OPM triggers more RIFs after ‘clean cleaving’ an entire office

The Office of Personnel Management is laying off its entire procurement team as the federal government’s human resources agency continues to reduce its footprint.

Employees were informed Friday that their positions were being “abolished” and they would be separated from federal service in 60 days. The decision is separate from the ostensibly for-cause firings that OPM kicked off internally earlier this month and have subsequently swept up agencies throughout the government. 

The employees impacted by Friday’s moves received reduction-in-force notices from acting OPM Director Charles Ezell, who said he was issuing the layoffs due to three separate executive orders issued by President Trump. 

“It is with great regret that I must inform you that your position of Procurement Analyst is being abolished, and you have been reached for release in the reduction in for action,” Ezell wrote in the notices.

He added the employees “do not have an assignment right to another position in your competitive area” and therefore would be separated from federal service on April 23. 

The employees will receive severance pay, according to the notice, as is standard in federal RIF procedures. 

One employee impacted by the layoffs told Government Executive the moves are part of an effort to fold some of OPM functions into the General Services Administration. In President Trump’s first term, he proposed merging the two agencies. 

Earlier this month OPM also shuttered its communications office and placed all employees on administrative leave, including its web team, according to two sources familiar with the moves.

Trump earlier in February ordered federal agencies across government to develop new plans to implement widespread layoffs. Those plans have largely not yet been developed or implemented as federal offices are still finalizing the firings of their probationary staff, though agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, Defense Department and others have made clear that RIFs are coming. 

An impacted employee said 57 employees in the Office of Procurement Operations would be affected, though a few would be held on for longer to close out remaining work. The office’s work will be transferred to the General Services Administration, the employee said. 

Office staff were warned on Thursday the layoffs may come, though management was not yet sure of the decision. 

“Lots of crying, lots of stress, and a general numbness,” the employee said of the office’s reaction to the news. “It’s a gut punch to say the least.” 

They added that the office supported functions throughout OPM—including human resources, training, communications, retirements and separations and health insurance benefits—and at other federal agencies.  

“People will suffer and the job will not get done without our work,” they said. “There was no thought to this, it's a clean cleaving of an entire function of an agency and the agency will not be able to function properly without it.”

The employees will be eligible to participate in the Reemployment Priority List and to participate in the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan, which helps laid off workers find other federal jobs, but the impacted staffer expressed pessimism the remote employees would be able to find open positions in their locations.