A historic wave of retirements and other departures has swept through the federal workforce in recent months, putting enormous strain on agencies as they cope with a new government shutdown and administration layoffs.

This mass exodus – unprecedented in scale – includes about 154,000 federal employees who accepted buyout offers and were largely removed from the payroll by the end of last month. Some are among nearly 105,000 employees who took regular retirement during the fiscal year that ended in September, an 18% increase from the previous year.

Tens of thousands of those cases are still awaiting processing, creating a crisis for already understaffed human resources offices across the government and the Office of Personnel Management.

With a significantly reduced workforce of its own, OPM faces a growing backlog and worsening wait times, raising alarms about the government’s ability to smoothly handle this unprecedented personnel shift, according to documents and interviews with HR representatives and departed federal workers.

Complicating matters, the government shutdown that began Oct. 1 has furloughed some workers who handle paperwork and payroll, meaning the departing employees expecting documentation and final annuity payments around this time are experiencing further delays, according to documents and employees.

Remains optimistic

OPM Director Scott Kupor said in an interview with The Washington Post that he remains optimistic about his agency’s ability to get through the backlog. He said OPM is in touch with other agencies about how to streamline the process and that HR workers from other agencies will be detailed to his office to help manage the workload.

“I’m excited about the work we’re doing, but the reality is, as you know, there is a big volume that’s coming in a short period of time,” Kupor said. “So we’re going to have to do everything we can to make sure that we continue to invest in those efforts that are going to significantly improve the efficiency of the process.”

The agency said it is processing about 35,000 retirements. In the last fiscal year, OPM handled 104,800 immediate retirement cases, compared with 88,608 the year before.

In the spring, OPM’s retirement processing times initially stayed under 50 days after Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service offered all federal employees the option to take a buyout in February. But wait times have since surged to 76 days as of September.

Kupor said he doesn’t anticipate the government shutdown will further delay processing times because OPM’s retirement services division is considered essential staff. However, some agencies’ HR offices have warned that the shutdown could slow down final payments.

One federal worker who took a buyout to leave the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation was told before the shutdown not to expect annuity payments as long as the shutdown continued.

“While the backlog at OPM means delays in adjudicating and finalizing the annuity and reduced payments in the interim, the shutdown will mean further delays,” an email from the agency’s HR office said.

Struggling to handle personnel issues

Emails obtained by The Post show that agencies’ in-house HR offices are struggling to handle personnel issues.

One letter sent to a retiring National Institutes of Health employee in July noted that a “high volume” of retirement cases, among other issues, meant processing would be delayed. “To stay focused … our office temporarily paused outgoing communications,” the letter stated.

Within the General Services Administration, workers who were supposed to be fired in March were left on paid administrative leave for half a year because “HR was too overwhelmed … to process their layoffs,” according to an employee who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters they were not authorized to address publicly.

OPM has also moved toward fully digitizing the retirement process, which for decades relied on paper files. After Musk’s DOGE Service highlighted a Pennsylvania mine where the government has stored retirement records since 1960, OPM officials made it a priority to end the practice of keeping paper records.

The agency rolled out a new system called the Online Retirement Application, though it did so as thousands of federal workers were already in the process of retiring. Several employees described having to start over after already completing paperwork.

Rob Shriver, a former OPM director in the Biden administration, said the agency was developing the online system when he was there and had not yet automated where documentation is stored. He said OPM needed more staffing to build that infrastructure and handle additional retirement claims, and he expressed concern that staffing cuts have complicated those efforts.

Often hears complaints

Shriver, who leads Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong – which hosts town halls and webinars for federal workers – said he often hears complaints about customer service and wait times.

“We heard real concerns from folks about when they would be getting their annuity, when they would get a correct annuity calculation. They weren’t hearing anything,” Shriver said. “They were trying to get answers from OPM, and they just weren’t able to get through.”

Kupor said distributing payments has been a priority for the agency and that more departing workers are now getting part of their payments earlier. About 75% of workers are receiving automatic interim pay while waiting for their claim to be processed, up from 50%, Kupor said.

The government is spending about 16% more on federal employee retirements so far this year compared with last year, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, which uses daily Treasury Department statements.

OPM itself is also shedding workers. Kupor said the agency is down about one-third from its more than 3,000 employees on Jan. 20, mostly through deferred resignations, early retirements or other buyouts.

Departures have left remaining OPM staff struggling under a surge of work created by the Trump administration’s rapid cuts to government, said two employees familiar with the internal challenges.

One of the employees described the situation as chaotic.

“No strategic direction, no strategic plan, statutorily required duties gone by the wayside, no backups for things people did when they left … budget questions that can’t be answered, big holes in institutional knowledge, no ability to backfill priority positions,” the employee said.

Kupor said he believes his staff is working “more efficiently now at lower numbers of head count.”

The second employee said OPM’s retirement services arm is answering fewer than 15% of calls from federal retirees and their families. “They are already telling people processing will be delayed,” the employee said. OPM said that division remains at the same staffing level.

The agency said it is increasingly using automated, self-service phone options to handle routine questions.

Two former federal workers who left government service this year said they have found it difficult to reach OPM.

One of them, Jessica Bradley Rushing, left a job at the State Department this year – twice. In March, she chose to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which meant she would be paid through Sept. 30, her exit date. Then in July, she was suddenly fired and told her last day was Sept. 9, she said.

Over the summer, Bradley Rushing said she tried repeatedly to reach OPM – as well as other HR agents and offices – to figure out what was happening. It took two months and at least a half-dozen emails before she heard back: The firing was a mistake, and she would be paid through the end of September after all.

“They finally confirmed it … the day before the RIF separation date,” she said. “I’m just so disappointed and disgusted with how it all went.”

A former Food and Drug Administration scientist who also resigned this year said he faced similar challenges reaching a human being at OPM. The scientist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, retired after his agency refused to let him work remotely despite a doctor’s letter saying in-person attendance posed a health risk.

He said he had many questions about why his pension payments were delayed and how much they would total. He began calling OPM for answers, but no one picked up – only a recording telling him the agency was busy and that he should try again later.

Sometimes, he opted for a callback, then waited hours. After more than five attempts, he finally spoke with someone – only to find the call unhelpful.

“The first rep I talked with couldn’t answer any questions,” he said. “I called on another day and finally got someone who knew what they were doing and answered my questions.”

The two employees said they cannot imagine how their agency will handle the current wave of cases. “It will be a huge burden,” one said.