Letter From a Federal Worker

This is a heartbreaking letter that a federal worker has asked me to share with the public.

I spent last Friday (Valentine’s Day), crying at my desk. I don’t feel safe posting publicly, so I’ve asked an acquaintance to post for me. I’m hoping others can start to understand what is happening in this country.

I’m a Federal employee and have been one for almost 10 years. I spent my early career in the private and non-profit sector before going Federal. I could easily make way more in the private sector but I love my work, I love our mission, and I work with amazing people. I’ve worked for two Departments and four administrations during my tenure, starting with Obama, then Trump, then Biden, and now as we all know, Trump 2.0. I can say the people I’ve worked with are honest, passionate, hard-working, and amazing people. All Federal employees swear an oath when we start our Federal careers, and that oath is to the Constitution. In my nearly 10 years of Federal work, I have never seen it remotely as bad as it is now, and coworkers with two to three times the length of my tenure are saying the same.

On our first day back from work after the administration regime change, nothing was “normal”. I've never seen such severe censorship from an administration claiming “transparency” and “freedom”. We were ordered to strip any mention of DEI, climate change, environmental justice, transgender, identity, expression, etc.,  from our webpages, printed documents, and performance plans. Employees whose jobs dealt with DEI, because that’s what they were hired to do, were immediately terminated, simply for agreeing to do the job they were hired to do. The system we use to house training products was scoured and anything DEI-related was removed.

All employees were told we had to return to the office full-time. All of my employees are remote, and most were hired as remote. I can assure you, they were working extremely hard, even as remote employees. But now, they don’t know what to expect. The government does not have enough office space to house all the employees. So they are converting conference rooms and closets into space to try and comply with the order. Even with the mass-firings behind and ahead of us, there isn’t enough space and yet, they continue to sell off government buildings that were in the process of being sold, so we will have even less space to work with.

DC area workers are looking at 1-2 hour commutes to work EACH way and most have to pay 10-30 bucks a day to park. Buildings will not have the IT capacity to deal with the influx of computers on their network that hasn’t even fully started yet, and parking lots likely don’t have enough space for all the cars. Some remote workers may not even be near a federal building. It is yet unclear what will happen to them. But likely, forced relocation will be needed for many people, and many employees may not be able to move due to spouse/family/medical issues. And when Federal productivity goes down as a result of all of this, you can bet Federal employees will be blamed.

We’ve been sent amazingly inept and spammy emails by OPM, to the point where they had to order our Department leadership to send us further emails to vouch that their spammy emails were legit. Then we got sent the infamous ‘fork’ email telling us we should resign or else we’d probably get fired. One of my employees had to take a mental health day that following day. I called all my employees the morning after that late night ‘fork’ email. The first employee I called, burst into tears when I asked how she was doing. She was terrified of losing her job and irate at the situation that Trump, Elon, and his cronies had put us all in. She recently moved to a new city, bought a house, has medical issues, and doesn’t know what she would do without insurance and no family nearby. Everyone I spoke with was shellshocked. Federal workers have never been treated so insultingly, and the difference in this regime is stark. None of my employees trusted the info in the email because it was spammy and poorly written and didn’t address the major legal plotholes that we all could see.

Then we got sent daily reminder emails from OPM telling us how legal it all was and how we should pursue a “higher productivity private sector job rather than continue in our low productivity government job”. Yes, the email to us actually said that. We got quite a few further harassing emails and then they demanded that our internal Departmental leadership send even more emails reminding us how this was all legal and above board.

Feeling like the work we do is transparent and fair is a thing of the past. I’ve been personally told by my senior leadership (in hushed tones) to not type anything negative about the regime or their decisions on any government device and the word ‘danger’ was used in conjunction with that suggestion. I’ve been locked out of accessing my own employee’s performance plans because they are scouring them for more “hidden DEI”. I know this because the page is plastered with the reason why we are locked out. I guess they are hoping to fire more people doing DEI that they haven’t found yet. We’ve even heard that DOGE is scouring social media to see who is posting negative things about the regime. So if you’ve wondered why your Federal employee friends seem to have gone silent, that’s why. I deleted my X account, and only kept FB open because it’s the only way I can communicate with some of the volunteer work that I do. Blue Sky is a good alternative to X and I’ve made an account, but I’m still just a lurker.

We’ve had all our email signatures forcibly scrubbed from the system (they told us it was to remove pronouns) and then a new template sent to us. And we aren’t allowed to stray from the template. (I said screw it and have yet to make a new signature). While we don’t have final numbers yet, we will probably lose 10% of our unit to the ‘fork’. I’ve talked to a few people that took it and they basically said they can’t live under such an oppressive regime and be told what to do to such a ridiculous degree. I can’t blame them, although it’s a huge loss.

We’re told we can’t backfill the positions of anyone that takes the ‘fork’. Which of course makes no sense. If you have a director of a unit and they resign, I guess the remaining employees just supervise themselves then? If all the IT unit resigns, no one gets IT support anymore? It’s ludicrous but that’s par for the course. Prior to the ‘fork’ offer being closed, there was an OPM memo posted that discussed how the ‘fork’ was legal (for real this time!) and they wanted to remind us that it totally would jive with an age discrimination regulation which gives people over 40 up to 45 days to decide. Then several days later, they closed the fork, which failed to give the required 45 days. Then the OPM memo about the 45-day requirement magically disappeared from the website.

We’ve been sent emails telling us that trans women are predators, and that the government will ‘protect’ us from them by forcing them to use the men’s bathroom. Despite the fact that trans people have been using whatever the hell bathroom they wanted for the last umpteen years and somehow, everyone survived. And also giving no thought to the safety of the trans women who now have to use the men’s bathroom. There’s also no real mention of trans men for whatever reason because I’m not sure conservatives even know they exist.

Then last week happened. Literally thousands of probationary employees were unceremoniously terminated Thursday and Friday, and even over the weekend. A large proportion are being told it was the result of poor performance, and some are being told it’s for the benefit of the government. And please don’t use the term “layoffs” when referring to these illegal terminations. It’s not legal to mass fire even probationary employees without cause. But the rule of law means nothing to Elon and his cronies.

There are reports of units that raise endangered animals having all the animal caretakers terminated, leaving no one to care for the animals. And in the news, you may have heard they terminated a whole swath of nuclear weapons employees. And then they realized OOPS! We actually need those people but now they don’t know how to get a hold of them. America, I hope you realize you actually needed ALL of these people.

I received the list of employees being terminated in my larger departmental area only minutes before the employees were notified. Supervisors found out with the employees because this wasn’t a decision made at any low level. This was all DOGE. I cried when I saw the list of names even though I knew none of them personally. But they all have names and they are all individuals with families, and important job titles, and mortgages, and health problems, and family issues. All of whom were about to receive a monumentally life changing email ending their paycheck, their benefits and dumping them into a really shitty private sector job hunt. 

And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

Are there poor performing federal employees? Of course. There are bad apples everywhere. But having worked in the private sector for many years, I can honestly say I’ve never worked with more dedicated and passionate people than I have in my years of federal service. These are good people, doing good things and trying really hard to serve the public honestly and honorably. And this is the thanks they get.

Russell Vought, the newly confirmed head of OMB said of Federal employees “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.” So far, they are succeeding, and conservatives are cheering.

And the pain is not over. This was only the first round. They are promising RIFs next (Reduction in Force), which means they plan to continue getting rid of Federal workers just trying to do their jobs. Their jobs ensuring clean water, ensuring you get your tax refund, ensuring the electric grid is functioning, ensuring your food is safe, ensuring lifesaving research continues, ensuring our precious ecosystems are not irreparably harmed, ensuring children with special needs receive the education they deserve, and the list goes on and on.

I may lose my job too. No one is safe.

My unit is small and I don’t want to disclose what I do. But I can tell you without my team doing what we do, there is NO ONE that will do it for the American people. And its not hyperbole to say that needless suffering would ensue. There is no safety net.

If any of this is news to you, I highly encourage you to hop onto Reddit and read the posts in r/fednews. Hear firsthand from Federal employees and see what we are all going through. I’m just one of literally millions. This purge of the executive branch is the first step in the dismantling of the government and unless the people step up and start noticing, the country as we know it will be gone forever. Please CALL (don’t email) your congressman. They have to log calls, not emails, and regardless of whether they are red or blue, congress doesn’t like to have lots of people bothering them angrily.

Boycott any of the oligarchs that are supporting this regime. Support the companies who continue DEI and support LGBTQ+ individuals, and boycott the ones that are giving in to this ridiculous anti-DEI anti-trans hysteria (https://www.dei.watch/ is a great resource). Above all, please get out and DO something. That is what we need above all.

Hold these oligarchs accountable, hold our representatives accountable and make your voice heard.

~Anonymous Federal Worker

Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press