Big financial decisions made in haste are often followed by regret, especially when the terms leave you with no guarantees or options.

Federal workers who don’t want to return to the office are being offered buyouts, according to a memo posted to the US Office of Personnel Management’s website Tuesday night.

In it, federal employees were advised they could take part in a "deferred resignation program", an offer akin to gradual buy-out. Anyone who opted in could stop work immediately but be paid as normal for eight months, before formally leaving their role in government at the end of September.