Education Department employees received an email on Friday offering buyouts ahead of what was described as “very significant” layoffs, only to see that email disappear from their inboxes shortly thereafter.
The email, sent to all of the department’s employees at 11:03 a.m., urged workers to consider a “one-time offer” of a taxable payment of up to $25,000 if they completed an application to retire or resign by the end of the day on Monday. The email, which was reviewed by The New York Times, noted that employees were receiving the offer before the department underwent “a very significant reduction in force.”
But the email appeared to have been recalled, according to three people who received the original notice. They described it as simply vanishing from their inboxes.
A spokesman for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the status of the offer. Several employees, who requested anonymity out of fear for their jobs, said they had not received any further information or guidance on what to do.
Adding to the confusion, the link to the application form to apply for the program was still live and accessible on Friday afternoon, even after the original email appeared to have been pulled back through the department’s email system.
The buyout offer appeared to be legal under the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority, which allows agencies that are downsizing or restructuring to offer one-time payments up to $25,000 to employees who are in “surplus positions or have skills that are no longer needed in the work force.”
But the email on Friday morning, blasted out to all employees as an “urgent announcement” with a strict Monday deadline, came as the Trump administration is moving quickly to carry out far-reaching job cuts across the federal government. That involved an array of tactics including deferred resignation offers, layoffs of probationary employees and earlier efforts to sideline certain employees through administrative leave.
The email noted that the offer was also available to employees who were already planning to retire. The application form did not specify how the separation payments would be calculated or what metrics would be used to determine how much money individual employees could expect.
It was not immediately clear whether employees at other agencies received a similar offer or what the status was.
Under current guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, voluntary separation programs typically involve a number of specific prerequisites, such as that workers must have been employed by the executive branch for at least three years. It notes that the authority can be used to “minimize or avoid involuntary separations through the use of costly and disruptive reductions in force.”
But the short email to employees on Friday mentioned no eligibility requirements and appeared to have been floated to all of the department’s staff members.
It also offered no specifics about the “very significant reduction in force,” or which employees might be terminated involuntarily if they did not accept the offer.
