Why Does Federal Retirement Still Take Six Months?

Joe Gebbia says it can take up to six months to retire from the federal government because the process still runs on paper. For decades, going back to the 1960s, federal employees have retired with paper forms and paper applications. The process has not changed since the 1970s, and the time it takes has not changed in about four decades. Federal employees must do online trainings just to figure out how they retire. After 30 plus years or 40 plus years as a civil servant, the exit is an obstacle course before the benefit they deserve.

In February an invitation arrived to fix that digital problem, with six months to try. A small team from Silicon Valley and industry set out to make the process fully digital in less than six months. The government has been trying since the Bush administration in 2002, more than 20 years. Reports put the spend at over $100 million on contractors that never really solved it. Most presidents added headcount, and close to 1,000 people now process the paper. Paired with career staff at OPM, the government's HR department, the paper turned out to sit in a mine in a Pennsylvania mountain, a tunnel run by Iron Mountain. The government has rented that mine since the 1960s as a secure, climate-controlled store. That fit in 1960. It is 2025.