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Trump administration memo encourages federal workers to

seek

private sector jobs

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Memo suggests taking vacation during paid resignation

period

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Federal workers express outrage, call advice demeaning

By Tim Reid

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Trump administration

has urged government workers to quit their "lower productivity

jobs" and seek work in the private sector, and to take a

vacation to a "dream destination," sparking outrage among civil

servants.

The guidance issued on Thursday night comes as President Donald

Trump embarks on a massive makeover of the U.S. government,

firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first

steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more

loyalists.

The Trump administration sent a memo to 2 million government

workers on Tuesday about a "deferred resignation program" that

would allow them to remain on the payroll through Sept. 30 but

without having to work in person.

In the follow-up "frequently asked questions" memo on

Thursday, workers were encouraged to seek a second job during

the paid resignation period.

"The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging

people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector

to higher productivity jobs in the private sector," the memo

said.

The email was sent by the Office of Personnel Management, which

oversees the 2.2 million-strong civilian workforce and has been

taken over by a team including former employees of Tesla

CEO Elon Musk.

Another question about taking extended leave during the

resignation period was answered, "You are most welcome (to) stay

at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination.

Whatever you would like."

Government workers reacted with outrage in an online Reddit

forum where they meet to discuss the daily upheavals to the

federal bureaucracy. Many called the advice demeaning and said

the memo made it less likely that they would take the offer to

quit.

The moves by the Trump administration to cut the federal

workforce, contained in a flurry of executive orders and other

actions, have stunned and alarmed government workers and

triggered turmoil inside their agencies.

"Outright insulting," one worker wrote. Another, referring to

the deadly midair collision between an Army helicopter and a

passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday night, said, "I saw

thousands of federal employees working at the site of a tragic

plane crash today. None of them being unproductive."

Tim Kauffman, a spokesperson for the American Federation of

Government Employees, the biggest federal employees union with

800,000 members, hit out at the suggestion that government jobs

are "low productivity."

"These are people working in prisons, working on our border,

working at our airports," he told Reuters. "It's clear they are

trying to get a ton of workers to quit, to make it so miserable

that they want to leave."