After being on paid administrative leave since mid-March, IRS probationary employees have been told to return to the office by May 23, according to a Bloomberg Tax report and several posts on online forums.
More than 7,000 IRS probationary workers—who have fewer protections than long-term workers—were laid off by the Trump administration on Feb. 20. However, impacted workers were later reinstated and put on paid administrative leave in March after two favorable court rulings. They were set to return to work on April 14, but that plan was put on hold by the IRS.
The employees who will return to their jobs on Friday either didn’t take the two deferred resignation program offers from the Trump administration and the Treasury Department or requested to take the second buyout, called “DRP 2.0” or TDRP, but were denied because their roles with the IRS were “deemed critical.”
- Related article: Trump Offers Buyouts to Federal Employees Resisting In-Person Work
- Related article: Trump Administration Fires 6,700 IRS Employees During Tax Season
- Related article: IRS Workers Get Final Chance to Take Deferred Resignation Offer
- Related article: Roughly 20,000 IRS Workers Have Requested DRP 2.0 Offer, Reports Say
- Related article: IRS Workers Whose Roles Are ‘Deemed Critical’ Get Rejected For DRP 2.0
“Probie here, no DRPs, no VSIP, no nothing, just got an email to schedule my PIV [personal identity verification] card pickup before 5/23. Laptops will be issued with the help of your manager and IT at your POD,” one person posted May 20 on Reddit. “I am so ready to come back and hopefully everything will be sorted out.”
Another person who said they’re a revenue agent in the IRS Large Business and International division posted, “LB&I RA here. Got the email to return on 05/23. I already found other employment, so I guess I’ll send a separation email on Friday. Good luck to anyone actually going back. I’m hoping there’s something left after all this. Working at the IRS was my dream job and now I’m back to figuring out how to increase shareholder value.”
One person was hopeful that the returning probies won’t be wiped out right away by the IRS’s reduction in force once they return to the office.
- Related article: IRS Has Slashed 11% of Its Workforce as of March, TIGTA Says
“I am cautiously optimistic about this, why would they bring us back to full work status when they could have just RIF’d us while on admin leave? My guess is that they don’t see the courts going their way when it comes to the current RIF plans so they might as well put us to work in the meantime while they draw out a more ‘legal’ RIF,” the person wrote. “Not anticipating to still have my job within the next year but I like to see this return to work as a win.”
A federal judge ruled on May 9 that the Trump administration must temporarily cease from engaging in widespread layoffs and firings for government workers.
President Donald Trump’s February executive order calling for a radical reorganization of the federal workforce likely violates the Constitution, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said.
The layoff freeze was supposed to be lifted on May 23, the same day IRS probationary workers come back to the office, but Illston said Thursday she is inclined to grant a preliminary injunction extending the layoff pause while the case proceeds, temporarily protecting the jobs of thousands of federal workers, Bloomberg Law reported on May 22.
The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and overturn Illston’s ruling.
- Related article: IRS Job Cuts Hit Civil Rights Office
- Related article: IRS Updates RIF Plans, Could Lay Off Up to 40% of Workforce
- Related article: IRS Lets Go of Workers in Taxpayer Experience Office, Diversity Office in Taxpayer Services
- Related article: Trump Must Halt Mass Layoffs of Federal Workers, Judge Rules
The tax agency had started an RIF, which will include mass layoffs in two phases. The IRS workforce, which sat at approximately 100,000 when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, could be reduced to as little as 60,000 to 70,000 employees by year end, an internal memo stated—an estimate that includes workers who took both deferred resignation program offers.
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Josh May 23 2025 at 2:23 pm
This article is inaccurate. In the article it says "The employees who will return to their jobs on Friday didn’t take either of the two deferred resignation program offers from the Trump administration and the Treasury Department." This isn't accurate. Many people attempted to take the 2nd DRP, and were denied stating their job was "mission critical".