As U.S. government workers face acquisition deadlines, anxiety disorders are getting deadlines

The future of millions of federal workers fell into another day of chaos on Thursday as they faced new uncertainty in an unprecedented plan that pushed economic incentives in exchange for resignation.

The Trump administration told them all they need to do is reply to an email with the word “resignation” in the subject line. As many are upset at 11:59 PM EST when the last possible life-changing decision on the deadline, the federal judge temporarily suspended the sentence — a program will have a barrier at a hearing Monday.

Then there is the memorandum.

The acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management sent from the acting director to the head of government agencies, who directed them to hand over information about any employees with poor performance reviews over the past three years.

He said their employers are “developing new performance metrics to assess President Donald Trump’s federal workforce that matches priorities and standards.”

Aside from anxiety, workers who decided to continue working could still be fired later as the White House tries to prune up to 10% of the workforce in a way that tries to shrink and reshape the federal bureaucracy – one of Trump's top advisers Monumental Elon Musk and part of the government's Ministry of Efficiency. However, it is not clear whether the terms of the offer will be respected.

Trump administration officials have proposed huge layoff efforts to save taxpayers’ money and try to sell it to workers as a good deal: resign while still collecting salaries and getting benefits until September 30 . This is based on the OPM memorandum. Effectively the Federal Labor and Human Resources Department.

In an interview Thursday, the Texas-based IRS employee said he decided to accept the buyout “because of fear that I would be fired.”

“This culture has changed dramatically in such a short time,” the IRS worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was worried about retribution. “Employees were depressed. Some new employees cried at their desks.” He said an employee moved to a Texas position and cried in men's bathroom.

An employee of the Department of Commerce, who lives in the Southwest, said they accepted the offer to resign because they were worried they would not be able to continue working away from their homes in the national capital.

“Go away, I feel like I gave up on my colleagues, that's the weight I hate to bear,” the worker said. “It's a choice I was forced to make. What bothered me was that I suspect it was a scam. On the official website On the document or guarantee aspect, I will continue to pay or retain my retirement donations or repayments by September. It's a very terrible situation.”

Trump administration officials have turned the proposal for a deferred resignation into a formal contract that has been sent to Justice Department employees and shared with NBC News.

The contract sets out the separation clause, including a clause that states that the employee was not forced to sign an agreement. Democratic lawmakers and federal employees union warned workers not to accept the offer, saying in part they had legal questions rather than Congress authorization.

Before the sun even rose in the national capital on Thursday, an email was again sent to federal employees, prompting them to resign. The email comes with the subject line “The Last Day Fork on the Road”, warning: no Become an extension of the program. ”

The so-called “fork on the road” is similar to Musk's dismissal.

In a message to education department employees on Wednesday, the U.S. Government Employees Federation called the resignation plan a Trump administration “very similar to what happened on Twitter, where employees are still suing Elon Musk for donations based on their own Promised “road” is provided. …We must not fall into the same trap. ”

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 60,000 workers had accepted what was officially called a “deferred resignation”, according to a senior government official.

But a large number of federal workers intend to resist the growing pressure and stay. More than a dozen employees who spoke with NBC News last week said they weren't even considering accepting the offer.

“I won't give it to you no matter how many emails I sent today,” an employee of Veterans Affairs said earlier this week.

An employee of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency caused a similar chord: “The offer and the people who provided it believe that this is primarily inspired by money to sufficient federal labor. While salary is important, we are subject to our protection of the country. and is driven by the promise of vowing to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.”

Despite this, a large number of workers are still uncertain about how to proceed. In an interview, the Human Resources Director under the Department of Health and Human Services said she was “on the fence when it comes to acquisitions and would probably accept it.” In her workplace, the feeling of fear and chaos was rampant. She said a colleague called me for an hour yesterday, trying to decide and be overwhelmed with it or not to accept OPM’s proposal.

The HR director, like many federal workers who spoke to NBC News, asked not to be named, said she was concerned that the Trump administration's aggressive push to lower the federal workforce and reshape the national government's buildings could cause lasting harm.

“Everyone is saying, 'It's illegal.' But in the end, it doesn't matter. The whole system is broken, with no consequences.”

Shelly, an information systems security manager who asked not to specify her last name and government agency, said she thought the first purchase email in her inbox might be spam because it doesn't look professional.

“I thought it was the first message of spam, I thought it was spam,” Shirley told NBC Nightly News this week. “I think it was a phishing message, and a lot of people think the same thing. …I’m an information security person and we basically sent it to our security operations center because it doesn’t look like the normal information we get from OPM. It looks informal.”

In the General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's real estate and construction services, an employee said Wednesday the pressure of resigning was different from anything he had experienced in the workplace before.

“Every two, three hours, we'll get these messages telling us that we're quitting or facing consequences,” GSA staff said. “We had staff meetings yesterday afternoon and this morning, and basically, we didn't have enough people to accept the quit , so they will continue to move forward and begin to seek to implement the reduction that takes effect. ”

“They just kept telling us, 'Please leave to leave' and 'pet leave'.” “It's better than the offer along the line.”

There is at least one example, just a few days before the deadline, federal workers were notified of “forks on the road.” According to sources who know the matter directly, NSA employees received an email offering a voluntary early retirement option Tuesday night.

In a subsequent town hall meeting with the agency’s directors on Wednesday, it was not clear whether the person who accepted the offer would receive their due benefits and pension.

In the case of at least one federal agency, employees have reason to suspect that the government will not end the acquisition deal.

Senior education officials told staff Wednesday that if they say “yes” to the administration's deferred resignation plan, Trump's education secretary may have cancelled the job later – leaving employees without any recourse and potentially deprived Their promised salary.

It is not clear whether the warning applies to other federal agencies.

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the education department and OPM pointed out a memorandum that said the assurances of the resignation proposal were binding on the government. If the government evades commitment, an employee has the right to request his resignation to be revoked. ”

However, the memorandum includes a sample agreement that has a clause saying that the head of the agency can revoke the transaction and that the employee waived the right to challenge them in front of the Performance Systems Protection Committee, an independent body that Review of federal workers' claims: or any other forum. ”

The sample agreement between education department employees obtained by NBC News includes similar language and stipulates that the resignation offer is final.

In response to the federal judge's pause on the acquisition plan, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “We thank the judge for extending the deadline, so more federal workers who reject the current office can accept that the government is very generous, and it's hard to have a lifetime of time. quotation. ”