The Interior Department has placed an indefinite hold on employee reassignments or changes to work locations as it determines what positions and staff could be cut in layoffs.
A Friday memorandum from Stephanie Holmes, Interior’s acting chief human capital officer, follows a mandate issued last week directing Interior staffers to update their resumes and certify the accuracy of individual “employee data reports” listing staffers’ pay grades and job titles, as well as length of service. That information is being used to develop retention rosters that will determine what staff positions are cut in any layoff scenario.
Holmes wrote that beginning “immediately” the decision to freeze “personnel actions within the Department” is being carried out “to ensure stability during our current employee data review processes and to streamline our operational focus associated with potential reductions in force (RIF),” according to the memo reviewed by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The latest memo adds to the uncertainty agency staffers are facing as they brace for possibly large-scale layoffs.
