If you’re an American federal employee and got an email saying “it’s ok to quit your job.” Do not, for the love of everything, quit your job. This is purely a scare tactic to get rid of as many people as possible without legal consequences.
Obviously, Trump has realized firing everyone in the government will be harder than he thought because of robust legal protections so he’s trying to scare or trick people into leaving instead because he knows they can block and slow his fascist agenda. Don’t let that happen. If you’re in the civil service, your country needs you; stay in your job and protect the constitution. And if you’re not in civil service, do what you can to support the civil service, including calling your representatives and asking them to protect civil servants.
Important addition: the email was almost WORD FOR WORD the same email sent to Twitter employees after Musk took over. It does not consider Federal employee rights or regulations, parts of it make NO SENSE WHATSOEVER (you resign but will be kept on active payroll and simply won’t be given work or need to come in. For 8 months.).
8 months pay with the ability to get a new job is very tempting, especially for lower-paid workers. All that extra money could really cover some gaps and relieve financial pressures. It’s tempting. I get it.
ITS ALSO NOT LIKELY LEGAL AS WRITTEN AND YOUR AGREEMENT COULD ACTUALLY SCREW YOU. There’s a reason so many of the recent EOs and initial memorandums are getting halted or rewritten - no thought or research was given to what they can do given actual regulations and union contracts. Because many are coming from Musk via DOGE, and Musk has NEVER had to deal with unions, federal employee regulations, and strong opponents capable of fighting back HARD with decades of legal precedent at their back.
Reality seems to be hitting as an afterthought to all the shit spewing like a firehose from this administration. Don’t react to the first edition of ANYTHING. Given it a few days and see what actually can be done.
Right now, r/fednews is the biggest social media hub for federal employees anywhere; you can find resources, advice, news, memes, and encouragement there.
If you're not a federal employee, feel free to pop over anyway for information, and please send well-wishes! They really need it right now, as their jobs are so so so important but not very popular or prestigious, and now the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world are trying to take their livelihoods.
The architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought, is now Trump's director for the Office of Managenent and Budget -
ie, the main guy who created Project 2025 is now the topmost-level manager and coordinator of all federal agencies.
His vision for federal civil servants, in his own words:
"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.
We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.
We want to put them in trauma."
Project 2025 specifically targets federal civil servants for a reason. They are the essential first and second lines of defense of the US democracy and the fascists know it.
Support our civil servants, support your rights.
This is so important.
Support civil servants, support your rights!
And if you’re in the civil service we’re all rooting for you. You are heroes. Even slowing him down buys valuable time to defeat the fascist agenda. Defend the constitution. We stand with you. Hold the line! Don’t resign!
