Federal workers in New Jersey are trying to make sense of executive orders from President Trump, mandating them to return to their offices in person five days a week, or quit with seven months pay.

Some workers say the confusion and frustration has turned to their day to day jobs into chaos, while the attorneys and union leaders try to figure out whether that offer from the Trump administration is even legal.

According to the white House, some 20,000 federal employees have already taken the buyouts, which has the potential to make the situation harder for those who stay.

Ted Goldberg reports.

Federal workers tell us morale has plummeted after the last few weeks.

Confusion and anxiety.

The federal workforce is scared right now.

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to shrink the federal government, and one way he's trying to do that is by offering seven months of severance pay to any employee who resigns by Thursday.

Angela Geronimo is the local president of the union, supporting New Jersey's 570 social security office workers.

And she says fewer workers would make it much harder for New Jerseyans to get the benefits they've worked for.

The public comes to us, and we can't process what they need, right?

You know, timely.

That adds to their anxiety, and it creates a stressful atmosphere for all of us.

These attacks on the government will, hurt the American public.

David Gonzalez is a national vice president for AFG, the largest union for federal workers.

He agrees that mass resignations or possibly future layoffs would be catastrophic.

This will deplete, already short staff of government, government.

And because we we're in need of, staffing, in our law enforcement and in our VA hospitals, the 2 million or so federal employees have been given the option of resigning or committing to work in person five days a week.

AFGE is suing over this, saying requirements like that are illegal after the union signed a labor contract guaranteeing telework for some employees.

We have provisions that were lawfully negotiated and we don't know if that is going to be something that is going to stand with what's going on in Washington, and the courts at this point are the only bulwark against that type of behavior.

And that's why you're seeing lawsuits being filed.

Hannah Isaacs has practiced law for more than 40 years.

He says Elon Musk's tactics are very likely illegal since he's treating the federal government in the same way he treated Twitter after buying it.

A big difference is that government employees have much more protection than their counterparts in the private sector.

The idea going back to the 1800s was to try to, dissect or pull away, politics and political issues from a meritocracy.

And they're saying, basically, you can't have an actor like Elon Musk jump in and basically disrupt all of these layers and layers of worker protection.

The so-called fork in the road letter, named after its subject line, which was also used at Twitter, says we will insist on excellence at every level.

Our performance standards will be updated to reward and promote those that exceed expectations.

What does that mean?

I have no idea.

I don't know what it means right now.

It's just a jumble of words.

There's also a question about whether or not it's legal to offer seven months of severance pay when the federal government is only funded through the middle of March.

How can the president, And, you know, offer this type of buyout without going to Congress first?

We're warning our employees to to hold the line in, in and, Be careful what you, agree to.

New Jersey attorney General Matt Platkin is also warning employees about resigning and about Elon Musk in general as part of an open letter.

He says President Trump has allowed an unelected billionaire with no constitutional authority to intimidate the civil servants who keep our government running in an attempt to push them out of their jobs.

Federal workers have protections that do not change when a new president takes office.

New Jersey has tens of thousands of federal workers with an uncertain future ahead of them.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.