Quinta Jurecic

And I don't mean that, you know, they're going to try to undermine it from within or anything like that. I just mean that I think there was a willingness to play ball and that is gone because of the way that they have been treated. And I think you see that in the bizarre sort of fork in the road emails that the Office of Personnel Management has sent out.

And I don't mean that, you know, they're going to try to undermine it from within or anything like that. I just mean that I think there was a willingness to play ball and that is gone because of the way that they have been treated. And I think you see that in the bizarre sort of fork in the road emails that the Office of Personnel Management has sent out.

So this is kind of clearly an Elon Musk effort. Fork in the road was the title of a subject line of an email that he sent out to Twitter employees when he took over, essentially offering them a buyout program. And he sent the same email to federal employees today.

So this is kind of clearly an Elon Musk effort. Fork in the road was the title of a subject line of an email that he sent out to Twitter employees when he took over, essentially offering them a buyout program. And he sent the same email to federal employees today.

saying, you know, we will give you this buyout option if you take what they call a deferred resignation, agree to resign, and then leave your position on September 30th. And that part of the problem is that the terms of that agreement keep changing. It's very unclear what people have actually agreed to. As you said earlier, Ezra,

saying, you know, we will give you this buyout option if you take what they call a deferred resignation, agree to resign, and then leave your position on September 30th. And that part of the problem is that the terms of that agreement keep changing. It's very unclear what people have actually agreed to. As you said earlier, Ezra,

It has now been blocked by a court until there can be another court hearing, so the status is extremely unclear. But there was a really striking post in the Fed News subreddit where someone essentially said, you know, look, I don't think these people understand why we are engaged in the work that we're doing. OPM put an FAQ on their website that said, you know,

It has now been blocked by a court until there can be another court hearing, so the status is extremely unclear. But there was a really striking post in the Fed News subreddit where someone essentially said, you know, look, I don't think these people understand why we are engaged in the work that we're doing. OPM put an FAQ on their website that said, you know,

We encourage you to find work in the private sector. And, you know, this is the way to greater American prosperity is to for people in the public sector to find more productive work in the private sector. And this person was saying, you know, look, if I wanted to be in the private sector, I could go to the private sector.

We encourage you to find work in the private sector. And, you know, this is the way to greater American prosperity is to for people in the public sector to find more productive work in the private sector. And this person was saying, you know, look, if I wanted to be in the private sector, I could go to the private sector.

I am working a very difficult job for not very much pay compared to what I could make if I left government. And I'm doing it because I believe in this project of public service. I believe in the work that the U.S. government does and what it provides to the world and what it provides to the American people.

I am working a very difficult job for not very much pay compared to what I could make if I left government. And I'm doing it because I believe in this project of public service. I believe in the work that the U.S. government does and what it provides to the world and what it provides to the American people.

And the approach that Musk and the Trump folks who are aligned with Musk are taking of this kind of, you know, we can just come in, these people are enemies, they'll find other work elsewhere, who cares, is just completely orthogonal to the worldview that civil servants take.

And the approach that Musk and the Trump folks who are aligned with Musk are taking of this kind of, you know, we can just come in, these people are enemies, they'll find other work elsewhere, who cares, is just completely orthogonal to the worldview that civil servants take.

Exactly. And I think that at a certain point, once you've been punched repeatedly, why would you approach the administration with goodwill after that, after the bully has socked you in the stomach and taken your lunch?

Exactly. And I think that at a certain point, once you've been punched repeatedly, why would you approach the administration with goodwill after that, after the bully has socked you in the stomach and taken your lunch?

No. The statistics I've seen are normally about 6% of federal employees leave the federal government in a year just because they're retiring or they decided to move on to a different job. And the number who reportedly took the quote-unquote buyout was only about 3% of federal employees. I would point to, I'll do a little log rolling for my own organization.

No. The statistics I've seen are normally about 6% of federal employees leave the federal government in a year just because they're retiring or they decided to move on to a different job. And the number who reportedly took the quote-unquote buyout was only about 3% of federal employees. I would point to, I'll do a little log rolling for my own organization.

Lawfare has been publishing and running podcasts with an amazing professor at the University of Minnesota, Nick Bednar, who studies the civil service and administrative law. I recorded a podcast with him where he said that he'd been speaking with a lot of civil servants, and his impression was that the people who were taking that offer were largely people who were planning on retiring anyway.

Lawfare has been publishing and running podcasts with an amazing professor at the University of Minnesota, Nick Bednar, who studies the civil service and administrative law. I recorded a podcast with him where he said that he'd been speaking with a lot of civil servants, and his impression was that the people who were taking that offer were largely people who were planning on retiring anyway.