By Jessica DiNapoli and Julia Harte
(Reuters) – Some of the 75,000 U.S. federal workers who the Office of Personnel Management says accepted a resignation buyout offer were ready to retire anyway. Others were motivated by looming federal workforce cuts or an order to return to the office.
Many bristled at Donald Trump’s description of the civil service as bloated and ineffective, saying in interviews with Reuters over recent days that they were proud of their government work and felt a responsibility to the American people.
The Trump administration, which is pursuing various strategies to cut the civilian workforce of 2.3 million, including wide-ranging firings, had promised to pay workers who voluntarily left their jobs through September 30. A judge allowed the plan to proceed earlier this week.
Each one of the tens of thousands of people who accepted the buyout had their own reasons for doing so and now are left to consider their next move, whether that’s taking time off, searching for a new job or settling into retirement. Here are five of their stories:
‘A UNICORN JOB’
Jourdain Solis, 27, of Fresno, California, accepted the buyout because he had heard that the program he works for at the Internal Revenue Service, checking compliance with fuel tax laws, would be eliminated.
“I love my job. I get to make my own schedule, and find the people and businesses I audit for tax compliance,” Solis said. “I get a government vehicle and travel all the time. This is like a unicorn job.”
Solis said he wanted to retire with the IRS but will still get a small pension because he has been with the government for five years. He plans to look for state or city jobs and private sector positions in accounting or administration. In his time off, Solis hopes to travel internationally. The administration urged workers to accept the buyouts by suggesting they take a vacation to their “dream destination.”
RETIRING ANYWAY
Kurt Floyd, 62, of Arlington, Texas, took the buyout because he was planning on retiring after 39 years of government service. Most recently, Floyd worked as a program manager supporting U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I figured why not go ahead and take it, and have a vacation for seven, eight months and be retired,” Floyd said.
His career has spanned two tours with the U.S. military in Afghanistan and he has been with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 1997. Floyd was already going into the office twice a week, and the order to go in for five days “didn’t bother me a bit,” he said.
A retirement seminar from a former government employee helped Floyd decide to take the buyout. He has an 11-year-old child and plans to spend his retirement close to home and fishing.
‘A REALLY HARD DECISION’
Jennifer Mercer, 46, of Hollywood, Maryland, who works on contracts at a naval base, called taking the buyout “a really hard decision.”
“I spent many days in tears,” she said.
Mercer said she accepted the offer because she is worried about getting laid off eventually and was unable to go into the office five days a week as Trump ordered. She is a single mother to a 10-year-old son, and could not be at the office at 8:30 a.m. and drop her son off at school at the same time.
On Friday Mercer, who also was looking for approval for a hybrid schedule, was still waiting on confirmation that her resignation had been accepted.
“It’s an extremely difficult position to put us in, because I don’t trust them, the administration, or Elon Musk,” she said, referring to the billionaire and close Trump ally who is leading the administration’s massive government cost-cutting effort.
‘WE TRULY CARE’
Ken Brown, 63, of Lafayette, Indiana, took the buyout because going into the office five days a week would not work for him. Before the return-to-office order, he had been commuting at his own expense from Indiana to the D.C. area to meet his job’s requirement of being in the office four times per two-week pay period.
Brown said he had been willing to continue that commute for several more years, but that going in five days a week was “not an option for me.” He works at Health and Human Services, helping provide healthcare to people who lack insurance or are isolated or medically vulnerable.
“I really like the work. This is the thing getting lost in the news and vitriol against the federal workforce,” he said. “We truly care about the work we do on behalf of the American people.”
‘LOSING A CAREER’
Constantine Kiriakou, 37, of Virginia Beach, who works for the Department of State, planned to take the government up on its buyout offer. He wrestled with the decision after his wife lost her job at the U.S. Agency for International Development in recent cuts. The couple have three young daughters.
Kiriakou had been following the news of the judge weighing the buyout on Wednesday night. He was waiting to hear when the new deadline to accept the offer would be.
Then, late Wednesday he received an email saying that the program was closed.
“I missed the window,” he said in a text. “Now (I’m) more confused and stressed than ever.”
Despite being skeptical about the buyout due to the lack of a formal contract and the tone of the offer, Kiriakou had planned to take it because he and his family had moved to Virginia Beach. He has been flying to the D.C. area when he had to go into the office once every other week.
Relocating back to D.C. would be too costly, he said.
“I’m not losing a job, I’m losing a career,” he said. “Most people’s reaction to that is, ‘Move back to D.C.’ It’s just not that easy.”
Kiriakou is holding out hope he will still get a chance to participate in the deferred resignation program, and sent an email that he would accept it after the deadline. Otherwise, he worries he will be laid off or have to resign.
To make ends meet and cut costs, he and his wife have sold one of their cars and plan to take their oldest child out of daycare. “Right now we’re doing everything we can to pinch pennies,” he said.
(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Julia Harte; editing by Paul Thomasch and Bill Berkrot)
