Up next in 10
Federal Workforce Optimization: Where It Has Been and Where It is Going
3K views
Feb 14, 2025
The Trump administration is developing an ambitious federal workforce optimization plan, incorporating deferred resignation, DEI policies, probationary employees, and Schedule F reforms. But what does this mean for the government workforce? In this video, we break down: ✅ What has been accomplished so far in reshaping the federal workforce ✅ The potential impact of deferred resignation and how it could accelerate employee departures ✅ The role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in these policy shifts ✅ How the loss of probationary employees could affect government operations ✅ The return of Schedule F—what it means for federal employees and how it could reshape public service How many federal employees will be leaving? Where will these changes lead? Join us as we analyze the latest developments and their potential consequences. 🔔 Subscribe for more insights on government policies and workforce trends! 📢 Comment below: What are your thoughts on these federal workforce changes? Related Videos OPM's Fast-Track Request for Probationary Employee Info: What It Means https://youtu.be/HJtToA5lHss Achieving Government Efficiency and Workforce Optimization Using RIFs, Hiring Restrictions
View Video Transcript
0:00
my name is Ralph Smith and I'm a
0:02
co-founder and a writer for fedsmith.com
0:05
and the purpose of the video today this
0:09
is the number I don't know how many at
0:12
this point in a series of videos on what
0:15
president Trump calls the workforce
0:18
optimization initiative uh perhaps more
0:21
accurately it's the wor Workforce
0:23
reduction initiative because that's
0:25
what's going on and as far as most of
0:27
our viewers are concerned that's
0:29
probably the most important thing of the
0:31
thing of immediate concern for them so
0:34
how's it going is it successful
0:36
unsuccessful how many people are
0:38
affected what's happened and what's
0:40
happening next to start with what's
0:43
happened theer resignation was the
0:46
initial step it came to a surprise uh as
0:50
a surprise for a lot of people that
0:52
hadn't been expecting it because there
0:54
hadn't really been any publicity about
0:55
it the administration indicated or PM at
0:59
least which is obviously part of the
1:01
administration uh had estimated perhaps
1:03
5 to 10% of the workforce would take it
1:06
it was viewed as being a a generous
1:08
offer and along with the offer came
1:11
notification that other things would be
1:14
happening uh fairly soon riffs furlows
1:18
basic reductions in force in one way or
1:22
another it started with Dei uh a lot of
1:26
Dei people were put on administrative
1:28
leave positions being
1:30
terminated but that was just the the
1:32
starting point it was hardly the finish
1:34
of it all the Deferred resignation
1:37
didn't go as well or at least it didn't
1:39
hit the targets that the government
1:41
thought it might hit and probably for a
1:43
couple of reasons one is that they may
1:46
have underestimated the strong reaction
1:49
of the unions and other organizations
1:53
basically saying if you take this offer
1:56
you're buying it to something that may
1:59
not work out to your benefit they argued
2:02
it was unfair illegal not thought out uh
2:07
no legal basis for it and if you do it
2:10
you might find yourself being without a
2:13
job and without having any money so we
2:16
don't have any idea how many people were
2:18
affected by these arguments uh in the
2:21
unions were in a course Consortium uh
2:24
filing a lawsuit uh with a judge in the
2:27
state of
2:28
Massachusetts so the resignation program
2:32
was delayed it gave people an extra
2:34
several days to sign up and that seemed
2:37
to help in the sense that it went from
2:39
about 50,000 until the end of the
2:41
temporary restraining order so it got up
2:43
to maybe 76 or 77,000 people still less
2:48
than the five to 10% that the government
2:51
had estimated may take advantage of the
2:54
program so 76,000 is not a small number
2:58
but there's further to go probably the
3:02
best estimate is the government may be
3:04
shooting for four a reduction of say
3:06
400,000 to 500,000 people I haven't seen
3:10
any estimates on what their overall go
3:13
is goal is the
3:15
workforce optimization program is
3:17
supposed to make the government run more
3:19
efficiently of course in conjunction
3:21
with this Doge the department of
3:23
government efficiency is going into a
3:25
lot of agencies and finding a lot of
3:27
stuff getting publicity on how money
3:29
money is being spent uh that's
3:32
government money for programs around the
3:35
world uh sometimes the programs are
3:37
embarrassing not the kind of thing you'd
3:39
want your government funding sometimes
3:42
the government is funding both sides of
3:44
an issue uh sometimes it's just uh
3:47
forwarding or pressing introducing
3:50
social issues that are active in this
3:52
country into other countries that don't
3:55
have those kinds of initiatives and
3:57
whether they wanted them or not the
3:59
government was paying for some of the
4:01
things that were now happening
4:03
presumably at our expense in those
4:05
Central South American Mid Eastern
4:08
countries so deferred resignation has
4:10
come and gone the lawsuit filed by the
4:13
unions failed uh and perhaps that was a
4:17
surprise to a lot of people perhaps to
4:19
the unions but the judge said that they
4:22
didn't have standing and perhaps just as
4:25
important there's a statutory provision
4:27
for a union that has a labor relations
4:30
issue under the civil service reform act
4:33
they don't go directly into court
4:35
there's a statutory process in this case
4:37
it would have been going to the federal
4:39
labor relations Authority they didn't do
4:42
that and they said they had no direct
4:43
interest in the program so they had no
4:46
standing in any event he lifted the
4:48
temporary restraining order and OPM
4:52
ended the Deferred resignation within a
4:55
short time after it was lifted so that's
4:57
where we stand now on that
5:00
but that's not the end of the workforce
5:03
optimization program by any means just
5:06
this week uh probationary employees
5:09
started getting termination notices in a
5:11
number of agencies that's not a surprise
5:14
we did a video a couple weeks ago now on
5:17
probationary employees who they are why
5:20
they were being potentially targeted
5:22
because it was obvious that was going to
5:24
happen a probationary employee doesn't
5:27
have the same appeal rights there are Ty
5:29
Ally younger because they're just
5:31
starting out in a federal career most of
5:33
them have probably been employed for
5:35
less than a year in some cases less than
5:37
two years depending upon the agency and
5:39
the
5:40
position but at any one time there may
5:43
be as many as 250,000 or so probationary
5:47
employees and yesterday in various
5:50
reports uh a number of agencies have
5:53
indicated that people in probationary
5:57
jobs were being terminated these
5:59
agencies included Department of energy
6:02
education department OPM uh Department
6:05
of Veterans Affairs SBA small business
6:08
administration Consumer Financial
6:10
Protection Bureau and the GSA General
6:13
Services Administration I'm sure there
6:15
were others uh but those are some of the
6:17
ones that were being reported uh as of
6:20
late yesterday afternoon is having
6:22
undertaken uh an effort to terminate
6:26
some cases several thousand probationary
6:28
employees to depending on the agency how
6:30
many they had that kind of thing part of
6:34
the problem from an agency standpoint of
6:36
course is the federal government
6:38
Workforce is older than it is in most
6:40
companies for a variety of reasons I
6:42
won't get into here but we know that's
6:44
the case and the number of younger
6:46
employees of course is even less because
6:49
it's an older Workforce so a lot of
6:51
these folks are in their 20s just
6:52
starting out in the government service
6:55
so that means for the future there's
6:56
going to be more people El eligible to
6:58
retire and fewer people coming up right
7:01
behind them gaining experience in
7:03
government but that's not an unknown
7:07
factor it's a reality and that's what
7:09
agencies will be dealing with in The
7:11
Fairly near future uh as this program
7:15
progresses upcoming portions of the plan
7:17
are't a secret we know for example
7:20
schedule F or as it's now called policy
7:24
career which sounds kind of hard to say
7:27
sounds a little clunky uh schedule F is
7:30
neat clean easy everybody knows what it
7:33
means so I'll just call it schedule F
7:36
OPM has asked for agencies to identify
7:39
people in policymaking positions and it
7:43
could be those at influence policy those
7:45
at discuss policy those that argue in
7:47
favor of an agency's policy it's a
7:49
fairly broad definition we don't know
7:51
how many people are in these positions
7:54
it could be as many as at least 50,000
7:57
maybe it's
7:58
150,000 now the fact that you're
8:00
identified as a schedule F employee
8:02
doesn't mean you're going to be
8:03
terminated you will still be a career
8:06
employee but you'll be in a different
8:08
category of career employee you won't
8:10
have the same appeal rights it's not a
8:14
program that requires you to be pledging
8:17
your loyalty to the president what it
8:20
does require is that you work
8:22
to establish to implement successfully
8:26
implement the administration's goals and
8:29
objectives if you don't it would be a
8:32
lot easier to fire you uh in the first
8:34
Trump Administration there was a lot of
8:36
feeling we've identified in articles on
8:39
fitsmith what some of these items were
8:41
that created issues for the
8:43
administration where they felt like
8:45
there was a deep State working against
8:46
them some federal employees would say in
8:49
effect I was here before you won the
8:52
election I'll be here after your term is
8:55
over I've been running this program I
8:57
know how it works I know it may
8:59
successful I'm not going to take steps
9:02
to terminate or to damage this program
9:04
I'm going to do what I've always done in
9:06
effect it was a passive aggressive
9:08
approach in some cases to not
9:10
implementing the workforce objectives of
9:14
of the administration so if that happens
9:16
if you're put in schedule F if that goes
9:19
through the challenges to it if they
9:21
fail I don't know what'll happen uh you
9:24
could be terminated and you won't have
9:26
very many appeal rights if that happens
9:28
OPM is also introducing large scale
9:31
riffs uh some agencies may see a 50 or
9:34
60% reduction in the workforce some
9:37
agencies may be eliminated to altogether
9:40
it depends on if there's a statutory
9:42
basis for the agency a statutory basis
9:44
for divisions or organizations within
9:47
the agency it all depends on the
9:50
particular
9:51
circumstances but we know the riffs are
9:54
coming as the agencies try to scale down
9:57
the size of the workforce and the
9:58
mission that they're accomplishing on
10:01
behalf of the taxpayer and then hiring
10:04
restrictions they've Al also implemented
10:06
a restrictions as we outlined in a
10:09
recent video on the workforce
10:11
optimization executive order that came
10:13
out so that every four employees who
10:16
leave you can hire an agency can hire
10:18
one employee to replace them so that's
10:21
where we stand we don't know how many
10:22
people will be affected by this
10:25
ultimately there's a good chance that
10:27
may be as many as 400 even five 500,000
10:30
people not the first time this has
10:32
happened some who've been around a while
10:34
may remember under the Clinton
10:36
Administration there was an initiative
10:38
spearheaded by at the time vice
10:40
president Al Gore uh and they reduced
10:44
about 300,000 people by reduced I mean
10:47
those that many people left government
10:49
service it was done over a longer period
10:51
of period of time it was done with less
10:54
acrimony Clinton was a Democrat the
10:56
unions generally favor Democrats and
10:58
their policies so they didn't have some
11:01
of the antagonism that's coming toward
11:04
the Trump Administration from the
11:05
federal employee unions which represent
11:08
about 26% of the
11:10
workforce so that was successful Clinton
11:13
got credit for it uh that's probably not
11:16
what his administration is remembered
11:18
for as much as his affair with a White
11:22
House intern seems to overshadow other
11:24
accomplishments that he had but it has
11:27
happened before it's happened now and
11:30
unfortunately for federal employees that
11:33
makes it a fairly unpleasant place to
11:35
work so that's unfortunate but there's
11:38
probably No Way Around It people who are
11:39
worried about being riffed being
11:41
furloughed uh being terminated for any
11:44
reason is always stressful that comes
11:47
out in the workplace I suspect the
11:49
workplace counselors if there's any left
11:51
will certainly be busy uh dealing with
11:54
the stress and frustration that the
11:55
federal Workforce is feeling now as the
11:59
program Advance advances will be writing
12:01
articles on fedsmith we'll be doing
12:03
these videos to try to keep you advised
12:05
and informed and help you make the
12:08
decision that's best for you at that
12:09
particular time based on your particular
12:12
circumstances thank you for watching we
12:15
hope that everything works out the best
12:17
as possible for you thank you
#Executive Branch
#Government
#Other
#Public Policy