The U.S. government will lay off fewer workers than planned because so many accepted buyouts or took early retirement, an official revealed in federal court on Monday. Reuters reports that “tens of thousands” of federal workers voluntarily left positions under the threat of cuts. Office of Personnel Management senior advisor Noah Peters said layoff targets were revised down or even eliminated because of voluntary departures and “natural attrition.” He did not specify which agencies would be affected. Meanwhile, terminated workers struggle with the uncertainty, The New York Times reports.
I know this feels solely like a Washington, D.C. story, but there are federal staff working all over the country (and overseas).
“In interviews, workers described reaching a stage where they were ready to move on, only to be frustrated by administrative morass. They are finding that the only thing harder than getting fired is staying that way, and navigating a Kafkaesque web of bureaucratic snafus that has left some of them in a surreal employment limbo.”