US agency that pushed for mass firings quietly clarifies it doesn’t have the power to fire workers

It’s unclear if the change will affect probationary employees who have already been fired.

The Office of Personnel Management quietly revised a memo on Tuesday about the firing of probationary federal employees. The memo includes two new sentences indicating that individual agencies, not OPM, are responsible for terminating workers.

Less than a week ago, a federal judge ruled that OPM doesn’t have the power to fire employees in other agencies and had exceeded its legal authority. US District Judge William Alsup said in his ruling that OPM had to inform agencies it didn’t have such power. The updates to the memo appear in line with that directive.

The memo was first published on January 20, President Donald Trump’s first day in office, and much of it remains unchanged, based on B-17’s comparison of the original and revised versions.

Originally, the document directed agencies to send a list of all probationary employees to both a general OPM email and Amanda Scales, OPM’s chief of staff who is associated with the White House DOGE office. The new version only says to send the list to the general email.

The original version described probationary periods as tools to “assess employee performance and manage staffing levels,” suggesting they could be used for workforce reductions. The revised memo drops the staffing management language, instead describing probationary periods only as a way to ensure employees “will be an asset to the Government.”

OPM sent agencies’ chief human capital officers an email about the new memo, saying that it is “aware of recent litigation challenging the terminations of various probationary employees in different departments of the federal government,” according to a copy reviewed by B-17.

“The revised memorandum clarifies and confirms that OPM has not directed, and is not directing, your agency to take specific performance-based actions against probationary employees,” the email says. It is signed by the “CHCO Council.”

Thousands of probationary employees — typically people with less than two years of experience in their roles — have already been fired. It’s not clear whether they will be rehired under the new guidance.

Representatives for the White House and OPM did not respond to a request for comment from B-17.