Government Worker Protections — Week of Mar 2, 2026

On March 5, 2026, the Office of Personnel Management published a proposed rule titled Reduction in Force that would change how the government decides which federal employees keep their jobs during layoffs. Currently, when agencies need to cut staff, decisions are based primarily on factors like how long someone has worked for the government and whether they are a veteran. The new rule would make subjective performance ratings the most important factor instead.

This might matter because performance ratings are assigned by supervisors — often political appointees — and could be used to target career government workers who are seen as insufficiently loyal, rather than genuinely low-performing. The current system of basing layoff decisions on objective factors like seniority exists specifically to prevent politically motivated firings. Weakening these protections could affect the independence of the career civil service, which is designed to serve the public regardless of which party holds power.

The most likely alternative explanation is that this reflects a genuine effort to modernize workforce management. Many policy experts across the political spectrum have argued that seniority-based retention can protect underperformers at the expense of talented newer employees. Additionally, this is a proposed rule, not a final one — the public has until May 4, 2026, to submit comments, and the rule could be significantly changed before taking effect. Federal employees would also retain the right to appeal RIF decisions.

That said, the shift from objective to subjective criteria in layoff decisions represents a meaningful structural change to protections that have been in place for decades.

Limitations: This analysis is based on one proposed rule from a small weekly document sample. The rule's real-world impact will depend on whether and how it is finalized, and on whether existing legal protections hold in practice.