Beware Buddies Bearing Buyouts

For example:

For months, Postal workers anxious to pull the plug have been grasping at rumors that the giant federal agency was about to offer buyouts to thousands of workers. Some employees passed it on in good faith. Others spread it because they hoped it might be true, or that it might somehow "force" USPS management to pay folks up to $25,000 to take regular or early-retirement.

Turns out, it just ain't so.

The USPS yesterday advised employees that the "buyout offer" they've been reading about, with very official-looking documentation, is a fake. A fraud.

Somebody, for whatever reason, took language from another federal agency buyout offer and tailored it so that it appeared the USPS was offering buyouts to all its employees under the old CSRS retirement system.

Here's part of what the Postal Service told the troops:

A letter purporting to offer USPS employees in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) an early out or a buyout by December 2008 is bogus.

Someone cleverly copied sections from a legitimate offer by another government agency to its CSRS employees, substituted "USPS" at key points, and sent it to USPS employees. The letter has been photocopied and is surfacing in different sections of the country as an official USPS letter, prompting numerous inquiries into its legitimacy.

"The Postal Service has no plans to offer mass early outs or buyouts to any employees - CSRS or otherwise," said Chief Human Resources Officer Anthony Vegliante.

There's a lesson here for feds in all other agencies. Rumors abound. Especially about alleged buyouts and purported early-out offers.

Earlier this week we talked about buyout and early-out offers. And what it takes to get them. If you are interested, click here.

Here's the deal on early outs and especially buyouts. Most agencies now have (or can easily get) authority to offer them. But the 21st century version of buyouts is very different from those of the 1990s. Back then Congress said "do it", and large numbers got offers.

Now, early-outs (VERAs) and buyouts (VSIPs) are easier to get. But they are more selective. Instead of being department, agency or even bureau-wide, they are often limited to specific jobs or occupations, grade levels and/or geographic locations.

In the case of the USPS, early-outs (VERAs) were offered last year running through this year. But they are very specific. They included a nationwide offer to employees in Bulk Mail Centers but were limited to very remote operations, like the Remote Encoding Center in Fayettville, N.C., which was being shut down. Most VERA and VSIP offers in other agencies were equally narrow and selective.

Treasury, the IRS, DHS, Energy, HHS, NASA and other departments offered early outs and/or buyouts during the just concluded fiscal year. A few are on-going, but in most cases they are very selective.

Lesson: If you get word of a buyout or early-out, even if you get it in writing, double check before you tell the boss where he/she can stick your job!!!

Useless Factoid: Cost Cutting

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad in first class.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com