Federal workers in Colorado and across the nation face a life-altering decision this week — tender their resignations and be paid through Sept. 30. Or hold firm and face future rounds of belt-tightening and strict return to the office requirements.
An emailed memo titled “Fork in the Road” went out on Jan. 28 to many of the nation’s 2.2 million federal civilian employees, giving them an option to send back the word “resign” or “resign and retire” by Thursday, Feb. 6. It follows warnings from the Trump administration that remote and hybrid work arrangements are ending, except for those needing special accommodations.
The military, U.S. Postal Service, and Transportation Security Administration, and other workers considered important to national security aren’t eligible to resign. But a large share of the nearly 40,000 or so civilian federal workers in Colorado face a looming deadline on whether to stay or go.
“We are telling our people to proceed with caution. If you are considering resigning, make sure you discuss it with a financial adviser. Don’t jump at this,” cautioned Tim Snyder, National Vice President for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) District 11, which includes Colorado and surrounding states.
The AFGE is the nation’s largest union representing federal workers, with about 800,000 members, and it has urged members to say no until there is further clarification. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents about 150,000 federal workers, is firmly on the no side, while the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), which represents about 80,000 federal employees, has called the offer “reckless” and urged rejection.
The unions argue the deferred resignation program violates the Administrative Procedure Act, that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lacks the legal authority to make such a sweeping offer and that funds to pay resigning workers beyond March 14 aren’t secure yet.
Beyond that, the AFGE and other groups have sued to prevent what they consider administration efforts to politicize the civil service and replace career employees with “unqualified political flunkies loyal to the president, but not the law or Constitution.”
Elon Musk and his team at the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) argue the moves will streamline government operations, lower costs, and reduce unnecessary overhead while avoiding abrupt layoffs in the months ahead. The resignation program is partly modeled after one offered to employees of Twitter, now X, when Musk took over in 2022, down to the use of the phrase “Fork in the Road.”
“The federal workforce is expected to undergo significant near-term changes. As a result of these changes (or for other reasons), you may wish to depart the federal government on terms that provide you with sufficient time and economic security to plan for your future–and have a nice vacation,” states a FAQ provided by the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s human resources arm.
Federal workers who resign can take another job while collecting their federal pay, with some rare exceptions, but it isn’t clear how the conflict of interest prohibitions will be enforced. If the government shuts down at some point, the OPM clarified that resigning workers remain eligible for any backpay under existing federal laws.
Paid leave can also be made to match a federal employee’s retirement date if they are retiring in 2025. Federal employees are generally eligible for early retirement if they are over age 50 and have worked for 20 or more years at a federal job.
Resignations are completely voluntary and don’t preclude a worker from reapplying for a federal job in the future. Resignations, which are contingent on management approval, are expected within 72 hours, according to the FAQ.
Although a wide net is being cast for resignation offers, union representatives and labor lawyers say the program appears primarily targeted at remote workers who don’t want to return to the office. Several agencies and their workers have negotiated agreements broadening telework since the pandemic and trying to unwind those will likely result in litigation.
“The purpose of the Trump executive orders to remove employees who do not return to the office in person and to offer a deferred resignation is clearly to massively reduce the size of the government,” said Michael Fallings, a partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Estimates of federal employees who telework, meaning they are mostly remote with a dedicated space at an office, or fully remote, range from 10% to 15% of the total, with Colorado on the higher end of that range. About 54% of federal workers hold jobs that require them to be on-site every day of the week, and of the remainder, 60% of the hours worked are on-site or in the office, according to the AFGE.
Compared to private sector buyouts, which sometimes provide a week or two for every year of service, eight months of paid leave with no work requirements appears generous, especially for newer hires. But employment lawyers say federal workers will be abandoning well-established protections if they accept, with no recourse if things go wrong. And there is a lot that could go wrong.
“There is a lot of confusion on everyone’s behalf,” said Holly Franson, a partner with the Wick Law Office in Denver who represents federal workers. “This is not a buyout. This is a way of culling the size of the government workforce without complying with the rules and regulations in place to protect workers.”
Normally, when federal government workers are being “removed,” the official term for terminated or fired, they must be provided with a reason and given a chance to respond. If a reduction in force or layoff is underway, not specific to that worker, another set of rules must be followed. No such protections are in place for workers in the deferred resignation program, attorneys said.
Workers who resign will be placed on administrative leave. But by going that route, the program violates existing rules on who can be placed on administrative leave, how much they can be paid during leave, and stricter provisions on leave that came out of the first Trump administration, Franson said.
“I think they are trying to force people to make a hasty decision, a life-changing decision,” Snyder said.
Agency managers will have several decisions to wrestle with, including who to keep and who to let go; whether to backfill empty positions, shift tasks to current workers, or eliminate tasks, Franson said, adding that some positions will be very hard to backfill.
Some agencies involved with administration priorities, such as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, have issued blanket exemptions. Others, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, one of the largest federal employers in metro Denver, are expected to have a high share of exemptions.
Another concern is accommodating the workers who do come back to the office full-time given that many agencies have reduced their space, Franson said. Estimates of what share of workers will resign versus what share will stay range widely, but more office space and office equipment will likely be needed.
“The vast majority of workers don’t prefer to come in five days a week. They prefer a hybrid solution,” said Elaine Richards, an assistant management professor at the University of Denver. “But we aren’t in an economic environment where most employees can balk completely and quit.”
The Great Resignation, where employees could easily switch jobs, is over. But plenty of state and local positions remain open in Colorado, the kind that could appeal to mission-minded federal workers, said Shane Evangelist, CEO of NEOGOV, the parent company of GovernmentJobs.com.
The job board, around since 2000, hosted about 40% of the local and state government positions filled over the past two years, Evangelist said. And right now it has about 15,400 openings in Colorado.
“Federal may be firing but state and local is hiring,” Evangelist said. “If you want to continue to serve the community, there are plenty of opportunities.”
Law enforcement, engineering, and information technology are some of the job categories where state and local governments struggle the most to find qualified applicants, he said.
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