• Around 60 probationary employees at the Office of Personnel Management were terminated via video call on Thursday.
• The fired employees were told they would lose access at 3 p.m. ET.
• Two employees told BI that union representatives were not present on the call.

Dozens of probationary employees at the Office of Personnel Management were fired in a group video call Thursday afternoon and told their accounts would be deactivated by 3 p.m. ET, around 20 minutes after the call began.

"You will receive your termination notice via email shortly, and it will include the reason for termination," an official said on the call, according to a recording viewed by BI.

"As a result, your employment with the Office of Personnel Management will end today," the official said. "Your physical and IT system access will be deactivated by 3 p.m. ET today, and we ask that you gather your personal belongings and exit the premises by 3 pm ET as well."

A source familiar with the call also confirmed the terminations.

Two probationary employees told BI that around 60 people were on the call. They asked to remain anonymous; BI has verified their identities.

BI reviewed a screenshot of an email one probationary employee received earlier this afternoon with the subject line "URGENT MEETING MUST ATTEND."

An original call was scheduled between 2:00 and 2:30 pm ET, though no officials ever joined. Around 2:30 pm, employees received an invitation for another meeting, where the mass termination was announced.

After the second meeting ended, workers received a follow-up email with details about their terminations.

Two employee termination letters, copies of which were seen by BI, were from Charles Ezell, OPM's acting director.

A probationary employee at a federal agency has either worked in a career position for less than a year, or for less than two years in an expected service appointment that didn't require a competitive hiring process.

The two employees told BI that union representatives were not present on the call. Union officials at AFGE confirmed the terminations, and said that representatives were not in the meeting.

Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Do you work at OPM or another federal agency? Share your experience and thoughts with these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected], or via Signal at alicetecotzky.05 and julianakaplan.33.

• The Office of Personnel Management updated its FAQ page this week to encourage private-sector work.
• The update, coming after federal workers got payout offers, calls private jobs "higher productivity."
• The Department of Government Efficiency said on X that workers could use the time off to "chill."

The Trump administration has a novel idea for federal workers who take its payout offer: Go work for corporate America instead.

"We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so," the Office of Personnel Management's FAQ page now says. "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 addition was made sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, according to snapshots on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The updated FAQ page, which includes several other tweaks, was also sent out to some federal workers, a National Park Service employee told Business Insider.

If white-collar work doesn't appeal to someone, the administration lists some tantalizing possibilities: "You are most welcome to stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination," the page says. "Whatever you would like."

In a post this week on X, the Department of Government Efficiency also touted things federal employees could do with their time off: Take a dream vacation, watch movies, or "chill." Musk also reshared a post advertising the payout as a "PAID VACATION!"

Representatives for DOGE did not respond to a request for comment.

OPM sent out the initial offer to federal employees on Tuesday. The administration is giving workers a choice: Resign by February 6 and receive full pay and benefits through September, or stay on and face likely downsizing and a return to in-person work.

A spokesperson for OPM told BI that some federal employees had expressed confusion about the nature of the payout. The agency updated the FAQ page to provide clarity, the spokesperson said.

One federal worker previously told BI they would look for work outside the government. Another said on Friday that they didn't understand the nudge toward the private sector.

"People who work for the government are public servants," they told BI. "They do it for the joy of serving their country, community, or helping people."

The guidance comes as Trump's administration has aligned itself with several private-sector leaders. Chief among them is Elon Musk, whose work with DOGE has advocated for reducing the size of the federal workforce. Now formally situated inside the White House, DOGE has weighed in on recent actions regarding federal employees, including a recent return-to-office mandate.

Do you work for the federal government or have a tip? Reach out to the reporters from a nonwork device: [email protected] and [email protected] or via Signal at alicetecotzky.05 and julianakaplan.33.