They came wielding forks.
Just ahead of the deadline to take or leave the Trump administration’s unprecedented buyout offer — communicated in an email with the subject line “a fork in the road” — federal workers packed a Howard County forum this week to vent and ask for help.
The Jan. 28 email gave some 2 million full-time federal employees one week to decide whether to resign now and receive pay and benefits through Sept. 30. A judge on Thursday or ordered the deadline extended until after a hearing Monday afternoon.
“I don’t want your damn fork,” a longtime nurse said she thought when she learned of the offer.
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She purchased an assortment of utensils from a thrift store as a symbol of resistance and handed them out at Tuesday night’s federal workers forum organized by Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. Hundreds of people crowded into the Howard Community College auditorium in Columbia.
“Repeat after me,” the woman said when it was her turn to hold the microphone, “I am a national treasure.”
“I am a national treasure,” much of the audience responded.
“The civil service workforce is a national treasure,” she said. “They are looting a national treasure.”
She and other attendees declined to give their names out of fear of retribution from the Trump administration.
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Federal workers say they feel that they are in a bind. If they resign, they must trust that President Donald Trump follows through with his offer. If they don’t, they risk seeing their jobs evaporate under the administration’s plan to dramatically shrink the federal government, carried out by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
Labor unions representing hundreds of thousands of government workers are pushing their members to decline the buyout. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is among several organizations that joined a legal challenge Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the Trump administration’s “Fork Directive.”
AFSCME President Lee Saunders called the actions by the federal government “illegal and a scam.”
It’s unclear how many will choose to resign, but the buyout offer has alarmed local leaders and lawmakers in Maryland, where about 10% of the state’s workers — about 327,000 people — are directly employed by the federal government, according to the U.S. Census.
Officials in Howard County, less than an hour driving commute to D.C. and home to what Ball estimated to be 50,000 federal workers, are particularly worried. Ball said he convened the forum Tuesday night to connect residents with county resources, but also to each other at a time when many said they feel isolated.
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The forum opened with comments from Ball as well as recorded remarks from Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a newly elected Democrat, and Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, who said they were stuck in D.C. for votes.
The forum became something of a group therapy session as dozens of residents took turns speaking while Ball and representatives for the congressional leaders listened attentively.
Fearing retaliation for even attending such a forum, most speakers identified themselves by agency or years of service. They asked for help with child care and transportation amid the federal return-to-office order and relief on state and local taxes if they lose employment.
Some described feeling anger, despair, panic and loneliness.
“I’ve been hearing from many who are concerned, who are afraid, who feel like they’re not being heard,” Ball said. “And they’re rushed to make a decision that will impact their families and our community for years to come.”
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For some families, the stakes are incredibly high.
One woman told the room tearfully that five months ago she quit her “good job” in the private sector to join the federal workforce in hopes of gaining more stability. Now a member of her family needs surgery, so she said she is planning to accept the offer and resign in an effort to preserve their health care coverage.
“I’ve been crying, crying and thinking about so many things like, ‘How will I pay my mortgage’ and ‘How will I maintain the health insurance,’” she said. “What do I do?”
Even as the meeting was underway, some in the auditorium opened their email inboxes to discover a notification from the Trump administration that U.S. Agency for International Development workers worldwide had been put on administrative leave.
Others talked of retiring earlier than they had planned to avoid being fired. One Columbia resident and longtime translator for a federal agency said that might mean moving out of state.
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“I may not able even be able to afford to stay here,” he said. “I’m thinking seriously about moving to Delaware, where it’s cheaper. I’m not wild about it, but I will do it if I have to for my own financial security.”
He said he wondered how people get by in a society where they have to be so afraid.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” he said.
Many federal workers across the state, including those who did not attend Tuesday’s event, feel under attack. One federal employee, who lives in Crofton, said in a phone interview with The Banner that, despite pressure, she does not want to leave her position. She requested anonymity for fear of retribution.
“I am a patriot. I love America,” she said. “I don’t want to leave my service. But I believe I’ll be pushed out of service.”
Baltimore Banner reporters Bria Overs and Hayes Gardner contributed to this story.
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