February 7, 2025
OPM Supervisors Receive Emails Demanding Justifications For Employees To Keep Their Jobs
FedScoop reports that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released memos to federal agencies demanding justifications for why senior-level executives should keep their jobs as the Trump-Vance administration seeks to shed career employees.
The memos, sent out on Feb. 5, asked agencies to identify all Senior Executive Service (SES) positions and request the need to keep these people on board — but only if the agency head believes the “President’s goals and priorities would be better served by keeping” the status quo. The Biden-Harris administration was accused of redesignating SES positions normally held by non-career employees and placing them in positions that can only be held by career employees under titles such as “general” or “career reserved.”
OPM gave agencies 45 days to make their reports to review all SES positions deemed as general on the last day of Trump’s first term or were general-designated positions later filled with political appointments “for a majority of the prior administration’s tenure.” “Positions that, in the first Trump administration, were seen as appropriately held by non-career appointees, or by either career or non-career appointees, should retain that status under the current administration,” the memo stated.
However, some agencies said they were not given the same grace time. According to the Government Executive, some agency heads claim they were only given minutes. One supervisor at the Energy Department was given 20 minutes and was limited to 200 characters per description.
Persons who made the list now fear their job status as one OPM official claimed the directives were given to agencies that failed to fully comply with previous guidance to “promptly determine” if employees “should be retained at the agency.” “People are pretty upset about it because they can see the writing on the wall,” the Energy supervisor said.
Employees of some agencies have already been notified of probationary status in some cases, reminding them that their positions can easily be eliminated. “People are terrified. People are really, really scared,” the Energy department supervisor admitted. The new move from the Trump administration highlights the new focus on taking widespread actions over probationary employees in specific jobs. One employee from the Department of Justice admitted that he didn’t think he would remain for long. “I’m assuming I’ll be let go,” the employee said.
Until more announcements are made, the remaining employees will focus on doing their jobs as they see fit. However, some find it difficult to be productive amid all the turmoil.
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