Thousands of federal workers have been fired in the last month.

They're victims of efforts by President Donald Trump and his senior adviser, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, to cut the size of the government.

And they want people to understand what they did and why they loved being public servants.

'Devastated.' 'Cruel.' 'Surreal.'

Federal workers share the toll of losing their identity

By Rebecca Shabad, Natasha Korecki, Nnamdi Egwuonwu,
Aria Bendix, Allan Smith, Garrett Haake, Julie Tsirkin, Amanda Terkel
Feb. 28, 2025

Anna Conn, 35, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Asheville, N.C.

Conn was a public health analyst focused on chronic disease. She has experience in disability rights and international development, once living in Nigeria working on immunizations. Conn is eight months pregnant and an above-the-knee amputee. Her due date is in mid-April – just after her health insurance runs out. Her pregnancy has made the use of her prosthetic painful, and it is causing sores.

While she believes she can eventually switch to her husband’s health insurance, she is facing other financial challenges because of the uncertainty around the loss of her job and benefits. Any insurance change means she’ll accrue duplicative out-of-pocket costs for the year, she said, as she attempts to attain a new prosthetic leg that’s still in the process of being designed.

“Just trying to figure out health insurance has been challenging. I think I have health insurance that ends three days before my due date. … What happens if I give birth on the day [it runs out]? Is the next day covered? …

As a pregnant amputee that wears a prosthetic leg, because you tend to swell [and] gain weight around your thighs – your body changes. The way my prosthetic was fitting changed, which caused a lot of sores and just a lot of mobility challenges. I was a remote worker, so I was able to work from home with my leg off. I’m trying to work with my prosthetic provider to build another leg that's a little bit more flexible and kind of shaped to address these fluctuations. …

There will be tiered consequences [to the mass firings]. In the immediate term, you have human consequences with these divisions, fully understaffed, not able to run. So whether that's NIH not being able to complete a study, or CDC not being able to address a disease outbreak, you're just basically gutting the future of the workforce in a way that's unsustainable.”

Courtesy Oshea Johnson

Oshea Johnson, 31, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in Tampa, Fla.

Johnson had been working as a behavioral health adviser since May 2024, assisting eight Southeastern states and six tribes with resources for communities struggling with substance use and mental health.

“The Southeast U.S. and six tribes in the Southeast U.S. lost three behavioral health folks who were passionate, had relationships with their leaders, were developing more relationships, were looking forward to planning summits and conferences with other states in the South around reducing infectious disease like HIV and hepatitis while providing more awareness to mental health and substance use care. …

I've been hitting the ground running since Monday [Feb. 17], as far as reaching out to connections that I have at universities or research organizations. I've been applying to jobs. I've been talking to friends who I know work in certain jobs, seeing if they have opportunities that they know are available. I've had to file for unemployment, which I've never had to do before. I've signed up to DoorDash, just trying to make sure I can pay rent and pay my bills and just trying to figure out how I can make it to next month, because this job was passion work and it was supporting my lifestyle, my bills.”

Oshea Johnson, 31, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in Tampa, Fla.

Johnson had been working as a behavioral health adviser since May 2024, assisting eight Southeastern states and six tribes with resources for communities struggling with substance use and mental health.

“The Southeast U.S. and six tribes in the Southeast U.S. lost three behavioral health folks who were passionate, had relationships with their leaders, were developing more relationships, were looking forward to planning summits and conferences with other states in the South around reducing infectious disease like HIV and hepatitis while providing more awareness to mental health and substance use care. …

Courtesy Oshea Johnson

Courtesy Oshea Johnson

I've been hitting the ground running since Monday [Feb. 17], as far as reaching out to connections that I have at universities or research organizations. I've been applying to jobs. I've been talking to friends who I know work in certain jobs, seeing if they have opportunities that they know are available. I've had to file for unemployment, which I've never had to do before. I've signed up to DoorDash, just trying to make sure I can pay rent and pay my bills and just trying to figure out how I can make it to next month, because this job was passion work and it was supporting my lifestyle, my bills.”

Bonnie Green, 60, National Science Foundation in Bethlehem, Pa.

Bonnie Green discovered she was fired via text messages from colleagues on Feb. 18. Green is also a psychology professor at East Stroudsburg University. She's been with NSF since 2020, first as a program officer and then as an expert for the agency’s Directorate for STEM Education. Green is private about whom she voted for, but says that she runs politically conservative and that many of her friends voted for Trump. She learned about her termination while administering an exam.

“I was giving an exam. My cellphone was sitting there and I got the vibrations. The texts were coming in. But I’m thinking, ‘This is weird. I normally don't get texts.’ So I opened up my phone to take a look, and I'm getting texts from NSF colleagues saying, ‘I'm so sorry. Are you OK?’ … They said, ‘Log in to your email.’ So I did … At five minutes to 11, I received an email saying that my position was ending, and I had until 1 o'clock until my emails and everything were done. …

In my head, I'm saying, ‘Grab your evaluations, grab your evaluations, get your W-2s.’ Because they're all on the system, and it's going down at 1 o'clock, and my students need me, and I'm like, ‘What do I do?’ And I picked NSF over my students [said through tears]. … All of my systems are shutting down. I pick whatever files I can, send them to the administrative assistant and I do this as much as I can, and then I have to get back to my students. I am so disgusted. I loved NSF. I gave them everything. … I was working a full-time job on a half-time pay without benefits. I gave them everything, and they couldn't even give me the common courtesy of a mild heads-up. …

Most people who know me consider that I run conservatively. I certainly have very strong views regarding issues of fiscal prudence. We cannot waste taxpayer dollars, and I feel very, very strongly about that in tremendous ways. I am concerned about the debt. … And I know that there is waste in the federal government, and I think that it should be ferreted out and cut. … But these particular cuts have been done without reason. …

Many of my friends voted for Trump, and one of the things that they have said to me specifically is that it was not their intention for things to be carried out this way. It was their intention for the economy to get under control, for the debt to get under control. … I don't believe that anybody who voted for Trump was expecting us to be weakened in this way.”

Bonnie Green, 60, National Science Foundation in Bethlehem, Pa.

Bonnie Green discovered she was fired via text messages from colleagues on Feb. 18. Green is also a psychology professor at East Stroudsburg University. She's been with NSF since 2020, first as a program officer and then as an expert for the agency’s Directorate for STEM Education. Green is private about whom she voted for, but says that she runs politically conservative and that many of her friends voted for Trump. She learned about her termination while administering an exam.

“I was giving an exam. My cellphone was sitting there and I got the vibrations. The texts were coming in. But I’m thinking, ‘This is weird. I normally don't get texts.’ So I opened up my phone to take a look, and I'm getting texts from NSF colleagues saying, ‘I'm so sorry. Are you OK?’ … They said, ‘Log in to your email.’ So I did … At five minutes to 11, I received an email saying that my position was ending, and I had until 1 o'clock until my emails and everything were done. …

In my head, I'm saying, ‘Grab your evaluations, grab your evaluations, get your W-2s.’ Because they're all on the system, and it's going down at 1 o'clock, and my students need me, and I'm like, ‘What do I do?’ And I picked NSF over my students [said through tears]. … All of my systems are shutting down. I pick whatever files I can, send them to the administrative assistant and I do this as much as I can, and then I have to get back to my students. I am so disgusted. I loved NSF. I gave them everything. … I was working a full-time job on a half-time pay without benefits. I gave them everything, and they couldn't even give me the common courtesy of a mild heads-up. …

Most people who know me consider that I run conservatively. I certainly have very strong views regarding issues of fiscal prudence. We cannot waste taxpayer dollars, and I feel very, very strongly about that in tremendous ways. I am concerned about the debt. … And I know that there is waste in the federal government, and I think that it should be ferreted out and cut. … But these particular cuts have been done without reason. …

Many of my friends voted for Trump, and one of the things that they have said to me specifically is that it was not their intention for things to be carried out this way. It was their intention for the economy to get under control, for the debt to get under control. … I don't believe that anybody who voted for Trump was expecting us to be weakened in this way.”

Amy Paris, 45, Health Resources and Service Administration in Washington, D.C.

Paris’ big project before she was fired was modernizing UNet, the web platform for organ transplants. She said four of the eight people on her team were fired, and she is considering an appeal. Paris, who is trans and years ago worked for Democratic members of Congress, said she does not believe the fact that she's a liberal played a role in her firing — because, she said, more conservative-minded colleagues were axed as well. Though she was new to her position, she had roughly 10 years of government service in other agencies.

“So right now, the system that underpins the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, it's called UNet. That system is aging. That system is not currently in the cloud. … We're aware of at least some failures in the system. There was at least one four-minute outage in the system this year. We had been investigating potential issues affecting patient safety as a result of the aging system and issues with the system. So we're talking about situations in which you know there could have been a mismatch of organs to recipient patients. …

What the Trump administration has essentially done is provide an even bigger advantage to coastal, blue-state hospitals that have large transplant networks. They're going to gain access to more organs, and it's actually the smaller hospitals in the center of the country that will be disproportionately affected. …

I like the idea that my job is to serve all of the American people, even the ones that I disagree with. That matters to me as much as anything other than my partner, my family, my closest friends, that is core to my identity. … That is the core of the civil services, those people whose job it is just to try to make things a little bit easier on the American public, people who can't put food on their table, people who are having a hard time with a really difficult job where they have to work nights and weekends.”

Amy Paris, 45, Health Resources and Service Administration in Washington, D.C.

Paris’ big project before she was fired was modernizing UNet, the web platform for organ transplants. She said four of the eight people on her team were fired, and she is considering an appeal. Paris, who is trans and years ago worked for Democratic members of Congress, said she does not believe politics played a role in her firing — because, she said, more conservative-minded colleagues were axed as well. Though she was new to her position, she had roughly 10 years of government service in other agencies.

“So right now, the system that underpins the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, it's called UNet. That system is aging. That system is not currently in the cloud. … We're aware of at least some failures in the system. There was at least one four-minute outage in the system this year. We had been investigating potential issues affecting patient safety as a result of the aging system and issues with the system. So we're talking about situations in which you know there could have been a mismatch of organs to recipient patients. …

What the Trump administration has essentially done is provide an even bigger advantage to coastal, blue-state hospitals that have large transplant networks. They're going to gain access to more organs, and it's actually the smaller hospitals in the center of the country that will be disproportionately affected. …

I like the idea that my job is to serve all of the American people, even the ones that I disagree with. That matters to me as much as anything other than my partner, my family, my closest friends, that is core to my identity. … That is the core of the civil services, those people whose job it is just to try to make things a little bit easier on the American public, people who can't put food on their table, people who are having a hard time with a really difficult job where they have to work nights and weekends.”

A deer approaches President John F. Kennedy at Lassen National Park; President Harry Truman with three paralyzed bowling champions and patients at Veterans Administration Hospitals in 1947; President Bill Clinton announces the first provisions of the Food and Drug Administration's rule to protect children from tobacco at the White House in 1997. (Getty Images)

Kim Vore, 49, U.S. Department of Agriculture in Ames, Iowa.

Vore, a Navy veteran, worked with visuals at the USDA's National Centers for Animal Health. Her job involved partnering with scientists to present information to the public, most recently on the bird flu. She joined the federal government in March 2024 and almost immediately earned an award for her performance. On Feb. 14, she opened her email at the office, stared at the termination letter and cried.

"We just bought a house and moved in two weeks ago, not even, and I'm still trying to sell my other home. So now I face potentially two mortgages and no job. How would you feel? … It just gutted me to leave my office with nothing and no one. …

I understand making cuts when things are wasteful. When people are abusing a system, I don't stand for that either. … There are better ways to go about it than just blind, mass cuts. You're going to cost more money, more time, more resources in the end.”

Kim Vore, 49, U.S. Department of Agriculture in Ames, Iowa.

Vore, a Navy veteran, worked with visuals at the USDA's National Centers for Animal Health. Her job involved partnering with scientists to present information to the public, most recently on the bird flu. She joined the federal government in March 2024 and almost immediately earned an award for her performance. On Feb. 14, she opened her email at the office, stared at the termination letter and cried.

"We just bought a house and moved in two weeks ago, not even, and I'm still trying to sell my other home. So now I face potentially two mortgages and no job. How would you feel? … It just gutted me to leave my office with nothing and no one. …

I understand making cuts when things are wasteful. When people are abusing a system, I don't stand for that either. … There are better ways to go about it than just blind, mass cuts. You're going to cost more money, more time, more resources in the end.”

Gregory Larsen, 36, National Park Service in Juneau, Alaska

Larsen moved to Juneau last year from North Carolina to work as a biologist for the National Park Service, and now that he’s been terminated, he might have to move back to the East Coast to live with his mom until he finds a new job. He said there aren’t many opportunities in Alaska for someone with a Ph.D. in wildlife biology, especially if the government isn’t hiring. The job he had, which involved researching sea otters and harbor seals, was a perfect fit — it allowed him to combine his expertise in biology and drone operation.

“I was incorporating new drone technologies, automating data processing in code, in Python computer code, starting to integrate AI methods. One of the most frustrating things about this situation is that my job was literally to increase the efficiency of how we do science in the parks and I’m getting cut under this lie that I wasn’t supporting our government mandates appropriately. …

Courtesy Gregory Larsen

Courtesy Gregory Larsen

You need the data, you need the science if you're going to balance research with conservation with tourism and not have too many visitors in a fjord where seals are trying to give birth during a certain time of year, or kayakers cruising by an island where the seals are now moving to because they can't get to icebergs. It's changing quickly and we won't have the data to inform management. …

My whole career has been involved with federal entities, whether I was working as a technician for NOAA when I was right out of college. My Ph.D. was funded by the National Science Foundation. I got to go to Antarctica with the U.S. Antarctic Program and all of those agencies are suffering right now because funding is getting frozen, people are getting cut. It's going to shatter the scientific community in America, and I can't imagine it recovering in the span of generations.”

Courtesy Gregory Larsen

Gregory Larsen, 36, National Park Service in Juneau, Alaska

Larsen moved to Juneau last year from North Carolina to work as a biologist for the National Park Service, and now that he’s been terminated, he might have to move back to the East Coast to live with his mom until he finds a new job. He said there aren’t many opportunities in Alaska for someone with a Ph.D. in wildlife biology, especially if the government isn’t hiring. The job he had, which involved researching sea otters and harbor seals, was a perfect fit — it allowed him to combine his expertise in biology and drone operation.

“I was incorporating new drone technologies, automating data processing in code, in Python computer code, starting to integrate AI methods. One of the most frustrating things about this situation is that my job was literally to increase the efficiency of how we do science in the parks and I’m getting cut under this lie that I wasn’t supporting our government mandates appropriately. …

You need the data, you need the science if you're going to balance research with conservation with tourism and not have too many visitors in a fjord where seals are trying to give birth during a certain time of year, or kayakers cruising by an island where the seals are now moving to because they can't get to icebergs. It's changing quickly and we won't have the data to inform management. …

My whole career has been involved with federal entities, whether I was working as a technician for NOAA when I was right out of college. My Ph.D. was funded by the National Science Foundation. I got to go to Antarctica with the U.S. Antarctic Program and all of those agencies are suffering right now because funding is getting frozen, people are getting cut. It's going to shatter the scientific community in America, and I can't imagine it recovering in the span of generations.”

Andrew Lennox, 35, Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Lennox served in the Marine Corps for 10 years. He said he tried the private sector, but there was always something "missing." After going to a conference and meeting social workers who worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs, something clicked: "This is something I want to do. I want to continue serving." In December, he became an administrative officer in the primary care department of the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs medical center. He said he loved "every second" of the job.

"The second I walked into a VA hospital … interacting with Vietnam veterans, older ones, younger ones, people that finally understand you. They understand your jokes. Why you walk the way you do. … I'd love nothing better than to help them. It's my family. … You can have a lot of jobs that make you happy, but there's very few that can make you proud. And that it was something that made me proud, that I was being able to serve again. …

There is absolutely no denying that there are areas where our government agencies can be made more efficient. … But it's all about the execution, and perhaps the input from the people that are running these places should be taken into account. Because from my perspective, somebody looked at a spreadsheet who has no idea what happens in our hospital, no idea what my position is, but they saw it — not a doctor, not a nurse, probationary, you're not in a union – clip. They didn't ask my supervisor if he was OK with it. They didn't consult the director of our hospital if she was OK with it. …

It's convenient to create an enemy that everyone's against us, but … I'm just trying to help veterans. You know, it's postal work, it's all these people. We're not some deep state that has ulterior motives. I want to go to work, I want to help veterans and I want to do it again."

Andrew Lennox, 35, Department of Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Lennox served in the Marine Corps for 10 years. He said he tried the private sector, but there was always something "missing." After going to a conference and meeting social workers who worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs, something clicked: "This is something I want to do. I want to continue serving." In December, he became an administrative officer in the primary care department of the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs medical center. He said he loved "every second" of the job.

"The second I walked into a VA hospital … interacting with Vietnam veterans, older ones, younger ones, people that finally understand you. They understand your jokes. Why you walk the way you do. … I'd love nothing better than to help them. It's my family. … You can have a lot of jobs that make you happy, but there's very few that can make you proud. And that it was something that made me proud, that I was being able to serve again. …

There is absolutely no denying that there are areas where our government agencies can be made more efficient. … But it's all about the execution, and perhaps the input from the people that are running these places should be taken into account. Because from my perspective, somebody looked at a spreadsheet who has no idea what happens in our hospital, no idea what my position is, but they saw it — not a doctor, not a nurse, probationary, you're not in a union – clip. They didn't ask my supervisor if he was OK with it. They didn't consult the director of our hospital if she was OK with it. …

It's convenient to create an enemy that everyone's against us, but … I'm just trying to help veterans. You know, it's postal work, it's all these people. We're not some deep state that has ulterior motives. I want to go to work, I want to help veterans and I want to do it again."

Paul Lee, 32, Department of Energy in Seattle, Wa.

His "dream career." That's what Lee called his work at the Department of Energy, where he helped fund emerging technologies to transition the country to clean energy. That dream ended two weeks ago when Lee and “dozens” of co-workers received termination emails.

“It felt very surreal because it’s one thing to see things in the news, it’s another thing to see it in your inbox, so it was kind of shocking. I was one month away — one month and some change from getting out of probation, and so I thought that I could squeak by. I wasn’t as prepared for the layoffs, until like one or two weeks prior. It’s just been a complete life shift. …

First of all just getting unemployment, it hasn’t been the smoothest. It took time for me to get my necessary paperwork, and there’s still some stuff that I need to take — the federal government needs to submit some information to my unemployment agency. That’s taking some time. Just not having a steady paycheck is the most stressful thing right now. …

I’m going to do my best to stay in the clean tech, sustainability climate sector because I'm still passionate about it. Even if the federal government isn’t going to be leading the charge, I know others will. So I’m trying to find other individuals, other companies, other institutions to take up that charge.”

Courtesy Paul Lee

Paul Lee, 32, Department of Energy in Seattle, Wa.

His "dream career." That's what Lee called his work at the Department of Energy, where he helped fund emerging technologies to transition the country to clean energy. That dream ended two weeks ago when Lee and “dozens” of co-workers received termination emails.

“It felt very surreal because it’s one thing to see things in the news, it’s another thing to see it in your inbox, so it was kind of shocking. I was one month away — one month and some change from getting out of probation, and so I thought that I could squeak by. I wasn’t as prepared for the layoffs, until like one or two weeks prior. It’s just been a complete life shift. …

First of all just getting unemployment, it hasn’t been the smoothest. It took time for me to get my necessary paperwork, and there’s still some stuff that I need to take — the federal government needs to submit some information to my unemployment agency. That’s taking some time. Just not having a steady paycheck is the most stressful thing right now. …

I’m going to do my best to stay in the clean tech, sustainability climate sector because I'm still passionate about it. Even if the federal government isn’t going to be leading the charge, I know others will. So I’m trying to find other individuals, other companies, other institutions to take up that charge.”

Jacob Podell, 29, Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago, Ill.

Podell was hired in September 2023 as an EPA enforcement attorney. He was terminated on Valentine’s Day, just a week before he was set to go on his honeymoon from frigid Chicago to Las Vegas, Death Valley and San Diego. He ended up canceling the trip. A Michigan Law School graduate, Podell said most of his classmates earned signing bonuses that exceeded his annual pay. But he wanted to do a federal job in part for work-life balance, and also to pursue his passion for protecting human health and the environment.

“I like feeling that my work is doing something good in the world. … I was actively cleaning up pollution outside of Cincinnati, where there's dioxins moving potentially to drinking water wells … It's going to take longer to get the result. You're going to still have to pay someone to start over. And it's going to cost more and take longer to get the same result, which is reduced pollution. …

I'm filing for unemployment, figuring out insurance, I'm applying for new jobs. I had to cancel my honeymoon. It was set for next week. I canceled before I got fired. We saw increasing chances of getting fired, and it was like: ‘At best, it’s going to be a terrible financial decision, and at worst, we wouldn't have been able to relax and enjoy the vacation, because we would have been worried if this was a terrible financial decision.’ …

The point of this wasn’t efficiency. The point of this was to be cruel.”

Jacob Podell, 29, Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago, Ill.

Podell was hired in September 2023 as an EPA enforcement attorney. He was terminated on Valentine’s Day, just a week before he was set to go on his honeymoon from frigid Chicago to Las Vegas, Death Valley and San Diego. He ended up canceling the trip. A Michigan Law School graduate, Podell said most of his classmates earned signing bonuses that exceeded his annual pay. But he wanted to do a federal job in part for work-life balance, and also to pursue his passion for protecting human health and the environment.

“I like feeling that my work is doing something good in the world. … I was actively cleaning up pollution outside of Cincinnati, where there's dioxins moving potentially to drinking water wells … It's going to take longer to get the result. You're going to still have to pay someone to start over. And it's going to cost more and take longer to get the same result, which is reduced pollution. …

I'm filing for unemployment, figuring out insurance, I'm applying for new jobs. I had to cancel my honeymoon. It was set for next week. I canceled before I got fired. We saw increasing chances of getting fired, and it was like: ‘At best, it’s going to be a terrible financial decision, and at worst, we wouldn't have been able to relax and enjoy the vacation, because we would have been worried if this was a terrible financial decision.’ …

The point of this wasn’t efficiency. The point of this was to be cruel.”

President Theodore Roosevelt visits Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park in California in 1906; President Bill Clinton and FEMA Director James Lee Witt visit an Alabama town destroyed by a tornado in 1998; President George W. Bush addresses a crowd at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota in 2002. (Getty Images)

Candice Donaldson, 34, Food and Drug Administration in Sacramento, Calif.

Donaldson’s grandfather died from lung cancer as a result of smoking, which helped inspire her to dedicate her career and life to protecting children and their public health. She joined the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products in November, where she worked on efforts to restrict tobacco advertising and sales to children, reviewed applications for new tobacco products and helped ban misleading information on tobacco labels.

“We are fully funded 100% by tobacco user fees. The FDA collects tobacco user fees from any domestic manufacturers and importers of cigarettes, chewing tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, cigar, pipe tobacco products, and for them to sell their products here in the United States, they must pay a certain fee, and so we're 100% funded by those tobacco user fees. Terminating scientists at CTP resulted in no savings for taxpayers. …

I think termination of scientists throughout the FDA and even in the Center for Tobacco Products is going to hurt the American public and American citizens. It’s going to hurt their health, their well-being, and I think people will be impacted by this across the entire country in red and blue states. Our tobacco product review is mandated by law so now we have fewer scientists working to protect youth from addiction while providing safer alternatives for smoking to adults. I think it’s likely going to make it easier for new products that appeal to youth and that endanger kids to be approved and sold in this country, and there’s going to be fewer people to review these product applications and to enforce the law.”

Nathan Barrera-Bunch, 36, Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Barrera-Bunch took a job with the VA in November after his partner, who works for the Department of Labor, convinced him that working for the federal government is more stable than the private sector. Originally from El Paso, Texas, Barrera-Bunch said his grandfather was a Vietnam War veteran and suffered from PTSD, which inspired him to one day work for the VA. He was fired from the agency two weeks ago, less than 90 days into the job, where he worked as a management analyst.

“I was actually hired into an office whose sole purpose was to identify ways to make the VA more cohesive, to make our work more efficient, and ultimately, try to do some of the things that President Trump and Elon Musk have been saying that they want to do. …

I got a call from my boss, and she said, ‘Hey, you need to check your email. I have no idea who received a termination notice. I wasn’t notified, but you need to check.’ So at 7:24 p.m., I received an email telling me that I was terminated. I had been at the VA less than 90 days, and hadn’t even had a formal review of any type. …

I’m not mad at Donald Trump or Elon Musk, even though I think they are terrible for what they did. I’m upset with the democratically appointed staff at the VA. We were very afraid about what is happening and were asking whether we would be laid off, and just about everyone said, ‘Veterans are a bipartisan issue and we don’t think they will be making cuts here.’ … And they were promising us it wouldn’t happen. And it did.”

Courtesy Nathan Barrera-Bunch

Nathan Barrera-Bunch, 36, Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Barrera-Bunch took a job with the VA in November after his partner, who works for the Department of Labor, convinced him that working for the federal government is more stable than the private sector. Originally from El Paso, Texas, Barrera-Bunch said his grandfather was a Vietnam War veteran and suffered from PTSD, which inspired him to one day work for the VA. He was fired from the agency two weeks ago, less than 90 days into the job, where he worked as a management analyst.

“I was actually hired into an office whose sole purpose was to identify ways to make the VA more cohesive, to make our work more efficient, and ultimately, try to do some of the things that President Trump and Elon Musk have been saying that they want to do. …

Courtesy Nathan Barrera-Bunch

Courtesy Nathan Barrera-Bunch

I got a call from my boss, and she said, ‘Hey, you need to check your email. I have no idea who received a termination notice. I wasn’t notified, but you need to check.’ So at 7:24 p.m., I received an email telling me that I was terminated. I had been at the VA less than 90 days, and hadn’t even had a formal review of any type. …

I’m not mad at Donald Trump or Elon Musk, even though I think they are terrible for what they did. I’m upset with the democratically appointed staff at the VA. We were very afraid about what is happening and were asking whether we would be laid off, and just about everyone said, ‘Veterans are a bipartisan issue and we don’t think they will be making cuts here.’ … And they were promising us it wouldn’t happen. And it did.”

Courtesy Nicole Cabañez

Nicole Cabañez, 30, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Cabañez had been working as an honors enforcement attorney at CFPB since October. On Feb. 11, she was unable to log into CFPB’s system on her computer and phone. Her supervisor called her to notify her that she was being fired, and Cabañez eventually learned a termination notice had been sent to her outdated law school email address. Passionate about “economic justice,” Cabañez said her job was to investigate financial companies or providers of consumer financial products and services to determine if they had violated the law. Before she was let go, she was in the middle of working on cases in which consumers were trying to reclaim their money.

“I am really heartbroken for the cases that we were working on — like actually devastated. There are some cases that there is no way for individual consumers to recover money if they were to hire a lawyer, because what a lawyer would cost would be more than what they would get back. …

If any of these people that are pro-these massive layoffs spent any length of time in these agencies, they would see that they were not sleepy. They were energized and full of people that were trying to do the right thing and were eager and willing to do the right thing under any administration.”

Nicole Cabañez, 30, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Cabañez had been working as an honors enforcement attorney at CFPB since October. On Feb. 11, she was unable to log into CFPB’s system on her computer and phone. Her supervisor called her to notify her that she was being fired, and Cabañez eventually learned a termination notice had been sent to her outdated law school email address. Passionate about “economic justice,” Cabañez said her job was to investigate financial companies or providers of consumer financial products and services to determine if they had violated the law. Before she was let go, she was in the middle of working on cases in which consumers were trying to reclaim their money.

Courtesy Nicole Cabañez

Courtesy Nicole Cabañez

“I am really heartbroken for the cases that we were working on — like actually devastated. There are some cases that there is no way for individual consumers to recover money if they were to hire a lawyer, because what a lawyer would cost would be more than what they would get back. …

If any of these people that are pro-these massive layoffs spent any length of time in these agencies, they would see that they were not sleepy. They were energized and full of people that were trying to do the right thing and were eager and willing to do the right thing under any administration.”

Illustrations

Macy Sinreich

Art Direction and Design

Chelsea Stahl