OPM to Lose Jobs

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will Lose about One-Third of its Staff by the end of the year, with most of those Volunteering to Leave, the Head of the Federal Government’s Human Resources Agency said Monday.

Scott Kupor (R), who was Sworn-in as OPM Director last week, told Reporters that the Department was offering Options for Workers to Leave on their Own, rather than making Mass Firings. The Agency cut 129 Jjobs through a Firing Process called Reductions-in-Force, but 940 other Workers Volunteered for Deferred Resignations, Early Retirements or other Forms of Buyouts, according to Figures provided by the Agency.

The Agency’s use of Incentives to Encourage Departures reflects a Trend across Government as more Agencies have moved toward Offering Off-Ramps to Eemployees after the Trump Administration faced Legal Resistance to Efforts to Fire Thousands of Workers. “We ought to treat people with the appropriate level of respect and humility and recognize that anytime obviously somebody loses their job, they’ve got families and communities and other people who rely on them,” Kupor said.

During a Wide-Ranging Conversation with Reporters, Kupor largely avoided Criticizing the Past Cost-Cutting Efforts Spearheaded by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, saying He would Not Play “Monday Morning Quarterback” given that He was Not yet in His Role. But asked what Lessons can be learned from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Kupor said He Planned to Prioritize Transparency and would be a “Partner” for other Agencies. “At the end of the day, we got to recognize that we don’t control budgets and other agencies,” Kupor said.

Asked about the “5 things” emails started by Musk and Managed by OPM that Agencies have Largely Given-Up since Musk Left Government, Kupor acknowledged they were “Not Efficient.” He added that He still thought there should be Greater Managerial Oversight of what Workers accomplish. He also suggested that the Cost-Saving Efforts so far have Not had a meaningful Impact on Government Spending.

“We’re not going to save $2 trillion by just literally zeroing out discretionary spending,” Kupor said, Referring to Musk’s Early Promise to Cut Spending by that Amount. The New Disclosure of OPM’s Staffing Numbers offers a Picture of what the HR Agency might look like by the End of the year. For now, Hundreds of Workers who took Deferred Resignations remain on the Agency’s Payroll and continue to Receive their Salaries and Benefits until the End of September. The Agency anticipates having a Staff of about 2,000, down from 3,110 on Jan. 20th.

In the early months after Trump’s (R) Inauguration, DOGE led Efforts to Shrink the Workforce. OPM had Iinstructed Agencies to submit Plans to drastically Reduce their Staff Size by Mid-March, leaving the Implementation of the Cuts to Agencies but instructing Directors to “collaborate with their DOGE team leads.”

Federal Worker Unions and other Groups Sued the Administration over the Pplans to Fire Workers, and a California Judge paused DOGE’s Efforts in May. But the Supreme Court this month, Blocked the Lower Court’s Injunction.

During the period when the OPM Plans were Blocked, some Firings were Reversed, and several Agencies moved forward with Offering their Employees other Pathways to Leave, in some Cases Pulling Back from Plans for Mass Firings. For instance, Veterans Affairs (VA) has since said it will Not need to Proceed with a Mass Layoff that it had Planned to Cut, up to 83,000 Jobs.

In May, an Administration Official told the Supreme Court, that the Injunction had paused 40 Reductions In-Force (RIF) Actions at 17 Agencies. But an OPM Official told the California Court last week, that “several agencies are now not planning to proceed with several of the RIFs that had been planned at other times.”










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