‘We are … being demonized’: Federal workers grapple with a demoralizing assault
As an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Michael Garrett says he has always known he could double his salary in the private sector. But when he became a federal employee over a decade ago, Mr. Garrett (not his real name) was thinking about more than money.
“[I] chose the federal government because of job stability and to have a healthy work-life balance,” says the engineer, who, like other federal employees, asked to remain anonymous so he could speak candidly. Beyond the personal benefits, he had a sincere desire to serve the greater good: “I felt like I could make a difference.”
But now, he says bluntly, all that is being ripped away. In place of job security and patriotic pride, government workers like him are experiencing “nothing short of chaos.”
Why We Wrote This
As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency tries to slash the federal bureaucracy, many who chose careers in public service say it’s an intensely difficult time – with consequences for America as well as for themselves.
In just a few short weeks since coming into office, President Donald Trump and his new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, have upended the federal bureaucracy – and with it, the lives of more than 2 million federal workers. Following through on a campaign promise to “drain the swamp,” with a stated goal of slashing as much as $2 trillion from the U.S. budget, Mr. Musk’s team has moved with a speed and ruthlessness that has left the federal workforce reeling.
Many say they feel they are being treated unfairly, even villainized, for jobs that have never been lucrative or easy.
“Many of us have had offers to go to the private sector,” says a U.S. Treasury employee. “We choose not to, because this is how we’ve decided we can best serve our country, and we want to serve our country. And we are kind of being demonized. … We are being made out to be an enemy.”
“Before the inauguration, we thought DOGE was a joke,” adds a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employee. “But it’s not funny at all anymore.”
“Fork in the Road”
The first sign that DOGE was indeed serious came via a memo to department and agency heads Jan. 27, mandating that all federal employees return to in-person work. For many federal workers, 80% of whom are located outside the nation’s capital, that would mean a long, expensive commute (Mr. Garrett lives 45 minutes away from the nearest Army Corps of Engineers office). For others, their office may not even have space to accommodate them. The FDA employee, for example, was hired to work remotely in 2022 and doesn’t have an assigned desk.
Then came the infamous “Fork in the Road” email – the same subject line Mr. Musk used when culling the workforce at Twitter, which he renamed X. It offered all federal employees, with certain exceptions, a deferred resignation option, which would give them full pay and benefits through Sept. 30. To accept, workers were instructed to send an email from their government account to human resources at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by last Thursday. “Type the word ‘Resign’ into the ‘Subject’ line of the email. Hit ‘Send,’” instructed the email.
Already, more than 65,000 employees have accepted, according to OPM – roughly 2.5% of the federal workforce, albeit less than the 5% to 10% Mr. Musk was hoping for. Late last week, a federal judge paused the buyout program until a hearing Monday, following a lawsuit from unions calling it an “unlawful, short-fused ultimatum.”
The federal judge extended the pause Monday afternoon after hearing arguments from union lawyers and the Department of Justice as he continues to weigh the buyout’s legitimacy.
“It’s not a good deal,” says Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. The labor union represents some 110,000 workers, ranging from Veterans Affairs personnel to wildland firefighters. “It is reckless to offer resignations to virtually the entire federal government at once.”
Among the federal employees interviewed by the Monitor, not one said they seriously considered the offer, nor did any know of any colleagues who had accepted it. Several said they initially assumed the email was a phishing attempt or spam, since it came with an external sender warning. Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill immediately warned that since the offer had no congressional authority behind it, there was no guarantee anyone would actually be paid. Mr. Garrett says colleagues have been reminding one another in group text messages that Mr. Musk made similar promises to Twitter employees that he didn’t fulfill.
“We have no guidance,” says the Treasury employee. As a supervisor, he says he feels especially helpless when it comes to easing younger workers’ uncertainty. “They’re like, ‘I just moved my whole family out here. Am I getting fired?’ And I have nothing to tell them.”
USAID in the crosshairs
No agency has been impacted more severely so far than the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration is trying to shut down almost entirely, folding a small number of its 10,000 employees into the State Department. As soon as it became clear what was happening, a senior employee says she had colleagues asking if it was safe to go into the office. “They were worried about what might happen to them,” she says.
It wasn’t long before they didn’t have the option: USAID employees were locked out of their Washington headquarters last week, and the website was replaced with a one-page notice saying all employees had been placed on administrative leave unless otherwise notified. On Friday, a judge issued a temporary restraining order pausing the administration’s actions against the agency, leaving employees in limbo.
But USAID employees filed a court motion Monday afternoon arguing that the administration has not complied with the court order, as some employees are still locked out of their computer systems.
The senior USAID employee says she can still log into the computer system, unlike some of her colleagues. But she is unsure if she actually has a job.
“I get wanting to try and make sensible cuts,” she says. “But this – this isn’t the way to do it. It’s disrespectful. It’s draconian.” The past few weeks, she says, “have been a living hell, if you want the truth.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have signaled more cuts are coming, including efforts to eliminate the Department of Education entirely (which would require an act of Congress) and sharply pare the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And across all agencies, while the courts sort out the buyout offer, mass firings may be on the way. Last Thursday OPM sent a memo directing agencies to submit names of all underperforming employees by March 7.
Will it make a dent in the deficit?
Critics of Mr. Musk’s DOGE efforts point out that when it comes to the deficit, he’s only tinkering around the edges. In 2023, USAID accounted for less than 1% of federal spending; the Department of Education accounts for about 4%. The federal workforce hasn’t grown in size since the 1960s, and federal employee compensation makes up less than 7% of the overall budget. By contrast, Social Security, Medicare, and defense account for nearly half of all federal spending.
“If they really want to save money, why would they start with one of the smallest agencies?” says the USAID employee. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Supporters of Mr. Musk counter that every bit of waste that’s prevented saves real taxpayer dollars, and argue that his efforts are finding ways to reduce deficits that the Washington establishment for years has failed to do.
Yet federal employees say DOGE’s intended cuts to some of these smaller agencies will have disproportionate effects across the United States and the world.
Some wonder how Mr. Trump can even expect to carry out all his own priorities with such a hollowed-out workforce. During the president’s first term, Mr. Garrett notes, the Army Corps of Engineers helped with building the president’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. And he worries this downsizing push will severely affect the U.S. government beyond the end of Mr. Trump’s own term – particularly when it comes to maintaining a bright and dedicated workforce.
“The individuals who can leave [and find jobs in the private sector] are more likely to – and that will leave many of the folks who are not the best and brightest. So it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he says.
Story Hinckley reported from Richmond, Virginia; Caitlin Babcock from Washington; and Sarah Matusek from Denver.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated Feb. 10, the date of original publication, with news regarding the Boston judicial hearing and legal action by USAID employees. A time reference has been corrected, regarding the Thursday deadline for deferred resignation.
