GSA to conduct nonvoluntary RIF in latest effort to trim headcount
GSA leaders told employees earlier this month that they are expected to reduce total spending across all programs and personnel by 50%.
The General Service Administration is warning employees that a nonvoluntary reduction in force is coming — the latest in a series of efforts to significantly reduce its headcount.
“This serves as notice that the agency will be conducting a reduction in force (RIF) and is seeking approval from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to also obtain a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA),” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian told employees in an email Monday, which Federal News Network obtained. “More information to impacted business units and employees will be forthcoming.”
GSA leaders told employees earlier this month that they are expected to reduce total spending across all programs and personnel by 50%,
Ehikian also alerted employees that the OPM’s deferred resignation offer was just the “first step in streamlining the federal workforce.” GSA, he said, has placed the first phase of employees who took OPM’s deferred resignation offer on administrative leave “to begin their next chapter.”
“Many more employees are still working through the DRP process, which will conclude at the end of March. As I have shared with you before, the DRP was the first step in GSA’s effort to refocus, modernize and streamline the agency,” Ehikian wrote.
“I offer my sincere and heartfelt gratitude for al GSA employees impacted by this decision,” he added. I appreciate your service to this nation, as well as my best wishes for the next stages of your lives and careers. I promise you that GSA will continue to do everything in our power to make your departure fair and dignified.”
GSA is also ending telework and remote workforce, except in “limited circumstances,” for its workforce of nearly 13,000 employees.
In another recent memo, Ehikian said about 2,000 GSA employees — more than 15% of its workforce — live more than 50 miles from the nearest GSA regional office. GSA employees have been told to report to the office full-time, starting March 3.
“As a short-term solution, we will look to find the best alternative with a field office within 50 miles of your home to start,” Ehikian said in the previous email. “There is a very high probability that if you are in this situation on March 3, this assigned duty station will likely change (to a duty station further away) once we align with our optimal regional footprint or determine productive co-working space with other GSA employees.”
Ehikian said GSA is looking to close and consolidate some of its 11 regional offices across the U.S. and is also looking to close or consolidate many of its more than 700 field offices. He said GSA has commissioned a group to evaluate options to optimize GSA’s footprint — “the result of which will be less waste and better utilization.”
This is a developing story and will be updated
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