Trump administration orders lists of low-performing federal workers
WASHINGTON ― The Trump administration ordered all heads of federal departments and agencies Thursday to provide lists of their lowest-performing employees and signaled mass job terminations could be coming.
A memo from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to department heads requests the names of all employees who received less than a “fully successful” performance rating in the past three years.
The order from OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell also asks that departments and agencies identify potential barriers to ensuring “the ability to swiftly terminate poor performing employees who cannot or will not improve.”
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The move comes as President Donald Trump has ordered a freeze on all federal hiring and offered buyouts to all 2.3 million federal employees in a push to drastically reduce the federal workforce.
Earlier this week, the OPM warned federal employees in an email that they could be furloughed if they do not accept a buyout offer, while telling them “the majority of federal agencies will be downsized.”
The Trump administration offered all federal workers eight months of pay through September in exchange for their immediate terminations. But federal employees’ unions have challenged the legality of the program in court. A federal judge in Massachusetts Thursday temporary blocked the buyouts to allow for litigation to proceed.
More:What to know after federal judge pauses Trump’s buyout deadline for federal workers
An original end-of-day Thursday deadline to accept the buyouts has been delayed to the end-of-day Monday, when the judge has scheduled the next hearing.
Trump’s buyout plan, dubbed “Fork in the Road,” is part Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government through the tech entrepreneur’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has effectively taken over the OPM.
Federal employees who want to remain in the federal workforce have been told they must return to in-person work, embrace new “performance standards” and be “reliable, loyal and trustworthy” in their work.
About 60,000 federal workers had accepted the offer as of Thursday afternoon, according to NBC News. That represents about 2.6% of the workforce, below a goal of 5% to 10% the White House has targeted.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
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