Elena Moseyko received her termination notice just before Valentine’s Day, shattering her heart as she broke down in tears in front of her two young children.
With bills looming – a mortgage, preschool tuition, and a car payment – her family is engulfed in fear.
“I feel immense anger toward the administration because I’ve traumatized my kids,” she expressed. “I wish I had never joined the federal government.”
Last year, Moseyko joined the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a data scientist after being “happily employed” at a consulting firm, hoping for more stability with a government position.
Now her life has been turned upside down after the Trump administration initiated sweeping layoffs to reduce the federal workforce.
USA TODAY spoke with federal employees terminated from the departments of Education, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Transportation, who expressed shock, anger, and emotional distress. They found themselves scrambling over the weekend to navigate filing for unemployment benefits and adjusting their budgets to accommodate a new financial reality.
With worries ranging from rent payments to student loans, many expressed their commitment to public service, feeling that their values have been disregarded.
“I’m more angry than devastated,” asserted Chelsea Milburn, a 34-year-old Navy reservist who was let go from her position as a public affairs specialist at the Department of Education. “This has stripped away my hope of being respected and valued for my service, especially given how my termination occurred.”
Layoffs Target Probationary Employees
The ex-employees interviewed by USA TODAY reported they had never received negative performance reviews, but their termination notices featured similar wording:
“The agency has determined, based on your performance, that further employment would not serve the public interest,” read Milburn’s termination letter.
Which agencies are affected? Departments such as Education, USAID, NIH, among others.
“It felt like a generic template without any specifics,” Milburn remarked. “It was cold and uncaring.”
She described her telework position as nearly ideal after a significant life change two years prior, resulting from a COVID-19 illness and a POTS diagnosis, which makes desk work challenging for her.
Milburn was one of nearly 70 employees in the Education Department who were terminated while still in their probationary periods—generally those hired within the past year.
These employees are easier to dismiss due to their lack of appealing rights that tenured employees possess. However, some longer-serving individuals were also affected.
Doug Berry, who left a real estate career to join the USDA, believed his position as a loan technician would provide more job security. However, he transitioned to a pathways intern role in July seeking a better career trajectory while working towards an MBA.
Unfortunately, his probationary status was reset, with unforeseen consequences.
Berry received his termination notice close to 5 PM Thursday, effective at the end of the business day, yet his office closed at 4:30, leaving him unaware of his fate until he arrived the next day.
“I had an hour to clear out my desk and transition my projects to colleagues,” he lamented.
Several unions representing federal workers have launched legal action against the administration’s policy of firing probationary staff, alleging it violates established dismissal procedures.
“These layoffs are not about poor performance; there is no evidence that these individuals were anything but committed public servants,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, representing about 800,000 federal employees.
DOGE Targets Government Spending Cuts
Under the leadership of billionaire Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency has been aggressively downsizing federal agencies, aiming to close some entirely and scale back others significantly. All federal workers were offered buyouts, followed by termination notices.
Thousands have faced layoffs recently, predominantly focused on newer hires still classified as probationary. While the exact scope of the layoffs remains uncertain, around 220,000 federal employees out of 2.3 million had less than a year of experience as of March 2024, per the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s latest data.
Trump has shown no willingness to relent amidst a wave of lawsuits.
“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” Trump stated on Truth Social.
As Musk’s team conducts a thorough purge across the federal workforce, warnings about the consequences—both personal and national—continue to echo from the president’s detractors.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, occasionally critical of Trump, reported that numerous federal employees from her state faced abrupt layoffs.
“While I share the administration’s aim of shrinking the federal government, this approach brings confusion, anxiety, and trauma to civil servants—many of whom relocated their families and reorganized their lives for these positions,” she commented.
The full impacts of Trump’s decisions, whether in urban areas or rural communities, will take weeks or months to fully manifest. When asked for an estimate on the number of workers terminated, the Office of Personnel Management declined to provide USA TODAY with any answers.
Former Employees Concerned About Their Communities
Victoria Porter, 28, felt she had found her dream job, maintaining hiking trails for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana, but this all changed on Friday when she and eight others on her 12-person trail crew were also let go.
She expressed concerns about the negative impact these layoffs would have on local economies that rely on the trails as vital resources. With fewer staff, maintenance will falter, impacting hikers and local businesses alike.
“They’ll do their best, but a reduced crew will hinder trail access, affecting outfitters’ ability to operate,” Porter explained. “This will harm the local economy as tourism declines.”
Berry is also troubled by how the layoffs will affect low-income rural communities that relied on the services he provided, including loan reviews and funding for various community initiatives.
“The USDA Rural Development supports towns that predominantly voted for Trump, and there’s a noticeable disconnect regarding the necessity of these services in small-town life,” he noted.
“I’m unsure of where to go from here,” Berry mentioned, concerned about having to disclose his termination in future job applications. “I’ve never been fired for cause before, until now.”
Moseyko, who joined the VA in June 2024 in a specialized role focused on machine learning, believes her skills will allow her to find another job, but the abruptness of the termination has led to mental strain and financial anxiety as she navigates unemployment filing.
“It’s mentally exhausting,” she remarked.
Berry has begun contesting the dismissal, and Moseyko feels the termination lacked legality.
“Each of us who received identical form letters and were denied proper procedures or a valid cause has a legitimate grievance,” Berry asserted.
Meanwhile, Milburn seeks employment that accommodates her medical condition, much like her federal job. She expressed frustration that many who support government downsizing may not fully understand the consequences of such drastic cuts, which may lead to widespread repercussions.
“Seeing people enthusiastically support these indiscriminate actions against public servants feels incredibly hurtful and enraging,” Milburn expressed. “I believe I have served my country with dignity, and now I feel betrayed by it.
“However, I refuse to capitulate without a fight.”
Contributing: Joey Garrison
