Trump Administration Issues Directives for Federal Workforce Shake-Up

President Donald Trump’s pledge to overhaul the federal workforce is coming into sharper focus. The federal government’s human resources office is issuing memos instructing agency heads to review employees under probation for possible dismissal and instructing agencies on how to implement Trump’s hiring freeze order. According to one memo issued on Jan. 20 by Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), agencies were directed to compile lists of probationary employees as part of the Trump administration’s plans “regarding critical potential personnel actions.” Calling probationary periods a key tool for managing staffing levels, Ezell asked heads and acting heads of all U.S. departments and agencies to identify all probationary employees—those with less than a year in competitive service posts and those serving for less than two years in the excepted service—and send the list to OPM for review. Ezell noted that such employees can be dismissed without triggering appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), a federal panel for mediating disputes between employees and agencies....