Directed Reassignment: Your Rights and the Line That Decides Severance

Last Updated: September 23, 2026 Reading Time: 10 min

On September 21 GovExec reported that the IRS's inspector general is auditing the agency's workforce reshaping, that roughly 1,500 IRS employees are on 120-day details being extended into a second 120 days, and that some of them were "involuntarily assigned." The audit report is not due until May 2027, so nothing has been found yet. What is settled is the law behind the question those 1,500 people are asking, and every agency reshaping this fall will make more people ask it: what can my agency order me to do, and what does saying no cost? Three different rules answer that, and the money turns on one line on a map and one clause in your position description.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my agency legally order me to move to another city?

Yes. 5 CFR 335.102(a) lets an agency reassign a career or career-conditional employee, and personnel law does not stop that reassignment at the edge of your commuting area. What the agency owes you is a legitimate management reason and adequate notice, the Ketterer standard the Federal Circuit reaffirmed in Cobert v. Miller in 2015.

Can I appeal the reassignment itself to MSPB?

No. 5 U.S.C. 7512 lists the appealable actions: removal, suspension over 14 days, reduction in grade, reduction in pay, and furlough of 30 days or less. A lateral reassignment is not among them. You appeal the removal that follows a refusal, not the order. If the reassignment cuts your grade or pay, it becomes a covered action.

What actually happens if I say no?

The agency initiates removal for failure to accept a directed reassignment under 5 CFR part 752. You get at least 30 days' advance written notice and at least 7 days to reply under 5 U.S.C. 7513(b), then a written decision, then an MSPB appeal under 7513(d). Schedule Policy/Career employees are excluded from part 752 and have none of those steps.

Does refusing cost me my severance pay?

It depends on one line on a map and one clause in your position description. Under 5 CFR 550.703 a separation for declining a reassignment outside your commuting area is involuntary, which is what severance requires, but only if the employee's position description or other written agreement does not provide for such a reassignment. Refuse a same-grade move inside your commuting area that also meets the other reasonable-offer conditions (written, qualified, same agency, tenure and schedule) and you have declined a reasonable offer: 550.704(b)(2) bars severance outright.

Can I take discontinued service retirement instead?

If you are 50 with 20 years of service, or any age with 25, and the separation is involuntary and not a removal for misconduct or delinquency (5 U.S.C. 8414(b)(1)). Under 8414(b)(2) the offer that disqualifies you has to be within your commuting area; an out-of-area offer is not a reasonable offer under the statute.

Can I collect both DSR and severance?

No. 5 CFR 550.704(b)(5) excludes anyone eligible upon separation for an immediate annuity from a federal civilian retirement system. If you qualify for DSR, severance is zero. A GS-12 step 5 at 52 with 22 years gets $22,682 a year and no severance; the same employee at 45 with 15 years gets $59,280 in severance and no annuity.

I signed a mobility agreement years ago. Does it still matter?

It is the clause that decides your money. 5 CFR 550.703 makes an out-of-area position a reasonable offer when geographic mobility is a condition of employment, provided the offer meets the rest of the definition (written, qualified, same agency, tenure and schedule), and the IRS manual's own definition carries the same carve-out. With a mobility clause in play, refusing a cross-country reassignment looks legally the same as refusing a move across town for severance purposes; DSR eligibility is tested separately under 5 U.S.C. 8414(b).

My agency extended my 120-day detail. Is that allowed?

Under 5 U.S.C. 3341(b)(1) a detail runs not more than 120 days and may be renewed by written order of the head of the department, in each particular case, for periods not exceeding 120 days. There is no statutory cap on the number of renewals, and 3341(b)(2) lifts the 120-day limit altogether for certain DoD closure, realignment or restructuring details. What the statute requires is that written order, for each renewal.

Is an extended tour of duty the same thing as an extended detail?

Not in the regulations. 5 CFR 610.102 defines tour of duty as the hours and days that make up your regularly scheduled administrative workweek, your schedule, not your assignment length. When GovExec reported in September that IRS was looking to extend some tours of duty, it meant the length of 120-day details. Read your notice for which one it means.

Are my RIF assignment rights the same as this?

No. RIF assignment rights under 5 CFR 351.701 are a floor the agency owes you when it abolishes your job, and since September 2, 2026 those appeals go to OPM instead of MSPB. A directed reassignment is an order the agency gives you when it is not running a RIF: no assignment right, no 60-day RIF notice, and the removal appeal still goes to MSPB.

Three Regimes, and Why Readers Apply the Wrong One

Since September 2 most of the traffic on this site's RIF pages has been about assignment rights: the replace-bump-retreat rules that decide where you land when your job is abolished. Those rules are a floor the agency owes you. A directed reassignment is the opposite thing: an order the agency gives you when it is not running a RIF at all. A detail is a third thing. Conflating them is the expensive mistake this fall.

Sources: the cited sections of title 5 U.S.C. and 5 CFR; IRM 6.350.1, Non-RIF Job Abolishment Procedures, effective August 21, 2026.

The phrase in the news, "extended tours of duty," shows how easily the three blur. In GovExec's story it means the length of a 120-day detail. In 5 CFR 610.102 a tour of duty is your work schedule. Your notice will tell you which regime you are in; that is the first thing to read.

What a Directed Reassignment Can Order

5 CFR 335.102(a) authorizes an agency to reassign a career or career-conditional employee, and nothing in that authority stops at the commuting-area line. The case law standard, from Ketterer v. Department of Agriculture (1980) and reaffirmed by the Federal Circuit in Cobert v. Miller (2015), is that the agency must have a legitimate management reason and give reasonable notice. What it does not owe a GS employee is a fixed notice period: none appears in 5 CFR part 335, part 300 subpart C, or 5 U.S.C. 3341 or 7513. Senior executives get 15 days for a reassignment within the commuting area and 60 days outside it under 5 CFR 317.901. Everyone else gets what the agency decides, which at IRS is 110 to 180 days under the sample abolishment letter in its August 2026 manual.

The reassignment itself is not appealable. 5 U.S.C. 7512 lists the actions MSPB hears: removal, suspension for more than 14 days, reduction in grade, reduction in pay, and furlough of 30 days or less. A lateral reassignment at the same grade and pay is not on the list. What you can contest is the removal that follows a refusal, under 5 CFR part 752 with the 30-day notice and 7-day reply of 5 U.S.C. 7513(b), and the appeal in 7513(d). Note that this is a refusal-based removal, not misconduct discipline; the Douglas mitigation analysis readers know from the Douglas factors guide runs differently here.

One group has none of that. 5 CFR 752.401(d)(2) excludes Schedule Policy/Career employees from part 752 entirely: no notice period, no reply right, no MSPB appeal. If your position was converted, the removal that follows a refusal has no chapter 75 notice or MSPB route; any other claim depends on its own separate authority.

The IRS Rewrote Its Own Manual on August 21

IRM 6.350.1, Non-RIF Job Abolishment Procedures, took effect August 21, 2026. Its Option 1 permits directed reassignment "within or outside the local commuting area." Its sample abolishment letter runs 110 to 180 days. And it states the money consequences in its own words: an employee who declines a reassignment inside the commuting area "is ineligible for DSR and severance pay," while a removal for declining an out-of-area reassignment "is considered an involuntary action for the purposes of DSR or severance." That is the government-wide rule in 5 CFR 550.703, restated by the agency whose detailees the inspector general is now surveying.

FedTools 2026 analysis. The relocation entitlement (household goods, travel, temporary quarters, the relocation income tax allowance) is real but is set by agency policy and GSA per-diem rates, so no dollar figure is published here.

Refusing a directed reassignment is where the map matters. Under 5 CFR 550.703 a separation for declining a reassignment to a different commuting area is involuntary, which is the condition both severance and discontinued service retirement require, but only "if the employee's position description or other written agreement does not provide for such a reassignment." A same-grade offer inside the commuting area is a reasonable offer only if it also meets the rest of 550.703's definition: in writing, a position you are qualified for, in your agency, with the same tenure and work schedule. An offer that meets all of it and is declined bars severance under 550.704(b)(2), and a comparable in-area offer declined bars DSR under 5 U.S.C. 8414(b)(2); test each rule's conditions separately.

FedTools 2026 analysis. DSR = 1.0% × 22 years × a $103,098 high-3 (the Kansas City rate held flat) = $22,682 a year, $1,890 a month, under 5 U.S.C. 8415(a); eligibility at 50 with 20 years under 8414(b)(1)(C); no FERS annuity supplement until the minimum retirement age. Severance = 20 weeks basic (10 years × 1 week + 5 years × 2 weeks) plus a 50% age adjustment for 20 quarters over age 40 = 30 weeks × $1,976 (annual ÷ 2,087 × 40), under 5 CFR 550.707; the total is under the 52-week cap.

The middle two rows carry the comparison. The same refusal, under the same regulation, is worth $22,682 a year for life to the 52-year-old and $59,280 once to the 45-year-old, and nothing at all to either of them if the move had been across town or if a mobility clause was a condition of the job when they took it and the offer met the other reasonable-offer conditions. A mobility condition imposed after you accepted the position does not by itself make the first refusal voluntary for DSR purposes (CSRS/FERS Handbook chapter 44); accepting a reassignment later changes that analysis. You never collect both: 5 CFR 550.704(b)(5) removes severance the moment an immediate annuity is available. Winning the "involuntary separation" argument buys the older employee a pension, not a check. Whether the DSR annuity carries an age reduction is our reading of 5 U.S.C. 8415(h), which applies reductions to other early-retirement routes and does not name 8414(b); treat that as derived rather than confirmed by OPM.

Two more things to check before you answer a directed reassignment notice. Read the position description for a mobility clause; it is the single line that flips every row above. And if the notice is a detail rather than a reassignment, none of this applies: your position of record has not moved, and what the statute requires of the agency is a written renewal order for each 120-day block.

Calculate Both Exits Before You Decide

Run the salary change first in the GS Pay Calculator: the same grade and step in the old and new localities. Then price the two refusals side by side. The Severance Pay Calculator takes salary, years of service and age and returns the severance for the not-yet-retirement-eligible path. The FERS Retirement Calculator prices the annuity for a given age, service and high-3 (it has no discontinued-service option; a DSR annuity uses the standard formula, 1% of high-3 per year of service, payable immediately, so compute it by hand from the guide); the discontinued service retirement guide covers the eligibility mechanics.

Related Resources

• Severance Pay Calculator: The refusal path for employees not yet retirement-eligible
• FERS Retirement Calculator: Annuity by age, service and high-3 (no DSR toggle)
• GS Pay Calculator: What the move is worth by locality
• RIF Assignment Rights: Replace, Bump and Retreat: The floor the agency owes you when the job is abolished
• Your Appeal Rights After the September 2 OPM Rules: Which forum hears what
• Discontinued Service Retirement Guide: The 50/20 and 25-year routes
• Agency Headquarters Relocation Tracker: Which agencies are moving people this year
• Federal Employee Relocation and Moving Guide: What the relocation entitlement covers

Sources: GovExec, IRS watchdog audits employee reassignments (September 21, 2026) · IRM 6.350.1, Non-RIF Job Abolishment Procedures · 5 U.S.C. 3341, 7512, 7513, 8414 · 5 CFR part 550, subpart G · 5 CFR 752.401 · 5 CFR part 317, subpart I · Cobert v. Miller, Fed. Cir. 2015 · 41 CFR part 302-17 · OPM 2026 salary tables. Computed tables are FedTools 2026 analysis from those inputs; free to cite with attribution.