Opinion | Dear Federal Workers: Don’t Quit

Over the next few weeks, U.S. civil servants will spend the holidays wrestling with a tough choice: Stay in your jobs and work for a president who openly disdains you and might try to fire you — or quit. I have already heard from many of you who would rather try your luck on the job market than wait for President-elect Donald Trump’s promised purge.

I am asking you — pleading with you: stay. Your decision isn’t just about your career, or a single president. It’s part of a larger war, one waged throughout American history, over what the federal government can and should be: Is it an apolitical source of expertise and professionalism, or is it a partisan weapon for presidents to use for their own political or economic ends? Now, with Trump and his allies setting civil servants in their sights, we risk backsliding to an earlier time, when cronyism reigned — and Americans suffered. By staying in your position as long as you can, you can defend the work of our democracy.

Trump and his allies won’t make it easy. “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” said Russell Vought, the Project 2025 architect Trump has picked to lead the Office of Management and Budget. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”

Vought’s plan promises to strip you of your job protections, slashing your vital roles and installing MAGA loyalists in your place. Trump allies Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk practically salivate over the prospect of firing you en masse in the pages of national newspapers. And as if defunding or even shuttering certain agencies altogether wasn’t enough, Trump has other ways of pressuring federal workers, like moving federal agencies out of Washington, where many of you and your families have built your lives.

But you must do your best to weather the storm, because history shows us what will happen if the Trump administration succeeds in twisting the government into a partisan machine. In the 1800s, the government was inefficient, incompetent and corrupt because President Andrew Jackson instituted a “spoils system” that awarded federal jobs to his supporters and partisans, rather than qualified professionals who earned their positions on merit.

The spoils system endured until the situation spiraled out of control in 1881, when a disgruntled partisan who was denied a federal job assassinated President James Garfield. Congress responded with the Pendleton Act, which professionalized government employment and largely eradicated the cronyism of the Jackson days, implementing a merit-based hiring system overseen by the newly established Civil Service Commission.

Since then, the modern norms of government have been firmly grounded in the idea that merit, rather than politics, should be the guiding star for civil service. Qualified professionals who serve a higher purpose have stepped up. USDA meat inspectors enable us to serve hamburgers to our kids without fear of disease. VA doctors and nurses treat our veterans with the dignity they deserve. Customer support specialists help older Americans get their Social Security checks and Medicare benefits. FBI field agents bring justice to violent criminals. EPA scientists purge our water of deadly contaminants. CIA intelligence analysts provide vital information about our foreign adversaries. All of these people and many more like you were chosen because of your competence and commitment to serving the American people. If you head for the exits now, every American will suffer.

Undoubtedly, our government, including the civil service, needs significant reform. But reclassifying federal jobs and placing partisan loyalists in government positions is not the way to do it. It would only return us to the spoils system — where cronyism reigns, and roles that should be apolitical instead serve a political agenda.

It is not as if the president has no opportunity to make personnel decisions in carrying out his administration’s policies. An incoming U.S. president makes about 4,000 political appointments — far more than the leaders in any of our peer democracies. Those political appointees are supposed to ensure that our large government apparatus is responsive to the policy direction of our duly elected leaders. But the apolitical cadre of around 2 million federal civil servants is the backbone of our democracy. They implement the president’s policies while also tending to the vast areas of work that remain the same across administrations. Their work is categorically different from that of political appointees — and that’s a good thing.

Replacing expert professionals who are motivated by their desire to serve the public with partisans whose primary qualification is their loyalty to the president would cripple the government’s ability to address threats around the world, meet the needs of our citizens and uphold the rule of law. In today’s complicated, dangerous and fast-moving world, we need a nonpartisan civil service focused on serving the American people even more than we did in the much simpler and less hazardous 19th century.

As you weigh your options, I hope you will consider the profound impact your choice will have on our democracy. I can’t promise you that Trump won’t make your work hard. I can’t promise you that you won’t face budget cuts and layoffs. But if you abandon your posts before they make you, our public institutions won’t stand a chance.

You are the lifeblood of our democracy. Please, do not obey in advance.