WHITE RIVER JCT., Vt. (WCAX) – Employees at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction were among federal employees across the country this week to get emails offering job buyouts from the Trump administration, and it has some of them nervous.
The White River Junction VA serves upwards of 25,000 veterans every year and enrollment is growing. But, the number of people who work there could soon decline.
A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency, was emailed to most federal employees and says that those who leave their posts voluntarily will receive about seven months of salary. But they have to choose to do so by Feb 6.
It’s a fairly unusual step according to Dartmouth economics professor Patricia Anderson. “Firms don’t really like to let people choose whether to leave because all the good workers typically leave because they have options,” she said.
The administration projects as many as 10% of federal employees will take the buyout. A federal hiring freeze has also been implemented. But, there will be exceptions at the VA that include essential health care positions, according to a government spokesperson. “Under President Trump’s leadership, VA will always do what is necessary to provide America’s veterans with the benefits and services they have earned,” they said.
But there is a line in the buyout notice that is giving some pause. It reads: “The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work.”
Anderson reads it one of two ways. “One is they are just being vague and this is a fancy way of saying you have to be a good worker,” she said. But the other reading puts federal employees’ politics ahead of their positions. “The word loyalty is kind of charged and it didn’t seem like loyalty to your job so much as loyalty to the administration.”
Officials from the medical center declined to talk about the letter or the buyouts. A spokesperson told us simply that they can not accommodate our request for an interview.