Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsOn Jan. 21, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told federal agencies to place employees of DEIA offices on paid administrative leave effective immediately and to complete several initial steps by 5 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Jan. 22. A contemporaneous Forbes report also said affected employees’ email access would be suspended. The instruction concerned employees of DEIA offices—not every federal employee—and leave was not itself a notice of termination.
Who the Jan. 22 instruction covered
OPM’s Jan. 21 memorandum applied to employees of agency offices focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). It did not direct agencies to place the entire federal workforce on leave. The memorandum told agencies to notify those office employees that they were being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately while the agencies took steps to close or end DEIA initiatives, offices, and programs. OPM’s initial guidance memorandum
What agencies were told to do by Wednesday
The deadline was 5 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 22, 2025. OPM’s memorandum directed agency heads to take these initial steps:
- Issue an agency-wide notice about the DEIA executive orders.
- Notify employees of DEIA offices that they were on paid administrative leave, effective immediately.
- Remove outward-facing media from DEIA offices.
The leave began immediately under the instruction; the Wednesday deadline applied to completing the listed agency actions. OPM’s memo describes these measures as initial steps as agencies moved toward closing or ending covered programs and offices.
#1 Best Overall
What was reported about email access
Terina Allen’s Jan. 22, 2025 Forbes report said affected employees’ email access would be suspended and described the leave as non-disciplinary. Forbes report on the email suspension and leave
Email suspension is not stated in OPM’s memorandum’s listed initial steps, so it should be attributed to the contemporaneous report rather than presented as a quotation or direct instruction from that memo.
How the leave deadline differed from the executive order’s 60-day direction
President Donald Trump signed the executive order “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” on Jan. 20, 2025. It directed agency heads, within 60 days and “to the maximum extent allowed by law,” to terminate covered DEI, DEIA, and environmental justice offices and positions, and to prepare inventories and assessments. That broader agency-action timetable was separate from OPM’s Jan. 22 deadline for immediate administrative steps. The Jan. 20 executive order
The order also says implementation must be consistent with applicable law and appropriations, and that it creates no enforceable right or benefit. Those are provisions in the order itself; they do not establish how later legal or personnel questions were resolved.
Rank #3
What the initial announcement does not establish
The OPM memorandum and the contemporaneous Forbes account do not establish how long any individual employee remained on leave, whether a specific position continued, or what an employee’s email access is now. They also do not, by themselves, establish the final outcome for each office or employee. Those questions require later, agency- or employee-specific information.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
