Musk Buyout Has US Workers Vowing to Stay Until ‘Told to Leave’

It’s an early test for Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the US government: Thursday is the deadline for federal employees to accept a buyout offer delivered via email last week.

The choice is stark for more than two million federal employees from Maine to Alaska being pushed to leave their jobs. In exchange for a voluntary resignation, the new administration says workers will get pay and benefits through September. They wouldn’t need to return to the office and could even take other jobs.

More than 20,000 employees — roughly 1% percent of the federal workforce — have signed up for the offer, with the numbers increasing each day, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Still, many others are struggling to trust the offer and are questioning whether it is even legal.

Some, especially those with marketable job skills in science and tech, are so frustratedwith the current government that they’re planning to move to the private sector anyway. Others are outraged and say they will have to be forced out.

“I’ve centered my whole life on public service, and I intend to stay in this position until I am told to leave,” said Joey Ortiz, a federal IT specialist.

The federal workforce is centered in the nation’s capital in Washington, DC, where thousands build their lives around sprawling agencies like the Department of Education and the Pentagon. But the civilian workforce spans all 50 states and includes everything from museum workers and architects to food safety inspectors and forest rangers.

Read more: Trump’s Federal Worker Buyout Plan May Fail to Spur Resignations

Trump has cast these workers as redundant pieces of a bureaucracy that must be purged. He’s threatened to fire people who don’t return to offices full-time, and the buyoutsappear to be a way to jumpstart the job cuts. The White House has said it expects about 10% of workers to take the deal.

A follow-up to the initial buyout email, sent in response to a flood of questions about the message, clarified that those who accept the so-called deferred resignation offer don’t have to work and can even use the free time to take a trip.

“You are most welcome to stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination,” the email said.

The US Office of Personnel Management headquarters in Washington, DC.

Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Firing federal workers is notoriously difficult. Employees can appeal disciplinary actions, and their unions can help fight back. Trump is also not the first president to try to shrink the federal workforce: President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, utilized buyouts in the 1990s with mixed results.

Many federal workers found the tone of the email last week — from the Office of Personnel Management — to be flippant. Some thought it was spam, pointing to a subject line that read “Fork in the Road.”

‘Be Extremely Careful’

Even after the Trump administration confirmed its veracity, workers questioned whether they would actually see the entire eight months of benefits if they accept the offer. When Musk, now a top adviser to Trump, took over Twitter, he fired roughly 80% of its employees. Some who took buyout offers in 2022 have since claimed they never received severance.

Read More: Pritzker Warns Federal Workers in Illinois Against Musk Buyout

Danny Rosenthal, a partner at law firm James & Hoffman, has been advising clients pondering the deferred resignation offer to “be extremely careful.”

“It’s uncertain right now whether there’s any way to hold the government to what it is offering,” he said. “We just don’t know right now if there’s any way to actually enforce that.”

When Matt Bellott got the email, he found the language odd — as a government employee, he’s used to emails being fairly straightforward. This one asked recipients to reply “resign” if they wanted to opt into the program and described the four pillars of a “reformed federal workforce,” including “return to office” and “enhanced standards of conduct.”

Bellott, who works as a power grid controller in Missouri, is required to go into work every day for twelve hour shifts. Although his role is specialized, he said his skills are transferrable and he would be able to find another job in the private sector. Still, the situation is not clear enough for him to take that gamble right now.

“It is kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” he said. “They are disincentivizing people to work for the federal government.”

Weighing the Options

Mark Jorges, a 47-year-old veteran and psychotherapist working at a VA facility in Temple, Texas, is considering taking the buyout — if the offer is legally viable. He was already thinking of leaving his job to pursue a doctorate degree, but is still waiting on further guidance.

“I’m looking at my future and retirement, and what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Jorges said.

Retirement packages are a big perk for many federal workers. Their pensions are based on years of service and salary level, so leaving sooner than planned would likely mean missing out on their highest-earning years.

More than four in 10 full-time permanent federal employees are at least 50 years old, according to March 2024 data from the Office of Personnel Management. Meanwhile, about 150,000 employees have worked for the government for 30 years or more.

‘Most Good’

For Nancy Segal, a career expert who specializes in federal employees, the phone has been ringing off the hook. Only one person she spoke to, who is already close to retirement, is considering the offer, she said.

Many worry the pressure to resign will only get worse if they don’t take the offer now, said Segal, who worked in HR for the federal government for more than 30 years. For the most part, she’s advising employees to be cautious given the unprecedented nature of the offer. Meanwhile, Allison Trask, a career coach based in New Jersey, is encouraging federal employees to at least consider the possibility of taking a job outside the government.

“If you’re a government employee and you’re there for moral and ethical reasons, you have to ask yourself a simple question: ‘Is this the environment where I can do the most good?’” she said.

To contact the authors of this story:
Claire Ballentine in New York at cballentine@bloomberg.net

Francesca Maglione in New York at fmaglione2@bloomberg.net

Dina Katgara in New York at dkatgara@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Craig Giammona at cgiammona@bloomberg.net

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.