Late on Thursday, the most difficult day that Federal Aviation Administration employees had faced in decades, they received an email from government personnel officials, reiterating an offer from earlier this week to resign.
In a mass email sent to federal employees just before 8:30 p.m. — almost exactly 24 hours after an air crash in Washington that killed 67 people — the Office of Personnel Management encouraged F.A.A. workers, including air traffic controllers, to look for new jobs outside of government, where they might have an opportunity to be more productive.
“We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so,” stated the email, which was reviewed by The New York Times. “The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.”
The message, in the form of “F.A.Q.s” — or Frequently Asked Questions — suggested that if the employees agreed to depart, they could take a second job or travel to their “dream destination” while still on the public payroll for months before leaving permanently. But employees have been informed over the years that it is illegal for them to take a second job while working for the federal government, raising questions about whether the government can deliver on that offer.
It also came after President Trump, in public comments, blamed efforts to diversify the air traffic controller work force as a contributor to the crash, saying hiring standards had been too lax. He provided no evidence for his assertions about air traffic controllers, a field plagued for years by staffing shortages.
A wide array of federal workers, including at the Homeland Security Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Justice Department, said they had received the email. But its tone and timing hit hard at the F.A.A., current and former employees said, given its proximity to the fatal air crash that may have stemmed in part from reduced staffing.
The email from the Office of Personnel Management, a follow-up to one from earlier in the week in which the agency offered federal workers about eight months of continued pay if they agreed by Feb. 6 to leave their jobs, was reviewed by The Times. Four people with direct knowledge of the email confirmed that the agency’s workers had received it Thursday evening.
In a statement, Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents air traffic controllers, said that while it was “not yet clear” how the resignation program would affect the union’s workers, it was “concerned” about the impact of losing “experienced aviation safety personnel during a universally recognized air traffic controller staffing shortage.”
An F.A.A. spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
Emily Steel contributing reporting.
