Two weeks ago, my wife was fired from her job with the federal government. We were playing a board game and having a beer when her phone rang. A colleague asked if she had “got the email.”
Having left her work phone at the office, she had no way of knowing. We bundled into the car and raced across town. After a few minutes inside, she emerged from her office and gave me a thumbs-down as she walked toward the car.
“Fired,” she said, clicking her seatbelt into place.
Unbeknownst to us, tens of thousands of probationary federal employees — those within their first one to two years of service — had received the same email that evening.
The message itself was blank, just a Word document attached with five short paragraphs. The fourth read:
“The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”
If the suddenness of the firing and its financial impact weren’t enough, the baseless claim of poor performance added insult to injury.
My wife was an archaeologist working out of Hays under the National Resource and Conservation Services wing of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It was a dream job and one she had worked and studied for years to achieve. She engaged with Native American tribal groups, local communities, and farmers to ensure the preservation of cultural resources across the plains.
I suspect a lot of people might think that the federal government has no business employing archaeologists, but their work is vital. They document and protect irreplaceable cultural heritage — not just Indigenous histories but also the lives of the settlers and pioneers who shaped the landscape we live on today. They ensure that historical sites and artifacts, from ancient campsites to century-old homesteads, are not lost to development or neglect.
But it wasn’t just archaeologists who were fired. Biologists, soil scientists, water conservation specialists, public health workers and forest service employees were all swept away in the same mass termination. One commenter on a subreddit dedicated to the recently fired employees voiced his frustration with the new administration’s priorities :
“I know I’ll bounce back and land another job. I am grateful that I’m young and that I have support, and I’ll be OK. The thing I can’t get over is that the richest man in the world directed my firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”
Compensation for the entire federal workforce made up just 4.3% of the federal budget in 2024. If the entire federal workforce was eliminated today it would barely put a dent in our national debt, which sits at $36 trillion. This comes alongside plans for further tax cuts from the Trump administration. Some analysts suggest these cuts could add as much as $4.8 trillion to the national debt in the next decade.
Given the relatively minor impact that these job cuts will have on U.S. spending, it is frustrating and vexing to see jubilant celebrations at the elimination of jobs that protect and preserve history, national parks, drinking water, soil health, forests, and environmental and public safety.
The fact that Elon Musk and DOGE chose to begin their scrutinization of government expenditures here rather than starting with the Defense Department and programs like the F-35 fighter jet — a decade behind schedule and $183 billion over budget — speaks volumes.
There is a naive belief that the private sector will absorb responsibility for these services. It is dubious. Many federal agencies exist to preserve and protect history, health, and nature. The private sector lacks sufficient incentive to care for these areas or, worse, has incentives to disregard them.
