Summary

Elon Musk and his allies have reportedly taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and bypassed officials to send a mass resignation email to over 2.3 million federal employees.

The email, titled “Fork in the Road,” offers buyouts to those who voluntarily resign, mirroring a similar approach Musk used at Twitter.

Musk has placed close associates in leadership positions at OPM, raising concerns over his growing influence in Trump’s administration.

Federal employees remain skeptical about the buyout’s legitimacy.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    He didn’t seize shit…

    They made up an email address, claimed it was OPM, then spent an afternoon pretending to be official between that and the fork in the road email.

    Apparently from metadata, it’s not even a real email for OPM, it’s being spoofed.

    The whole thing is an absolute shit show.

    But on the upside all it seems to be doing is delaying the retirements of everyone who was already planning on leaving when trump came back.

    They have no idea what a bureaucrat will put up with out of spite, and a large amount of Feds didn’t like their loyalty called into question by some ai slop pretending to be from a federal agency.

    Edit:

    They sent another last night too, a “FAQ” talking about how you’ll get paid till the end of the fiscal year…

    Like government employees aren’t fucking aware we’re on a continuing resolution… There’s zero money to offer here, and a “FAQ” isn’t binding.

    That’s not even getting I to how a couple agencies are saying if anyone takes it, they lose the position for good.

    Like a 10 person office, if 2 take it, it’s now permanently an 8 person office.

    It’s an obvious trick. And all it’s doing is galvanizing the federal workforce

    Edit 2:

    And if you’re not up to speed, the emails are 100% “written” by the 19 year old using chatbots.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/top-hires-trump-office-personnel-183345778.html

    • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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      16 hours ago

      My wife shared a thread from Reddit with me where a lot of federal workers who were feeling demotivated and like they may want to bail are now saying they will absolutely not leave, and will resist.

      It’s one thing to proceed methodically and slowly and to strangle the workers off in ways that can’t be overcome. It’s entirely another to try to trick them into quitting and rug pull them.

      In their shoes, I would be going full bureaucrat mode. To the extent legally possible, every HR, or HR-like email gets printed or stored somewhere that isn’t on a server that it can be remotely deleted from. Every meeting recorded. Every document preserved to the fullest extent that the law/FOIA/retention policies require. Heck, they should probably try to preemptively have a shortlist of employment lawyers, or even have a consult with one to make sure they’re being proactive for what may come.
      I mean, if they like the job and want to fight for it/want to slow down these insidious changes.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        isn’t on a server that it can be remotely deleted from.

        The scuttlebutt is all the HR@opm emails are coming from an outside server someone just walked into OPM and plugged into the network lol.

        It’s a total shit show

        • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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          15 hours ago

          A total shit shower, one might say.

          The email with the subject “Important Weather Alert” read, “The next 4 years has a 99% chance of shit showers. Our president is a retard and his VP is a f—. We’re cooked. Please reply.”
          Trump Change Causes Flood of Crude Spam Emails to Federal Workers

          This is hilarious and incredibly stupid. I hope all the people impacted are of the disposition to delight in chaos, rather than be harmed by it.

    • That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml
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      20 hours ago

      They made up an email address, claimed it was OPM, then spent an afternoon pretending to be official between that and the fork in the road email.

      Isn’t that a crime? Pretending to be a federal agency when you’re not?

      • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        Oh, hi! Glad to see you’re awake. Here’s some coffee. Let me explain what happened in the last six months while you were out… To much to explain. Let me sum up.

        Trump is a convicted felon at least 30 times over, was elected to office, then sprung the insurrectionists who helped him. He’s broken the law dozens of times in and out of office without consequence, and packed the supreme court with lackeys. Congress is controlled by his other lackeys.

        At this point, there is ample evidence that the fact it was a crime has no bearing on whether or not they will fail to get their desired outcome. Playing by the rules will only get your ass whooped and tossed aside.

        Our situation requires grit and willingness to sacrifice in solidarity in order to regain our country.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        There’s already a lawsuit

        The new legal challenge comes as the Trump administration has launched a multi-front effort to overhaul how the federal workforce operates, including initiatives to weaken federal workforce protections and to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, among other actions.

        According to the new lawsuit, federal employees in recent days received emails from the email address [email protected] that purported to be running tests for a new “distribution and response list.”

        https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/27/politics/federal-employees-email-system-privacy-concerns-lawsuit/index.html

        They didn’t even wait for the “fork” email…

        The part about metadata showing it’s not coming from OPM but private email servers would come out of discovery on that

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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      20 hours ago

      Didn’t Musk offer the same thing to Twitter employees when he bought it, and then never paid them the leave money

      • dan1101@lemm.ee
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        19 hours ago

        I have read there are ongoing court cases about Twitter not paying the people that resigned.

    • soEZ@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Unfortunately all other agencies seem to be going along with it. DOE, said they will honor all the terms…

    • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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      19 hours ago

      Good. Fuckem. As a former federal employee myself, I can say with confidence that I have never worked with a more worthless, self serving bunch of inept check collectors than I have trying to deal with federal employees from the inside. HR is completely ineffectual. Administration has its head so far up its own ass they can see teeth. IT is constantly isolated, discouraged, and blamed for inefficiency they can do nothing about. I was just a dumb dumb welder and even I was off put by how chaotic every day ended up being due to miscommunication and ineptitude. Unpaid OT, meal break violations, employee rights violations, its all there every day and nobody cares. When I spoke up about my experience, I was shitcanned for not shutting up and taking my lumps. When I went to the union, I was told they’re too poor to actually make waves. I hope every federal employee has a very nice get fucked for the rest of their careers in the government.

      • limonfiesta@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        I can sense you’re a trustworthy person and that your story is highly credible.

        Even if someone showed me the video evidence of you sexually harassing female employees, I wouldn’t believe it.

        I will die on the hill that you we’re fired for standing up for your rights and righteousness, and not because you kept showing up for work late or repeatedly talking loudly about your breastfeeding fetish.