The National Treasury Employees Union and the chief of staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urged employees not to respond to the Trump administration’s mass email urging federal employees to resign.
President Trump’s directive, sent Tuesday evening to an estimated 2.2 million federal employees, requires that agency workers return to the office full time and gives them until Feb. 6 to resign or face further action.
The memo, sent by the Office of Personnel Management using a new email distribution system, states that “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.” The memo says that the Trump administration plans to use furloughs and “the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.”
Some civil servants who received the memo said it seemed designed to create chaos, sow confusion and distract federal employees from their work, according to three employees, who spoke on the condition that their names not be used because they feared retaliation. The employees cited one paragraph in the memo that threatened their jobs. It states: “At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.”
Catherine Farman, president of the CFPB Union, NTEU Chapter 335, on Tuesday responded with an email to union members advising them in bold letters: “DO NOT RESPOND,” to the message from “hr at opm.gov” under the subject “Fork in the Road.”
“NTEU National attorneys advise us to NOT reply to any of these messages!” Farman wrote in an email obtained by American Banker. “Do not fall for these deliberately confusing and abusive tactics. Whoever is sending these messages is trying to scare you into giving up your rights. NTEU National has warned us that it’s unclear who is responsible for these messages.”
She further stated: “You work for CFPB, not OPM. CFPB management has told us to follow the chain of command which means you only follow orders from your supervisor(s) at this time.”
Farman, a web developer in the CFPB’s office of technology and innovation, also advised workers to send the Trump administration’s email to spam or “archive the message if it’s stressing you out to see it in your inbox.” She further advised employees “to continue to report any new suspicious messages in Outlook and forward them to union representatives.”
The challenge comes after the White House launched a multi-front effort to overhaul the federal workforce including firing inspector generals, weakening workforce protections, and eliminating equal employment opportunity offices.
Several employees said they received emails over the past weekend that they thought were suspicious and reported them to spam. One CFPB employee said the memo was having the opposite of its intended effect and instead is “enraging staff and making folks more resilient and focused.”
The national NTEU also had a message on its website stating that the memo “seeks to pressure federal employees into resigning their position,” and urging members not to resign from the non-partisan civil service.
“Make no mistake: this email is designed to entice or scare you into resigning from the federal government,” the NTEU stated, adding that it is “reviewing the email closely.”
Jan Singelmann, the CFPB’s chief of staff, on Wednesday sent an email to employees stating that the agency is aware that some employees received the email from OPM.
“We did not receive advance notice of this government-wide communication and are evaluating how this message may impact the CFPB and its employees,” Singelmann said. “We will share more information in the coming days.”
The CFPB is already under a cloud with its director, Rohit Chopra, waiting to be fired by President Trump. Many in the banking industry expected Chopra to be fired on the first day of the new administration, but he has now held on to his post for more than a week. Chopra serves at the pleasure of the president, but his absence from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board and the legalities and political calculus of installing a new acting director could present the Trump administration with difficulties.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the new chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters on Tuesday that he looks “forward to a blockbuster announcement sometime soon as relates to who will be over at the CFPB.”
