02-04-2025
In late January, the executive branch sent a mass email to federal employees offering them eight months of continued pay if they agreed by February 6 to leave their jobs. About a week later — and 24 hours after the U.S.’s first plane crash in decades — another mass email was sent to all federal employees, including at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It has been widely reported that air traffic control was understaffed at the time of the deadly collision (and has been for years). In response to the memo, the head of the air traffic controllers’ union expressed concern about the impact of losing “experienced aviation safety personnel during a universally recognized air traffic controller staffing shortage.”
The government’s emailed memo, with the subject line “Fork in the Road,” said, “[w]e encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so. The greater way to American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.”
The New York Times reported that these emails are eerily like the ones Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees when he took over the platform. Even the subject line looked like the ones sent to thousands of former Twitter employees. Musk boasted that if 5 to 10 percent of federal employees take the offer, it would equal about $100 billion in savings. Musk significantly reduced costs at Twitter by cutting jobs, but the app is wildly less successful than it was before his takeover. Musk recently emailed Twitter employees that user growth is “stagnant” and “revenue is unimpressive.” Of course, the stakes are much higher in the federal government, where these individuals are responsible for maintaining the safety of Americans.