
And severance pay (which is a hell of a lot more than unemployment for long time employees).
Why voluntarily take the buy out when there is no buy out? Makes sense to me!
It is questionable at best, as federal law only allows a federal employee to be put on admin leave for at most 10 days now.
Does taking this deal prevent one from being eligible for health insurance benefits under COBRA?
When is that list coming out?
Social Security gives the states the money to pay DDS.
Whoever you are, your talents are being wasted. You should be a writer on SNL! This made me lol and I so needed it after the last couple of days! Thank you!!!
Any federal employees that think that Trump pays his bills should definitely take the buyout.
✊🏻
Max Alonzo, national secretary-treasurer for the National Federation of Federal Employees, expressed skepticism about the terms of the resignations.
"Absolutely do not resign. There is nothing that says that the day that you resign, that they can't just let you go. They don't have to pay you -- there's nothing that says they have to pay you till September 30," he said. "This is nothing that has been done before. This is not in our regulations. There's no regs about it. We're not even sure if it's actually legal. This is about trying to cut the federal workforce down, really kind of just breaking down these pillars of democracy."
It's not a buyout. It is a way to trick one into voluntary resignation while still working. It's a way to screw remote out of unemployment, or taking their option for cashing in leave etc.
He has no authorization or money to offer.
By the way, the last time Elmo did this he never paid his Twitter workers. Why? His reason? They had to sue. They were never paid and lost the suit. Why, again?
They voluntarily resigned.
Don't ever comply in advance.
It’s not a buy out ,it’s more of a bye- you out so RESIST AND STAY ON
Given the history of musk and trump would you trust anything they promise into the future? I wouldnt trust them to pay the first check let alone the 8th. So glad I left years ago, best decision for my health and happiness, I have enjoyed being a former SSA employee.
Hey, before you go can you process my GPO offset, I have some vaca plans.
You might want to put a pin on your “vaca” plans since we don’t know how many SSA employees will take take the early out.
I think every single member of SSA should take the plan. Every PC person every front line field office person should take it. Every last one. Then not come back when begged till they pay till it bleeds.
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