You got a management directed reassignment. Now what?
Dozens of federal employees in recent weeks have received “management directed reassignments” with little notice and a short amount of time to consider a potentially career-altering decision.
Before deciding one way or another, attorneys who specialize in federal workforce issues say any fed who receives such a reassignment should ask plenty of questions.
“Ask for the reporting structure. Ask for the duties and the job title, because in some of these letters that we’ve seen, they’ve got nothing,” Erik Snyder, counsel with Gilbert Employment Law, told Federal News Network. “Ask for details. Ask for the type of things that you would want to know as an employee about what you’re going to be doing.”
Multiple DHS employees in recent weeks have received management directed reassignments with no prior notice. The letters typically give the employee just seven days to respond to the reassignment.
Some of the reassignments would move employees hundreds of miles from their current location. If the employee accepts the reassignment, the notices typically include a 60-day deadline for reporting to the new location.
And if an employee declines the reassignment, they face the possibility of separation from federal service.
Given the stakes, Snyder said employees should ask plenty of questions about the reassignment during that seven-day decision period. He said recent directed reassignments have come “out of the blue,” with little follow-up from agencies.
“Make sure that this is an actual, genuine offer of reassignment, because what we’ve seen sometimes is [employees] get this scary letter and then they say ‘No,’ and then nothing happens,” Snyder said. “Or they get a scary letter and they ask for information about what the position is going to be, what the management chain is going to be, or details about what the actual position is going to look like if they accept it, and then it’s rescinded.”
Ryan Nerney, managing partner at Tully Rinckey, recommended employees who receive a management directed reassignment confirm that the new position would be in the same grade and pay scale.
If they’re willing to do the move, Nerney said to ask about relocation expenses. Employees are generally eligible for relocation expenses if a directed reassignment requires them to move to a different geographic area.
The Office of Personnel Management recently paused directed reassignments due to the cost of relocating employees.
And if the employee would prefer not to make the move, Nerney said they can also ask if there are other positions available.
“Sometimes there’s multiple vacant positions that would be available, or positions that would be available that may be a little bit more palatable for the employee to move to,” Nerney said.
Employees who decline a reassignment outside of their geographic area and then face separation are eligible for severance pay and other benefits.
Feds who face separation after declining a directed reassignment also have Merit Systems Protection Board appeal rights. But Nerney said agencies have wide latitude to reassign employees.
“Agencies do have a lot of leeway and a lot of gray area to do these management directed reassignments,” he said. “They just have to say that there’s a legitimate organizational reason for it.”
The ongoing government shutdown could complicate efforts to get more information about a directed reassignment, given that many federal employees – including human resources staff – are furloughed. But Snyder said the shutdown doesn’t automatically change deadlines included in a reassignment.
“Obviously, if you lose access to your email and you can’t actually communicate with the people you need to communicate with, then that means you do your best, but you should not assume that there is an extension because of the shutdown,” Snyder said.
The reassignments come as the Trump administration lays off thousands of employees during the shutdown. Some DHS staff have speculated the directed reassignments are another effort to force out federal employees.
Regardless of the reasoning, Snyder said to ask as many questions as possible when facing a reassignment.
“As an employee, you have a right to know what you’re getting yourself into, and if they can’t or won’t tell you, then that’s a clue that this is not a legitimate offer,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that you’ll win, but that is a strong indication that it’s not a legitimate offer. In the normal course of business, they want you to accept it, because they have a legitimate need for you, and so they will explain everything that you need to know. They’ll answer your questions. And that seems to be what’s really different about this.”The post You got a management directed reassignment. Now what? first appeared on Federal News Network.
