2,600 USDA jobs would be moved<\/a> as part of a reorganization.<\/p>\nBut Kupor said as of right now, there are no plans to relocate positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any stated effort to kind of move jobs out of D.C. into other areas,\u201d Kupor said.<\/p>\n
They have, however, moved to put an end to remote work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a lot of us went through earlier in the year was looking at people that we had in various field offices and figuring out ways where people were working from home to get them to return to a field office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kupor said the move away from remote work will be a boost to local restaurants and other businesses near federal offices.<\/p>\n
Departing feds express frustration<\/p>\n
Once federal layoffs began, WTOP started to hear from federal workers who were impacted. They expressed concerns about being able to reach OPM for information, seeing miscalculated severance payment and other issues.<\/p>\n
Kupor said while he hasn\u2019t heard many of those concerns himself, he said the goal is to make sure everyone is \u201ctreated fairly and has the information they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put out a lot of guidance to agencies,\u201d Kupor said. \u201cIt\u2019s possible maybe that created confusion where people weren\u2019t sure whether to go to OPM or go to their agencies, but I think we\u2019ve resolved those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
WTOP also heard from some federal workers who chose to retire, were directed to a new digital platform for applying, and they claimed that led to problems with completing the process.<\/p>\n
Kupor said rolling out large-scale programs can come with complications, and added issues have been addressed quickly and it is working \u201cvery effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the goal of moving the retirement process to the digital realm is to improve efficiency and the user experience.<\/p>\n
Addressing morale concerns in the workforce<\/p>\n
Throughout this process, many federal workers have said they\u2019ve felt vilified by high-ranking members of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Kupor said his goal is to be firm, yet respectful of the fact that decisions being made in regard to the federal workforce impact lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize and understand we\u2019re talking about very serious things,\u201d he said. \u201cAnytime we do layoffs or reductions, you know, that impacts people\u2019s families, it impacts people\u2019s friends, it impacts their ability to be contributing members to their community. And look, we need to recognize and understand that is a difficult thing for people to live through.\u201d<\/p>\n
His time in the private sector as a manager, he said, taught him that when an employee is let go, many times trust is lost between a manager and that person.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you hired them and you told them all the wonderful things that you could do for their career by doing this,\u201d Kupor said. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re saying, \u2018Look, through no fault of your own, unfortunately, we have to eliminate this job,\u2019 and so I think you can be both empathetic and also be firm and direct the organization in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kupor said he has sought to be truthful with his staff, recognizing that those still working have also been through unsettling times.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, you know, we need to digest all this change,\u201d Kupor said. \u201cI said, \u2018Look, there\u2019s no plan right now to do any additional kind of major reductions here.\u2019 I said, \u2018Look, I want to be also transparent that I can\u2019t make a promise to you that that will never change.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Kupor plans to bring \u2018cultural change\u2019 to OPM<\/p>\n
Kupor said he\u2019s coming to the job as a \u201cnew observer,\u201d but brings a new way of looking at things to OPM and comes to the job with a goal of creating a \u201ccultural shift\u201d that results in the agency operating more efficiently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe culture that I\u2019m trying to affect here at OPM, that I hope we will be able to convey across the government, is everybody in every organization should always think about, like, \u2018Could I do things differently? Could I do things better? Are there ways to use technology? Are there ways to change the organization? Are we working on the right things?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he wants to change the belief within government agencies that budgets only get bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people get used to that, and what I want to change is I want people to think of themselves ultimately, as we are stewards of taxpayer dollars,\u201d Kupor said.<\/p>\n
He said he also hopes to bring some private sector principles to the job, including providing career development opportunities and allowing workers the chance to take \u201cappropriate levels of risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize, obviously, that, you know, times of change are unsettling, but I hope we\u2019ll get through this and what will come out of it is, you know, a continuously robust workforce,\u201d Kupor said.<\/p>\n
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a9 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking to WTOP at the Office of Personnel Management\u2019s headquarters, Scott Kupor discussed the rollout of the plan…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,48082,17177,420,70768,26753,95179,65604,4352,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-165295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-federal-layoffs","10":"tag-federal-workers","11":"tag-jobs","12":"tag-mike-murillo","13":"tag-office-of-personnel-management","14":"tag-opm","15":"tag-scott-kupor","16":"tag-trump-administration","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115069963893701622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}