GSA says workers who took ‘fork’ won’t get a full payout — then reverses itself

Officials with the General Services Administration told staff in emails sent last weekend that probationary workers who took the Trump administration's deferred resignation offer would not necessarily be paid through Sept. 30, going back on a guarantee made to all federal workers.

Instead, GSA leaders wrote in messages obtained by The Washington Post, probationary staff would see their payments stop when their probationary period expired, if that date came before the end date of the resignation program.

Hours after The Post contacted the U.S. Office of Personnel Management about the issue, GSA reversed itself, communicating the decision in a note from the agency's chief of staff that said, "Things change."

Probationary employees will receive their pay through Sept. 30 "regardless of their probation end date,” he wrote in an email obtained by The Post

The inconsistency marks the latest twist in an error-plagued rollout of the Trump administration's sweeping effort to incentivize federal workers to quit a deal the government promised repeatedly would permit all approved employees to get paid for not working through September. Dozens of probationary workers in recent interviews have detailed challenges with taking the deal, as agencies raced to implement a Trump administration directive to shed those jobs.