at will

Mr. Trump has promised to reinstitute an executive order he issued late in his term known as Schedule F, which would empower his administration to convert tens of thousands of civil servants to so-called at-will employees, who could more easily be fired.

It calls for "the elimination of nearly all civil service protections for federal workers by making them at-will employees."

The Republican administration asked all federal agencies to report back which employees should be placed on a new “Schedule F” that would classify them as at-will employees who can quit or be fired at any time, for any reason.

Trump sought to classify those employees as at-will workers and exempt them from civil service protections and processes include seniority and testing, according to Bowdoin College government professor Andrew Rudalevige.

In April, the Office of Personnel Management issued a new rule that would ban federal workers from being reclassified as political appointees or other at-will employees, which makes them easier to dismiss.