Looks like Elon Musk was too good at firing government employees — now we don’t have enough.
The White House is suddenly asking hundreds of federal employees who were fired or took buyouts during Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency purge of the bureaucracy in the opening weeks of Donald Trump’s second term to return to their jobs.
Last week, the General Services Administration sent an internal memorandum to the workers, most of whom have been on what amounts to a months-long paid vacation, notice that they have until the end of this week to accept or decline an offer for reinstatement to the federal workforce — and return to their former jobs starting Oct. 6.
Their return will allow the agency, which is charged with managing federal office space and handling purchasing of all manner of supplies from ballpoint pens to bullet-resistant vests, to clear a massive backlog of work that has cost taxpayers an untold amount of money by forcing the government to pay more to stay in properties where leases had been slated for termination or were permitted to expire.
Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official who now represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said his former employer was left “broken” by cuts inflicted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that went too far and too fast, leaving the GSA without “the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”
The GSA’s move comes after a number of executives who were installed during Musk’s time in government had themselves been forced out following the billionaire’s high-profile departure from the White House amid a clash with Trump over his signature spending package.
A spokesperson for the agency said new leadership “had reviewed workforce actions and is making adjustments in the best interest of the customer agencies we serve and the American taxpayers,”
The GSA is just one of numerous federal agencies that have in recent weeks moved to reverse course and bring back workers who were ousted or accepted the Musk-backed “Fork in the Road” offer to leave their jobs but remain on the federal payroll through the end of this month.
Last month, the Internal Revenue Service told workers who’d accepted the deferred resignation package that they could elect to return to their positions, effectively rolling back an effort led by Musk and supported by President Donald Trump to slash roughly a quarter of the tax collection agency’s 80,000-person workforce.
Additionally, the Department of Labor has allowed workers who took buyout offers to return to their jobs if desired, and the National Park Service has reinstated workers who were fired or resigned during the opening months of the administration.
