Federal DEI Employees Get Email Access Suspended And Are Put On Leave.

All federal DEI employees will have email access suspended and furloughed Wednesday

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As of the close of business Wednesday, the Offices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within the federal government will be closed. And all federal employees assigned to these DEI offices will have their email access suspended and placed on paid leave. The positions of these employees will remain in place until the Trump administration makes decisions about layoffs and replacements.

President Trump Signed an executive order On Monday, focused on “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and referrals.” Among other things, the order mandates:

“The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), shall coordinate the elimination of all discriminatory programs, including unlawful DEI and “Diversity, Equity, inclusion, and access’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, priorities, and activities in the federal government, by whatever name they appear.”

Following this order, the Director of OPM Issued memorandum to all Govt. Chiefs and Acting Chiefs with guidance and instructions on the steps they need to take to close DEI offices, place employees on paid leave, and suspend email access for those employees.

E-mail suspension for DEI workers may be disciplinary.

One of the key points of communication that department heads will have with DEI employees is to let them know that these actions are not disciplinary. They may not be intended as disciplinary, but by suspending access to email accounts, it will certainly feel that way.

Federal DEI employees will lose email access on Wednesday (January 22) at 5pm EST. After informing these employees that all DEI offices will be closed immediately, they will be placed on paid administrative leave and their email access will be suspended.

Whatever happens on Wednesday to cause stress and trauma, suspending email access for employees while telling them that administrative leave is not disciplinary action is bound to cause problems — problems mentally because These employees try to process why their email access is being suspended. They are not being fired. This is a vague message at best.

We (executives, supervisors, employers, etc.) suspend email access for employees who have been terminated. We suspend email access as a disciplinary measure during investigations where an employee is suspected of wrongdoing. We do not suspend access to email and tell employees that they have done nothing wrong because we know that employees rely on their email for many things and they need access to it for a valid and normal reason. may be required.

Summary of DEI Office Closure Dates and Process

By Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 5:00 PM EST—Officials must:

Distribute notices throughout a department or agency informing everyone that all DEI offices are closing.
Ask employees to disclose anything they know about anyone trying to hide, or seeking, DEI programs by using “coded or false language.”
Notify all DEI employees that they will be placed on paid administrative leave immediately.
Remove all external media (digital, electronic and print) promoting DEI programs and services.
Cancel all DEI related trainings, events etc.
Terminate all DEI contractors.

By Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 12:00 PM EST—officials must:

Update OPM on all actions taken on day 1 (above Wednesday) to effectively close DEI offices.
Provide OPM with a list of all DEI offices and the names of all employees within those offices.
Provide OPM with a complete list of all DEI contracts.
Provide assurances on how the department or agency will effectively comply with President Trump’s executive order.

By Friday, January 31, 2025, 5:00 PM EST—officials must:

Provide OPM with a written mitigation (termination) action plan regarding DEI employees.
Provide a description of all contracts or personnel positions that were “changed, effective November 5, 2024, to obscure their relationship to DEI programs.”

Key Points of Communication with DEI Employees

After a department or agency head notifies employees that all DEI offices will be closed, OPM notifies them to communicate directly with DEI employees and explain:

Employees will be placed on paid administrative leave immediately.
These actions are not disciplinary.
Employees will continue to receive full pay and benefits during the entire period on administrative leave.
Employees are not required or expected to perform any work during the leave.
Employees are not required or expected to come to the offices.
The employee’s email access will be suspended.
Employees are required to provide up-to-date contact information.
Employees will receive updates when available.

DEI employees won’t be the only ones struggling.

Wednesday will likely be very difficult for many executives, supervisors and managers as they have the dual responsibility of managing what is sure to be a chaotic change process. These heads, heads and managers will need to deal with their own lack of understanding and emotions as well as the lack of understanding and emotions of their employees.

DEI employees will struggle, but they won’t be alone. Managers may be imparting information that they themselves are just learning. Whenever a manager, at any level, is put in the position of breaking difficult news to employees—news about major changes in operations, budgets, or personnel, etc.—after the manager has had time to process it, It is better to do.

Also, based on the executive order and the OPM guidance memo, DEI — and most other — employees certainly don’t have many questions answered.

While DEI employees will be on paid administrative leave, there’s no telling how long that leave will last or if they’ll actually have jobs after the dust settles. There is no answer for other government employees who will see this treatment of DEI employees and will surely start wondering if they will be treated the same way.

Planned DEI termination after suspending emails?

President Trump signed the executive order on Monday. OPM sent out the guidance memo on Tuesday. And current employees will lose access to their email accounts and be sent home on paid administrative leave on Wednesday.

When DEI employees leave their jobs and offices at the end of the day, they will know that the Trump administration has asked department and agency heads to submit reduction plans (eliminations) no later than January 31. .

Who is the severance plan for? It’s the only thing that will remain with these employees after Wednesday.