Government personnel received a strange request from the Trump administration in their inboxes just before 8:30 p.m. Thursday. It urged federal workers to quit their “lower productivity jobs” and seek employment in the private sector.
The mass email urged employees—including the air traffic controllers who work for the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.)—to quit less than 24 hours after the plane crash in Washington D.C., which killed 67 people and was suspected to have been caused by air traffic controller staffing shortages.
“We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so,” stated the email sent by the Office of Personnel Management, The New York Times reported.
The Coast Guard investigates aircraft wreckage on the Potomac River on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. / Handout / Getty Images
“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.”
In the form of Frequently Asked Questions, the email also encouraged employees who did choose to leave their jobs, to take on a second job, or to vacation to their “dream destination” while still on the payroll before permanently leaving. That advice is contradictory to years old regulations that have prohibited federal employees from picking up second sources of income.
The late Thursday night email follows up on an earlier one which offered federal workers other incentives to abandon their job security, such as eight months of pay if they obliged by Feb. 6.
The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment by the Daily Beast at time of publication.
The president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Nick Daniels, told the Times that it is “not yet clear” how the resignation program will come into effect.
Daniels, who is also the union representative for air traffic controllers, added that union workers are “concerned” about the consequences of losing “experienced aviation safety personnel during a universally recognized air traffic controller staffing shortage.”
