ProFeds Founder, Chris Kowalik, makes some observations about what we’ve learned so far about the original Deferred Resignation offer to help federal employees better navigate this next round of downsizing through the looming Reduction in Force (RIF).
Key takeaways:
- Federal employees have felt undervalued and unappreciated
- HR’s inability to respond to overwhelming number of inquiries
- Widespread panic and indecisiveness among federal workforce
- Very few extensions and little court delay
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Prefer to read instead? A Transcript of this Podcast is Below:
Originally released on 3/7/2025
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Most of you are ready to put the deferred resignation chaos in the rearview mirror. No doubt, it was a completely unorthodox way of delivering a message out to the federal workforce with a super short window. All of that harbored a lot of distrust that led to hesitation for a lot of federal employees.
That chaos and uncertainty that unfolded really put everyone in scramble mode looking for answers. HR departments were caught off guard. There was a complete panic of whether to take it or not. It was a big decision for a lot of people.
But what do we do now? We can either just keep charging ahead or we can take a little bit of a peek back to say, what would we do differently this time as we're thinking about the offers that are going to be coming from federal agencies?
Hi, I'm Chris Kowalik and welcome to the FedImpact Podcast where we offer candid insights on your federal retirement.
Reduction in Force – Lessons Learned from Deferred Resignation Offer
Today's episode is going to be all about some lessons learned from the deferred resignation process so that we know what to do differently next time. If this episode is helpful to you, I hope that you'll subscribe so that you're sure not to miss an episode.
No doubt federal employees feel very undervalued at this given time. They feel jerked around in many ways. They got this message out of left field and everyone was at a mad scramble trying to figure out what to do.
I am frankly appalled at the public harassment that has happened of federal employees and all the backbiting that's happened. I know that that has added to the stress and anxiety of federal employees who are already trying to figure out how to make all these things work. And unfortunately, they're left to try to figure this out on their own.
No doubt politics are on fire right now as President Trump puts the wheels in motion to begin to downsize the federal government. I think what probably caught everyone off guard was the speed by which this happened, and certainly having a short window to make a decision as big as leaving the federal government.
What Can We Learn?
So when we're looking backwards in the rearview mirror the question becomes, what can we learn from the experience that we just had? I think we were all expecting something. We just didn't know what that something was going to look like, and this was the likes of something we had never seen before. But round one is in the rearview mirror.
What's it going to look like now and what can we learn from what we just experienced? So we want to talk a little bit about mindset and preparedness. No doubt, the anxiety amongst the federal workforce is palpable. We see it in the news, on social media, in the conversations we're having with federal employees in our workshops.
We're hearing about all of this, and I hate that so many federal employees feel like their value is being questioned. Frankly, with the comments that you all are getting from the general public it's causing many of you to feel very resentful for the many years and decades of service that you have given to our nation.
And so for that, I apologize. I am sorry that that is happening because I know so many of you care so deeply for this country and care about the work that you do to help our nation. And so, I hate that that anxiety is overtaking some of that amazing service that you've had, and I hope that that returns back to you and the anxiety drifts away as we move forward.
Preparedness
With respect to preparedness, I think many of you felt overwhelmed when the last offer came out for the deferred resignation. One, for a lot of reasons, feeling overwhelmed. It was a very chaotic time.
But many of you felt like you were left holding the bag. You didn't know what to do or where to go to get the information. Your supervisor didn't know, your HR department couldn't help you. There was all of these people all at one time that needed help, and your HR departments were ill-prepared to be able to make that happen.
And so you may have had questions about what you were eligible for and how does this work? Are you exempt? What's the timeline look like? What about all the workload? What's going to happen to that? And it probably felt so overwhelming, which only added to the anxiety. So that surprise of the offer and the timeline and all of that led to some sheer panic.
But here's the deal. Most of you were probably panicked because you didn't know your numbers. You had never gone through the process of doing a retirement estimate and seen what things would look like if you went right now.
And I encourage you to get those numbers so the next time the offer comes out, whether it's an early out offer, a discontinued service, a VSIP, whatever it might be, and we're going to talk about all these here in a moment, you will at least know what your numbers are to keep you from panicking in this process.
What now?
But what do we do now? What's next in this? Well, we need to dive into the different tools that the government has in a downsizing environment. We obviously have been through the deferred resignation process, which was new to everyone. This was a purely voluntary exercise. You were allowed to take it or not, assuming you weren't on the excluded list. And that was a purely voluntary ask by the administration. It didn't probably feel like a voluntary ask, but it was.
The next phase of all of this is the true reduction in force one that many of you have already experienced throughout your decades working for the federal government. There are voluntary aspects of the reduction in force, and then there are some involuntary acts as well.
And so it's important for us to see the difference between those and how the rules really apply to various tools that the government has in its downsizing arsenal. So some of those rules change with respect to whether they're voluntary or involuntary, and we're going to cover all of that in the videos.
No doubt there are some regrets of what people wish they would have done during the deferred resignation. I know several people who took it who wish they could have taken it back, right, that they realized later that they weren't actually prepared to retire, they didn't have their ducks in a row and they wanted to take it back. Some agencies allowed that, others did not.
But then many of you, once the dust settled, you realize like, wow, that could have really benefited me. And I'm not suggesting that this was a perfect offer by any stretch, but there were some unique groups of people that benefited greatly from the deferred resignation process.
And now that the riff is starting where we may have some involuntary departures from the government, the question becomes, should I have done the deferred resignation or shouldn't I have? And what do I do now?
Lesson 1
Lesson learned number one is that HR couldn't help you like you expected. There were simply too many people asking help from HR that they could not get to everybody who was asking those questions. And that's not a knock on HR, that is just an acknowledgement that this was complicated. They were learning about this information at the same time that you were. And so no doubt, it was a lot for them to deal with.
Lesson 2
Lesson number two is focus on what you can control. There were a lot of things completely out of your control. But with respect to the offer itself of knowing your numbers, being able to balance whether you felt like the offer was valid or not, legitimate or not, that's maybe a different story. But being able to focus on what you can control was really important to keep the anxiety to a minimum.
Lesson 3
And then lesson number three is know your numbers. Because I'm a big believer that when you know your numbers your financial decisions become obvious. If you know what your numbers are if you take a particular offer, it takes the anxiety out of the equation. You can just focus on the facts, just the numbers, erase the politics and all the ancillary feelings that you might be having on that, and just be able to focus on your numbers. If you were to walk out the door, what's it look like?
Lesson 4
Lesson number four is that your value is not determined by your job. I think so many people, myself included, put a lot of value in the work that we do. And we feel like that is so much of our identity that the idea that we leave, especially under terms that don't feel great, we lose some of our value.
And I hope that you'll simply remember, you bring a lot of value to the world regardless of where you work or if you're working at all. And I hope that you'll kind of keep that filter in mind as you're hearing whatever is coming through the riff process moving forward.
Get Connected & Next Steps
I want you to be in the driver's seat to regain that control and you being in a position of strength versus feeling like you're in a position of weakness.
Here at ProFeds we provide retirement training all over the country to federal employees. So when we're doing our in-person retirement training, those are full-day training sessions where we cover the wide variety of different federal benefits that you have.
But here's the best part, following the workshop, you get some one-on-one help to be able to get your numbers in order. Because remember, when you know your numbers your financial decisions become obvious.
If you want some resources like finding a workshop and all of our other training resources, I encourage you to text the word podcast to 224-444-6144, and we will get that right away.
And that way we'll be nice and connected and you'll continue to get updates on all of the new training that we're providing. And of course, if you haven't already, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so that you're sure not to miss an episode.
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