THE A termination notice came just before Valentine’s Day, and the heart of Elena Moseyko was broken while she was crying in front of her two young children.
She has invoices to pay – a mortgage, preschool tuition, car payment – and a frightened family.
“I feel so angry now against the administration because I traumatized my children,” she said. “I hope that I would never have joined the federal government.”
Last year, Moseyko joined the American department of veterans as a data scientist. She had been “fortunately employed” in the private sector for a consulting company but thought that government employment seemed more stable.
Instead, his life was turned upside down last week after the start of President Donald Trump’s administration establishing mass layoffs As part of an aggressive effort to cut the federal workforce.
Harrison Fields, a special assistant to the president, said in a statement to USA Today that Trump “had returned to Washington with a mandate from the American people to bring an unprecedented change in our federal government to uproot waste, fraud and abuse “.
“It is not easy to do in a broken system rooted in bureaucracy and bloating, but it is a task expected for a long time,” he said.
USA TODAY spoke to federal workers licensed departments Education, veterans, agriculture and transport that said they were shocked, angry and emotionally distraught by endings. They rushed over the weekend to understand how to deposit unemployment benefits and examine their budgets to adapt to a new financial reality.
They were concerned about everything, the remuneration of rent to the payment of student loans. Many have talked about participating in the government’s work because they appreciate public service and have the impression that these values are trampled on.
“I am much more angry than devastated,” said Chelsea Milburn, a 34 -year -old naval reservist, who lost her job as a specialist in public affairs for the Ministry of Education. “It prevented me that I would continue to be respected and appreciated for my service. And especially in the way the termination occurred.”
Releases target probationary employees
The ex-employees USA TODAY spoke to TODAY said that they had never received bad performance reviews at work, but their walking papers all included a similar language:
“The agency finds, according to your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your new job at the agency would be in the public interest,” said several federal workers in USA Today, their letter of dismissal.
What agencies are affected?Department of Education, USAID, NIH and more
“He was reading like a copy letter and sticking that provided no details,” said Milburn. “It was just very cold and cruel.”
She said that her teleworking work was an almost perfect situation after her life changed spectacularly two years ago, first with a fight with Covid-19, then a diagnosis of pots, a handicap that makes her Difficult to sit at a complete time office.
Milburn was one of the nearly 70 employees of the education service still in their probationary periods which were released on Wednesday evening. Federal employees in probation status have generally been hired in the past year.
They are easier to dismiss because they do not have negotiation rights that career employees must call their layoffs. But some who had been in their departments longer than it has caught up too.
Doug Berry, who worked for the American Department of Rural Development Agriculture, has left his former real estate career for her work at the USDA for more stability, was hired as a loan technician in January last. But in July, the 53 -year -old has chosen to take a position as a pathway trainee instead, in part because it would give him a better career path after the period of probation, but also because he wanted to continue an MBA at the same time.
His probation period resets, but he could not know at the time what it would mean.
Berry said his letter of dismissal was sent to him by email around 5 p.m. Thursday and was in force at the end of this working day, but his office ended at 4.30 p.m. and that he had already left for the day. He appeared Friday morning to discover that his work had disappeared.
“I was able to give an hour of my time to clean my office and put what I worked on to my colleagues,” he said.
At least five unions representing civil servants brought an action in view of the dismissal by the administration of probation employees, alleging that it breaks the official process used by government agencies to reject employees.
“These layoffs do not concern poor performance – there is no evidence that these employees were only dedicated civil servants,” said Everett Kelley, president of the US Federation of Government Employees, which represents around 800,000 workers federal.
DOGE aims to reduce public spending
The Ministry of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musktorn the federal agencies, moving to close some and has radically reduced others. Almost all of the federal workforce was offered a takeover. Then the opinions started.
Thousands of workers have been dismissed in recent days, the endings focused on new hires that still have a probationary status. The extent of layoffs is not yet clear, but around 220,000 federal employees out of 2.3 million had less than a year of experience in their current posts in March 2024, according to data from the very recently accessible to the public to the American office of staff management.
Trump has not shown no sign of yield despite a flood of costumes.
“The one who saves his country does not violate any law”, ” Trump said about social truthits application of social media.
But as The Musk team travels the federal governmentSeeking to serve dozens of employees, the president’s opponents continue to warn the ramifications, both personal and national.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a GOP legislator who sometimes has Opposed Trump in publicsaid dozens of federal workers in his state have been suddenly dismissed.
“I share the objective of the administration to reduce the size of the federal government, but this approach leads to confusion, anxiety and now trauma to our civil servants – some of whom have moved their families and have thrilled all their lives for Come here, ”she says.
Complete ramifications of Trump’s decision, whether in urban centers or rural enclaves in the country, will not be completely absorbed for weeks or months. Asked for a total or estimate on the number of workers who have been released, for example, the Friday staff management office refused to provide USA Today with answers.
Former workers are concerned about the communities they have been hired to serve
Victoria Porter, 28, said that she had found her dream work riding the hinterland to maintain hiking trails for the US Forest Service in Montana. All this left on Friday when she said that eight other people from her team of 12 people were also dismissed.
The endings will have a great impact on the community around the forest where it has worked, said Porter. Outdoor outfitters and other local companies are counting on trails as an economic engine for the region. There is “no means” that the trails can be maintained with a radically smaller crew, she said.
“They will do their best, but that will mean that hikers cannot pass, it will mean that the usitters cannot pass and that their livelihoods depend on taking people to the hinterland,” said To carry. “Then they will suffer. The communities here will suffer. It will strike the very hard economy because tourism will drop. »»
Berry was also concerned about the impact of dismissals on low -income rural communities, his work by examining loans and financing of community projects served.
“The Rural Development USDA helps the cities that voted for Trump every day, and I think there is a disconnection between understanding that these things are necessary in the life of a small town and realize that you have just passed to get rid of you From the water project you need, “he says.
“I do not know where I am going to end,” said Berry, fearing now that he will disclose to be dismissed for everything he applies. “I have never been dismissed for the cause of my life, so far.”
Moseyko joined the VA in June 2024 in a position of learning machine for writing highly qualified positions. She is confident to obtain a new job with her skills, but said that the sudden pink shift made a mental number and that immediate financial concerns were worrying. She spent on Friday to determine how to deposit unemployment.
“Mentally, it’s very draining,” she said.
Berry began the process of fighting decision. Moseyko believes that the dismissal was illegal.
“Each of us who obtained exactly the same form of form without appropriate process or real cause to a grievance,” said Berry.
Meanwhile, Milburn said that she must now find work that will adapt to her state of health as her federal job. It is also upset that most Americans support the reduction of government’s jobs are not really aware of the repercussions of the reduction in the strong reduction which will ultimately have a fallout effect.
“When I see people applauding these large radical attacks against civil servants as if it was a good thing, it’s incredibly injuring and exasperating for me,” said Milburn. “I feel like I have admirably served my country, and now it betrayed me.
“But, I don’t go out without fighting.”
Contribution: Joey Garrison