--- title: Should Federal Workers Accept Trump’s Buyout? description: Business professors explain what President Donald Trump and Elon Musk miss about what truly motivates federal workers. canonical: https://time.com/7213378/should-federal-workers-accept-trumps-buyout/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-02-06T15:24:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:42.403Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Should Federal Workers Accept Trump’s Buyout? og:description: Business professors explain what President Donald Trump and Elon Musk miss about what truly motivates federal workers. og:url: https://time.com/7213378/should-federal-workers-accept-trumps-buyout/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec8ec3e6b02f432/6998b3207323af7e502ba559/Donald-Trump-National-Prayer-Breakfast.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump National Prayer Breakfast og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Should Federal Workers Accept Trump’s Buyout? twitter:description: Business professors explain what President Donald Trump and Elon Musk miss about what truly motivates federal workers. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec8ec3e6b02f432/6998b3207323af7e502ba559/Donald-Trump-National-Prayer-Breakfast.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Should Federal Workers Accept Trump’s Buyout Offer? > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=de2ee4b3-8800-4713-9705-0eb1296e7353&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Can He Do That? What Legal Experts Say About Trump’s Most Radical Moves [Watch (HLS stream): Can He Do That? What Legal Experts Say About Trump’s Most Radical Moves](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SMkQhNDD.m3u8) (3:33)  _Published 2025-02-05. The second Trump Administration has wasted little time in testing the boundaries of executive authority. While many of the President’s supporters are cheering him on, some legal experts see a constitutional crisis unfolding, as many of Trump’s moves raise urgent legal and constitutional questions that could take years to fully unravel._ by [Christopher Wong Michaelson](https://time.com/author/christopher-wong-michaelson/) and [Jennifer Tosti-Kharas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-tosti-kharas/) Feb 6, 2025 3:24 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 6, 2025\. Trump's “deferred resignation offer” is available to all federal employees until February 6. President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 6, 2025\. Trump's “deferred resignation offer” is available to all federal employees until February 6. Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images by [Christopher Wong Michaelson](https://time.com/author/christopher-wong-michaelson/) and [Jennifer Tosti-Kharas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-tosti-kharas/) Feb 6, 2025 3:24 PM UTC Historically, the rewards of being a federal employee, including the mission of public service and the value of employment stability, have come at the cost of modest monetary compensation. However, the Trump Administration’s new “[deferred resignation offer](https://www.opm.gov/fork)” promises money to those who leave their jobs without any promises to those who stay. Federal workers to which it applies have until today to decide: [Is the package worth it](https://time.com/7213232/federal-workers-musk-doge-trump-buyout-uncertainty-trick/)? President Donald Trump’s political opponents warn that the president [will not pay up](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/28/trump-offers-buyouts-for-federal-workers-00201106), a reasonable concern considering that he [does not pay many of his bills](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/) in his business and personal life. Unions decry the plan as a [scare tactic](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/30/federal-workers-buyout-offer-00201349), and some employee representatives [question its legality](https://time.com/7212753/trump-elon-musk-federal-laws-legal-analysis/). The scale and suddenness of this offer is unprecedented in the federal government but typical of slash-and-burn management practices espoused by [Trump](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4557459) and his efficiency czar, Elon [Musk](https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-downsized-big-tech-090501844.html?guccounter=1&guce%5Freferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce%5Freferrer%5Fsig=AQAAAA36DspE6NsFcSXQeXZDHYLPDmExqIfmAInc%5FRAzQo%5FtBZ5E7sczECWmW9JMogx4iTWyDqJ-7hO5POveYcsWwOHgD%5FQgCr%5FqSTKXWgxjsmHGN39w53UZfl%5FSfp8kmXVvMbCUWapO3JN6uksJq8air9rJXJQBi80UEvmGTV9Mxu-m). The offer is presented in their preferred language, as a monetary transaction: eight months of paid leave and benefits in exchange for resignation. Because they are personally motivated by material considerations, they presume that everyone must be “rational economic actors,” as [rational choice theory](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rational-choice-theory.asp) refers to people who only care about their own self-interest. If a federal worker did indeed trust the integrity of the offer, rational economic actors who are not already on the verge of full retirement will weigh only material considerations in their decision. They will consider the value of their remaining take-home wages through September that pays them for looking for their next job. They will consider the probability of finding private sector employment at similar or better pay before their free ride runs out. They will compare the relative job security of their public and private sector prospects in the foreseeable future. Finally, they will consider the retirement timelines and packages in each scenario. People with this worldview see only one dimension of worth: the net worth conferred by money. But if there are enough rational economic actors in the federal workforce who accept the offer to resign, it could have sweeping unintended consequences for all of us. One is the possibility that necessary services could be disrupted, from air traffic control to tax refunds. A potentially ironic consequence of this “government efficiency” operation could be inefficiency brought on by the chaos a large exodus could cause. The plan could reduce job prospects for unemployed private sector workers who are struggling to stay afloat in an expanded employment pool. In the longer term, Trump’s ploy to improve the federal workforce could adversely affect productivity if workers who are least qualified to find alternative employment are most likely to stay behind in search of employment stability. However, [early resistance](https://www.axios.com/2025/02/03/trump-buyout-federal-workers-offer-contract) to the offer suggests an even more important factor that may foil the attempt of corporate raiders to remake the government in their image. Many of the most talented and devoted federal employees went into public service for the mission, not the money. They care about other forms of worth beyond their net worth: the intangible value of love of country that cannot be counted in dollars and the sense of self-worth conferred by a job well done. For this reason, many federal workers may choose to stay in their positions not because they have no choice but because they choose to continue serving their country under any administration, even one that disrespects and tries to dismantle them. Dedicated federal workers may even double down in their roles to defend their work for their country and provide necessary continuity between the previous and the present to the next presidential administration. Unlike their new bosses, they believed in the oath they took, that [public service is a public trust](https://www.oge.gov/web/oge.nsf/0/D3F2D9414D2C02F5852585B6005A1CFB/$FILE/Public%20Service.pdf). They did not go into public service with the logic that Trump and Musk are banking on: to get paid the most to do the least. ## Transcript Attempting to dismantle independent agencies, granting private individuals access to government systems, and offering unprecedented federal employee buyouts. These are three recent political moves Trump pushed to test the limits of his presidential power. But can he do that without legal challenges? Trump and Musk want to dismantle USAID, a key agency providing humanitarian aid around the world, and place it under State Department control? And the money they were giving to people that shouldn't be getting it, and to agencies and others that shouldn't be getting it was a shame. So the tremendous fraud. It's a move that could drastically alter decades of humanitarian efforts. Trump is quickly shutting down many of USAID efforts around the world, but legal experts say he can't shut down the agency entirely without Congress's approval because of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. USAID current legal status restricts the president's ability to abolish the agency unilaterally. Any attempt to dissolve USAID would require new legislation from Congress, and it would be difficult for such a bill to get support from 60 senators, which would be needed to overcome an all but certain filibuster. Elon Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, now has access to the federal payment system, giving them the ability to monitor and flag potential wasteful or improper payments in the system that handles over $5 billion annually in federal disbursements, including Social Security, Medicare and tax refunds. We're trying to shrink government, and he can probably shrink it as well as anybody else. But the Treasury Department's payment records are more than a federal checkbook. They are part of a highly sensitive system that processes the country's essential transactions. It includes personal information from taxpayers, beneficiaries of federal programs and contractors, raising alarm over the potential for misuse or mishandling of such data. Legal experts say granting Musk and his team access to such sensitive government data potentially contravenes multiple federal statutes, including the Privacy Act of 1974. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, it's not clear whether Musk or others at Doge have been granted the proper security clearance for the records they are accessing. If they have been granted that that clearance, it's unclear if they went through the rigorous vetting federal employees normally go through to get it. And the president can't just unilaterally ignore the Privacy Act or ignore the tax privacy provisions, or ignore the federal Information Security Management Act, also known as Fisma. Trumps federal buyout program launched in a series of ultimatum emails to federal workers to return to the office full time or resign with a generous buyout might not be legal either. The government's funding is currently set to expire in mid-March. The buyout involves a commitment to pay employees beyond the current appropriations cycle. The move may violate the Antideficiency act, a law that prohibits the government from spending more money than Congress has appropriated, and the Administrative Leave Act, which prevents government agencies from using administrative leave to sideline employees for extended periods without clear justification. Some Democrats have warned that the scheme could lead to unintended consequences, such as the exodus of essential employees, and thereby jeopardizing the government's ability to perform critical functions. Some federal employees have also expressed confusion over whether their positions will be exempt from the resignation offer, with unclear exclusions for certain categories of workers, including those in national security and immigration enforcement. 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