• The IRS fired probationary workers this week, claiming they weren't critical to tax filing season.
• The agency had already been struggling in recent years to keep up with tax return processing.
• One expert said there's no way to cut a large number of workers without affecting filing season.

Your tax return may languish on an empty desk at the Internal Revenue Service this season after the agency began firing workers this week.

An internal IRS email viewed by Business Insider said the agency would terminate probationary workers — typically employees who have been at the agency for less than a year — who were not "critical" to tax filing season.

Tax experts and IRS employees told BI they expected the terminations to result in delayed tax refunds, slower customer service, and a backlog in paperwork processing. Some spoke with BI under the condition of anonymity.

Natasha Sarin, a professor at Yale Law School, said there's "no way, in the middle of filing season, to cut a substantial number of IRS employees without having an impact on filing season," adding that it's an "all hands on deck" time at the agency.

Many Americans still file paper tax returns, a human resources worker at the IRS said, adding: "If there's not anyone there to process them, it's just going to be sitting."

A former Treasury official likened the situation to a business "eliminating your entire accounts receivable department," adding: "No business would say we have no interest in collecting the revenue that's due to us."

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters on Thursday that the estimated 3,500 firings "is a small number and probably you can get bigger, especially as we improve the IT at the IRS." He added that not all IRS employees working on taxes were "fully occupied."

In the wake of the pandemic, the IRS struggled with a backlog of millions of returns, taking months to process them, which caused economic hardship for some taxpayers.

Sarin, who served as a counselor to Janet Yellen when Yellen was the Treasury secretary, said that the terminations could throw the IRS back into the "dark ages." Taxpayers should be concerned about whether they'll be able to get in touch with the IRS, whether refunds will be processed in a timely manner, and whether the IRS website will malfunction during tax season.

A fired IRS worker said: "The long-term ramifications of this will be felt for decades."

They added: "There will continue to be processing delays due to incredibly outdated systems, and there will not be supported free filing for Americans due to budget cuts and lobbying by major tax software players."

"It's just going to slow the IRS down," one IRS worker who still has a job at the agency said, adding: "It's a shame that all the progress is going to reverse."

They were referencing increased funding from the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, which was meant to mitigate staffing issues. Bolstered by the funding, hiring at the IRS in recent months focused on tax-evasion and fraud-detection staff.

Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said during a press call on Thursday that the expected terminations could "disproportionately affect enforcement."

"When you underpay and understaff the IRS, the agency doesn't have the power or the resources it needs to go after wealthy tax evaders with their high-priced lawyers," Williamson said.

"It's going to be incredibly harmful to efficiency at the IRS," the former Treasury official told BI. If the agency can't keep up with existing efficiency programs — like using artificial intelligence to target audits better — compliance will be less effective, they said.

Over the past couple of weeks, various federal agencies have fired their probationary employees as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to slash government spending by reducing the federal workforce. BI previously spoke with over half a dozen fired workers at agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy, who said they're planning to fight their terminations.

"We're not going to take this lying down," Melanie Mattox Green, a fired US Forest Service worker, told BI. "We all love our work, and we're planning on fighting and getting our jobs back."

The IRS HR employee said that these terminations, coupled with the federal hiring freeze, could put the IRS behind on its functions into next year.

"If you have filed, or will file a tax return, you are going to feel an impact," they said.

Are you a federal worker with a story or information to share? Contact these reporters via Signal at madisonhoff.06, julianakaplan.33, and asheffey.97, or via email at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

• February 6 is the deadline for federal workers to accept or decline Trump's deferred resignation offer.
• On Tuesday, the White House said over 20,000 workers had already accepted the buyout.
• Some workers told BI they're still unsure whether the offer is the best choice for them.

Civil servants have hours left to decide whether to accept a buyout offer that could change their lives. Many don't feel prepared.

"I'm feeling like I need to make a decision when I don't have all the cards on the table," a 17-year federal employee said, adding that they voted for President Donald Trump but felt confused about the buyout offer. All federal workers who spoke to BI were granted anonymity and their identities have been verified.

February 6 is the deadline to accept the Trump administration's deferred resignation offer, which said it would pay federal workers through September 30 — without the requirement to work during that time — if they agree to resign.

BI spoke to over a dozen federal workers for this story, and many of them said they still have unanswered questions about retirement benefits, return-to-office requirements, and resignation payments, among other things.

Others have already made up their minds. Over 20,000 federal workers have accepted the buyout offer as of Tuesday, per the White House, and an OPM spokesperson said that the number of resignations was "rapidly growing," Business Insider previously reported.

Still, more workers reported feeling angry about the offer because they felt it failed to respect their years of service to the federal government.

"Fork Them!!" one federal worker told BI in response to the official resignation agreement circulated among employees this week — originally announced in an email titled "Fork in the Road" — saying that it "reeks of desperation."

"All of the emails and directives we've been receiving from [email protected] reek of social engineering, gaslighting, and a very strange brand of corporate groupthink," a longtime federal worker said, referring to the widely noticed similarities between the federal government's buyout offer and Elon Musk's X playbook.

Meanwhile, another federal worker previously told BI that they wanted to give the administration the benefit of the doubt given Trump's second term has only just begun.

Below are three of the main questions that federal workers said still remain unanswered.

How would a deferred resignation impact retirement?

Some of the workers BI spoke to said retirement benefits and how they would work with the buyouts made them nervous to accept.

One federal employee told BI that they're not considering the buyout because of pension requirements that specify 5 years of work in the federal government. They're worried accepting the resignation would impede those benefits.

"I'm in the middle of my working career and trying to continue building my retirement," they said.

The Office of Personnel Management posted an FAQ with additional details on the buyout. It said that employees who accept the offer will continue to accrue retirement benefits over the next eight months.

Additionally, it said that employees who are at least 50 years of age with 20 years of federal service are eligible for VERA, or Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, which allows agencies who are undergoing structural changes to expand the number of employees eligible for retirement.

How would the government funding deadline impact paychecks?

Labor unions representing workers have already raised alarm bells over the proposed buyout package since it offers pay past the date through which the government is funded. A February 5 legal challenge from several unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees, argues that, for most federal agencies, the current appropriation ends on March 14 — but the new directive is authorizing expenditures beyond that date.

"The Antideficiency Act forbids such a guarantee," the complaint said, referring to a law that, in part, bars agencies from expending or obligating funding ahead of an appropriation.

One federal worker noted concerns that should the government shut down, workers who took the offer could lose some money.

"What some people might not understand is the budget is only approved through March," they said. "The thought is they will kick the can down the road until the end of the fiscal year, but if that doesn't happen, people who take this offer could be out a lot of money."

Another federal worker said that "we're all concerned" about the payment beyond the date that the government is funded through and that "there's currently no precedent set for this type of offer."

The agreement template and FAQs circulated addressed a potential funding pause — the agreement said that should appropriations lapse, employees will be placed on furlough and then given backpay for that period.

Why the short timeline and could the offer be extended?

The deferred resignation agreement said that employees must work through February 28 to "ensure a smooth transition," and will be placed on leave no later than March 1. Workers also have to agree that they will not "pursue through any judicial, administrative, or other process" action against their respective agency, and that they're entering the agreement free from coercion or duress.

Additionally, the OPM FAQ said that the option to accept the deferred resignation "will generally not be available" for those who resign after February 6, while certain exceptions might be made for those who were on leave during the past couple of weeks.

Even so, the 17-year federal employee said that they wished the administration would extend the February 6 deadline to allow them to gather more information to determine if the buyout is the right choice. A group of federal worker unions filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to extend the deadline, calling it a "short-fused ultimatum which workers may not be able to enforce."

"I would love to see some type of hold on the date to make the decision," the employee said. "We shouldn't have to make a major life decision in nine days."

Did you accept the federal buyout? Are you a federal worker with something to share? Reach out to these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected], or contact them securely on Signal at asheffey.97 or julianakaplan.33.

• The White House told federal workers they could voluntarily resign by February 6 and be paid through September.
• The offer follows the Trump Administration's efforts to overhaul the federal workforce.
• Many workers BI talked to were defiant, but some are moving on, or taking a wait-and-see approach.

Shock and outrage. Hopelessness, suspicion, and defiance.

Federal workers say they feel a mix of all of the above and more after payout offers landed in their inboxes late Tuesday. The Trump administration says workers can either return to the office full-time and face likely downsizing, or quit now and keep getting paid for the next eight months.

"I voted for Donald Trump twice, and on January 20th, I had hope that he would fulfill his promises," one federal employee told Business Insider. "However, when I received this email at 5:35 pm EST, that hope disappeared."

A Social Security Administration employee said that workers aren't the only ones at risk. "The public will suffer the most and the only group they can blame is the current one."

Or, as a 15-year veteran of the State Department put it: "They can fuck off and we won't be intimidated."

Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen workers at departments across the government in the hours after the email was sent. They requested anonymity to speak openly about their jobs. Their identities are known to BI.

Some are digging in their heels.

"I have no intention of quitting," one employee wrote in a text message.

According to a "deferred resignation offer" email sent by a White House office, workers have until February 6 to say whether they will voluntarily resign.

If they decide to leave, they will be exempt from in-person work, according to the email, and will receive pay and benefits through September unless they decide to leave earlier.

"I certainly won't be accepting a buyout," another employee said, adding that their teammates likely wouldn't either. "It's unpatriotic that he's trying to put people out of work or provide incentives for people to leave their stable jobs."

"I'm so sick of these stupid harassing emails," they added.

Deepening distrust

Others worry the administration won't stick to its word of steady pay and benefits through September — and aren't even sure the offer is actually a buyout, despite the language used in some media coverage.

"Suffice it to say the people I've been talking to don't trust how this will play out," one Department of Justice worker said, adding that they didn't see a budgetary or legal mechanism that would guarantee continued compensation.

The spotlight has encouraged at least one federal to look at the private sector.

"I will be seeking employment outside of government," the worker said, though they caveated they might also look for a job in the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security. "I have no desire to work for an unappreciative organization."

Administration officials previously told CBS they believe up to 10% of federal workers would depart due to the new directives.

Meanwhile, another is in wait-and-see mode. Trump's second term has only just started, the employee told BI, and they want to give the administration the benefit of the doubt.

A break from historical precedent

The government has previously offered incentives for employees to leave as attempts to trim the federal workforce. In the 1990s, former President Clinton presented tens of thousands of workers with the option to leave their jobs.

A lawyer who works for the federal government questioned why it didn't follow the precedent set by previous administrations.

"In the federal government, reductions in force are covered by a litany of laws and regulations," said the lawyer, who specializes in employment issues. "Workers get severance pay, career transition assistance or job search help, and preference for other positions in federal government. This veiled threat about being laid off — it's illegal, indefensible, and incorrect."

The American Federation of Government Employees, the biggest union for federal workers, published a FAQ on Wednesday telling members to not take the email "at face value." It was "riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainties," the union said, and it was unclear if the office that issued the memo had the legal authority or budget to make good on its promises.

The National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald urged federal workers to reject the "request to voluntarily quit their jobs. It is a bad deal for employees and the American people they serve."

The latest in a string of chaotic moves

The Tuesday email — which carries the same "Fork in the road" subject line as an Elon Musk memo sent to employees at X, then Twitter, in 2022 — is the latest in a string of chaos-causing, high-impact directives.

On Monday, the Trump administration announced that it was putting a "temporary pause" on federal grants and loans. A federal judge halted the freeze from taking effect before the administration itself rescinded the memo, BI reported.

"It's kind of like Whac-A-Mole. What do you respond to? Personally, I think I'm a little bit numb to it," said one federal employee who has worked in facilities management for more than a decade.

Federal workers have been a particular focus for the administration. Trump issued a return-to-work order for all federal employees on January 20, and has also put forth an executive order to reclassify certain civil servants, removing legal protections and making it easier to fire them.

According to a FAQ posted Tuesday, several categories of employees are ineligible for deferred resignation, including military personnel, USPS staff, and those working in immigration enforcement and national security roles.

The remaining federal workers will have six working days to weigh their options. If the initial offer had been more generous, the federal government lawyer said they may have taken it.

"If they were offering me a guaranteed check for seven months that I could take to the bank, I might consider it," they said. "But it's difficult to trust promises that aren't legally binding."

• Trump's administration announced a temporary freeze on federal grants and loans set to begin Tuesday evening.
• The Education Department said student loans and Pell Grants will not be impacted.
• It's still unclear which federal programs, like rental aid and nutrition assistance, will be impacted.

Some student loan borrowers won't have to worry about President Donald Trump's sweeping federal funding freeze.

The Department of Education said in a statement to Business Insider that the funding pause only applies to "discretionary grants" at the agency. The Department did not immediately clarify what is considered a discretionary grant. A federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze right before it was set to go into effect at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday.

"The temporary pause does not impact Title I, IDEA, or other formula grants, nor does it apply to Federal Pell Grants and Direct Loans under Title IV, HEA," Madi Biedermann, spokesperson for the Department of Education, said in a statement. "The Department is working with OMB to identify other programs that are not covered by the memo."

Pell Grants are awarded to low-income students who demonstrate financial need, with the maximum award now standing at just over $7,000. Additionally, over 40 million Americans rely on federal student loans to help them finance their higher education, and those loans will continue to be disbursed during the funding freeze.

The Office of Management and Budget's memo sent to federal agencies Monday night sparked confusion due to its lack of clarity on which programs would be impacted by the funding freeze. The memo appeared to be partly focused on ensuring federal agency spending aligned with Trump's agenda, saying that paused payments must include "financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal."

Other federal agencies told BI that they're reviewing the executive orders, and pausing accordingly. The National Science Foundation, for instance, has said that "all review panels, new awards, and all payments of funds under open awards will be paused as the agency conducts the required reviews and analysis." An EPA spokesperson said the agency "is temporarily pausing all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of EPA Federal financial assistance at this time."

Some experts also told Business Insider that programs scheduled to receive funding in a matter of days, including Head Start and Section 8 housing vouchers, are at a higher risk. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy wrote in a post on X that in his state of Connecticut, "the Head Start reimbursement system IS shut down. Preschools cannot pay staff and will need to start laying off staff very soon and sending little kids home."

As of Tuesday afternoon, BI reporters had contacted more than 65 federal, state, and nonprofit agencies and universities. Those who responded overwhelmingly said they had no idea how the federal funding freeze would affect their work and were actively trying to figure it out.

The funding pause was set to begin at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday. A follow-up memo from the OMB said that "any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process," which includes student loans, SNAP, Social Security, and Medicare.

Are you a federal worker, or do you receive some form of federal assistance? Contact these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].

• Some workers said Trump's federal grant freeze threw government agencies into disarray, creating confusion.
• At agencies like FEMA, some tried to get payments out the door before the 5 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline.
• "The general chaos is grinding things to a halt," one SBA employee told Business Insider.

The Trump administration's "temporary pause" on federal grant and loan awards sparked a range of reactions from rank-and-file workers within the federal government, from frustration to outright surprise.

Speaking before a federal judge temporarily prevented the freeze from taking effect, one Federal Emergency Management Agency employee who spoke to Business Insider Tuesday morning was blindsided by news of the funding freeze.

"The grants are frozen, is that what you said?" she asked.

Another FEMA employee described working with colleagues to try to cut checks for aid as quickly as possible. "We're trying to get as much obligated as we can before 5 p.m. today," the employee said Tuesday. But the employee was skeptical everything would get done; granting FEMA aid is a multi-stage process and some claims hadn't advanced far enough to be approved by the oncoming deadline.

Another federal worker said the freeze endangered two congressional grants to private foundations as well as a grant to their own agency. "They were put on hold today," the employee said. "No payments in or out."

For others, the freeze simply adds to the mounting issues facing the federal workforce. "We are thinking about the impact but there's no official word," one federal worker said. They said that Trump's return-to-office order, the resignation of colleagues, and attempts to scrub language surrounding DEI were taking precedence.

All of the workers were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about their work. Their employment was confirmed by BI.

One former federal worker and Biden administration official, who left the government two weeks ago, said that even a brief pause can have outsize impacts. Short delays, they said, lead to much longer delays, particularly when private workers who contract with the federal government can't be paid.

Two employees at the Small Business Administration said they hadn't been given any indications about how their work would be impacted. The SBA gives out loans to businesses to aid in job creation and recovery from emergencies.

It's been "mostly just chaos, with all the HR changes," one of the SBA employees said. "The general chaos is grinding things to a halt as people don't know what is going to come next."

Minutes before the freeze was set to take effect, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan temporarily blocked the action. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.

The decision to withhold funds isn't unprecedented. In 2017, shortly after President Trump first took office, ProPublica reported that the Environmental Protection Agency was stopped from making grants and signing new contracts.

However, the size and nature of the most recent freeze, with only Social Security and Medicare benefits and direct benefits to individuals exempted, is notable.

On Tuesday morning, nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the freeze, and six attorneys general announced they plan to sue. At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Sen. Chuck Schumer called the freeze "unconstitutional" and "illegal."

Have a tip? Know more? Reach Jack Newsham via email ([email protected]) or via Signal (+1-314-971-1627). Do not use a work device.

• The CFPB finalized a rule that allows banks to cap overdraft fees at $5 or set the fee at an amount that covers losses.
• The rule, which will take effect in October 2025, is projected to save Americans $5 billion annually, or $225 per household.
• The CFPB previously found that banks were charging Americans unnecessary overdraft fees.

Americans who spend more than they have in their bank accounts won't be burdened with hefty fees come October next year.

On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it finalized a rule that would limit overdraft fees at the bank. Overdraft fees are charged when customers make a withdrawal that results in a negative account balance. However, the CFPB found that some banks charged higher fees than they needed to cover their losses, leaving consumers in a financial bind.

The new rule updates federal regulations for banks with more than $10 billion in assets. It provides those banks with options for lowering overdraft fees, including capping them at $5. For banks that choose to offer overdraft as a service for their customers, the rule allows banks to set their fee at an amount that covers costs and losses. If banks do want to keep making profits off of overdraft fees, they'll have to disclose the terms of it like they do with credit cards and other loans.

These changes are expected to save Americans up to $5 billion each year, or $225 per household, the CFPB said.

"For far too long, the largest banks have exploited a legal loophole that has drained billions of dollars from Americans' deposit accounts," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. "The CFPB is cracking down on these excessive junk fees and requiring big banks to come clean about the interest rate they're charging on overdraft loans."

Lower-earning Americans are disproportionately impacted by overdraft fees, per a previous report from the CFPB. The agency found that around a third of households with income below $65,000 were charged with an overdraft or a non-sufficient fee, compared to just 10% of consumers in households earning over $175,000. Americans of color and those without a college degree were also more likely to live in households affected by those fees.

The CFPB's finalization of the overdraft rule comes as the future of the agency is unclear. President-elect Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which aims to get rid of government waste. The two DOGE leaders said they would accomplish that goal, in part, by eliminating some federal agencies, including the CFPB.

"Delete CFPB," Musk wrote in a late November post on X. "There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies."

Chopra responded to Musk's remarks during an MSNBC interview on December 7, saying that getting rid of the CFPB would be "mayhem" and "begging for a financial crisis."

"I don't understand why people would want financial crime," Chopra said, "and if they say it's duplicative, who else will do it?"

Have you paid overdraft fees or struggled with banking fees? Contact these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].

• Donald Trump's new DOGE commission, tasked with cutting spending, has floated laying off federal workers.
• Government employees said they were preparing by networking and freshening their résumés.
• Amid the concerns with DOGE, some employees said there could be benefits to its aims.

Federal employees are reporting mixed feelings about President-elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency and its ideas to cut costs by laying off workers and enforcing return-to-office mandates.

Some are worried, some are optimistic, and most are considering their other career options, 10 people who spoke with Business Insider said. Most asked for anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.

"We're just workers. We work in a nonpartisan way," one Department of Health and Human Services employee said, adding that they were nervous, especially because they recently bought a home. "It kind of feels like we're being villainized."

On the other hand, Jesus Soriano, who's been a program director at the National Science Foundation for 13 years and is president of the agency's American Federation of Government Employees union, said that while employees were scared, there were "reasons for optimism with DOGE."

Trump said his picks to lead the unofficial commission, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, "are technologists."

"They have — both of them in their own fields — translated science into products that have tremendous impact on the public and that contribute to America being a preeminent powerhouse," he said.

Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and other various companies, and Ramaswamy started a tech-focused pharmaceutical company called Roivant Sciences.

In the wake of the DOGE Commission, many government workers said they were updating their résumés, networking more, or assessing new career options — regardless of their political beliefs.

"Everyone is putting their ducks in a row," a Department of Housing and Urban Development administrative worker of 10 years who worked under Trump's first term told BI. "You can't be lackadaisical, regardless that the government may take forever to do something. You better be one step ahead at all times."

While it's still unclear how exactly DOGE would cut government spending, Musk and Ramaswamy have pledged to eliminate some government agencies, which could mean laying off thousands of federal workers, and compel others who have been working from home to return to the office.

The federal government is the largest employer in the US, paying more than 2 million civilian workers. The Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Defense are among the top employers, with workers earning average salaries near $100,000. Just under half of all workers across 24 agencies were telework-eligible as of May 2024, according to an Office of Management and Budget report.

"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," Musk and Ramaswamy wrote about their cost-cutting plans in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

Brian Hughes, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told BI the administration "will have a place for people serving in government who are committed to defending the rights of the American people, putting America first, and ensuring the best use of working men and women's tax dollars." He didn't offer any details on cuts.

Soriano, the National Science Foundation program director, said government workers were "still scared." He said five colleagues he'd talked to were actively seeking new jobs or opting to retire.

Increased efficiency is a welcomed idea. In-office mandates, not so much.

Trimming government spending and improving efficiency is an idea often discussed on both sides of the political spectrum.

President Ronald Reagan pursued a similar goal with the Grace Commission, a team of 160 private-sector executives who proposed more than 2,000 cost-cutting measures. President Bill Clinton also attempted to reduce federal spending and improve government efficiency with the National Performance Review, led by federal employees.

The efforts had mixed results. Many proposals from the Grace Commission that relied on congressional acts didn't end up happening, while executive orders were successful in reducing the head count of federal workers. Clinton's panel similarly succeeded in cutting 300,000 federal workers but managed to get only a quarter of proposals that required legislative action through Congress.

An operations manager at the US Postal Service who has worked in the department for 27 years told BI every company had inefficiencies, and "that's what we all strive to decrease."

He has concerns, however, about people stepping in to make suggestions for the Postal Service without having "tribal knowledge" of the department.

"If you're just going to be appointed to this type of commission or committee with no knowledge of what exactly the Postal Service does, then that could potentially be a problem," he said.

DOGE's intent to eliminate remote work is also a concern for some workers. The HUD employee, who'd been working remotely, said return-to-office enforcement would "absolutely" be enough to cause them to resign. They're preparing for layoffs under DOGE by looking at other employment opportunities, and they said their colleagues at HUD were taking similar steps.

Joyce Howell, an attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency — who's been at the agency for more than 31 years and serves as executive vice president of its AFGE union — said the incoming administration had stoked concern about layoffs at the EPA and fears that its mission could be compromised.

"We have town halls once a month, and we've actually broken our Zoom account in terms of the number of people attending," she said of union meetings.

Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in the Journal op-ed that the commission would target more than $500 billion in what they called unauthorized government spending. They said federal employees who were laid off would be offered early retirement. At a town hall in October, Musk said he would consider giving laid-off workers up to two years' severance.

An employee at the Food and Drug Administration said it wasn't that easy: "We're here to support a mission. We have families to feed, and it's not as easy as just quitting our jobs," the FDA employee said.

"We're just normal, everyday people — we're being portrayed as inefficient, lazy people," they added. "It feels like they're coming for us just for their own agenda, not realizing that we're the backbone of the federal government."

Another federal-government lifer said many workers like them — people who'd been there for years — were nervous they might be the first to go. The career tenure of a median federal government worker was 6.5 years in 2024, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, well above the median 3.5 years private workers have spent in their roles.

One senior official at the Commerce Department said they anticipated a civil-servant brain drain. "The scientists are the most concerned," the official said, with those in climate, meteorology, and environmental science particularly worried.

The Department of Education has meanwhile been singled out as an entire agency that could be on the chopping block.

Sheria Smith, the president of the AFGE union at the Department of Education and a civil rights attorney at the agency, said department elimination was "on the lower end of concerns" because it would take time and need to go through Congress.

Rather, being turned into a "Schedule F" workforce, which allows government agencies to reclassify workers and remove certain protections that make them easier to fire, could mean employees who aren't "aligned with the executive wholly" could be laid off based on performance.

And given the widespread denigration of the Education Department and return-to-office threats, people are most likely looking for other work. "I'd be surprised if they weren't," Smith said.

Are you a federal worker willing to share your story? Contact these reporters at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].