The Trump administration has presented federal employees with a “Fork in the Road” decision regarding their future in government service. On January 28, 2025, an email was sent to federal workers outlining a deferred resignation offer, giving them the option to voluntarily leave their positions by September 30, 2025.

Key Points of the Offer:

• Employees can accept the offer until February 6, 2025
• Those who accept will retain pay and benefits until September 30, 2025
• Accepting employees will be exempt from in-person work requirements

The administration’s email detailed four pillars of federal workforce reform:

1. Return to Office: Mandatory five-day in-person work week for most employees
2. Performance Culture: Updated standards to reward excellence and address underperformance
3. Streamlined Workforce: Potential downsizing and restructuring of agencies
4. Enhanced Standards of Conduct: Stricter behavioral and performance expectations

This is not the first issue the Trump administration has given to federal workers.

On January 20, 2025, President Trump ordered a freeze on hiring federal civilian employees throughout the executive branch. This freeze applies to vacant positions and prohibits the creation of new positions, with some exceptions for military personnel, positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, and public safety.

He also directed that the majority of federal employees who have been working remotely must return to their physical offices five days a week.

The administration also released guidelines indicating that a wide range of federal employees could be reclassified under a new “Schedule F” category. This reclassification could potentially strip thousands of federal workers of their current employment protections, making them more vulnerable to political firings

Federal agencies have been warned about potential downsizing, restructuring, and reductions in force. This may include:

• Consolidation and divestiture of physical offices
• Use of furloughs
• Reclassification of a substantial number of federal employees to at-will status.

The “Fork in the Road” initiative from the Office of Personnel Management appears to draw inspiration from an art piece commissioned by Elon Musk in 2021. Musk, who is currently at the helm of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has frequently expressed criticism of the federal workforce. In a recent opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Musk, along with a co-author, suggested providing federal employees with “early retirement incentives” and “voluntary severance packages” as a means to facilitate their exit from government roles.

Musk’s takeover of Twitter in 2022 led to significant changes in the company’s work culture and employee expectations. Shortly after acquiring the social media platform, Musk issued a stark ultimatum to Twitter’s remaining employees, demanding they commit to an “extremely hardcore” work environment or leave the company.

The ultimatum came in the form of an email sent to staff on November 16, 2022. In this message, Musk outlined his vision for “Twitter 2.0,” which he described as a high-intensity workplace requiring long hours and exceptional performance. Employees were given a deadline to decide whether they wanted to be part of this new era at Twitter.

Key points of Musk’s ultimatum included:

1. A requirement for employees to work “long hours at high intensity”
2. An expectation that staff would be “extremely hardcore”
3. A deadline for employees to click “yes” on a form committing to these new expectations
4. Those who did not agree would receive three months of severance pay

This move came after Musk had already laid off about half of Twitter’s workforce, reducing the staff from around 7,500 to 3,700 employees. 

Musk’s takeover of Twitter led to multiple rounds of layoffs, reducing the workforce by nearly 80%. Layoffs reduced the workforce to under 1,500 employees by 2023. As of Sept. 2024, Twitter’s workforce was about 2,840 employees.