Some Energy Department employees began the day Friday discovering they were locked out of their government computers.
Soon they received a memo forwarded from their colleagues to their personal emails: They’d been fired.
A similar fate is coming for as many as 2,300 Interior Department probationary employees Friday, per an internal message obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The Trump administration on Thursday night fired scores of staffers across the federal government working through a probationary period, deeming their work to be no longer in the “public interest.” The laid-off workers were also warned they have limited rights to appeal the decision.
“People are as upset and angry as I’ve ever seen them,” said one Energy Department career staffer granted anonymity for fear of retribution. “It’s a substantial hit to morale.”
This staffer added that it’s hard to know how the firings, which vary by office, will affect the agency’s overall functions.
The latest cuts come after the Office of Personnel Management this week directed agencies to fire their employees on probationary status. The en masse and seemingly indiscriminate layoffs sparked fears of additional cuts on the horizon and raised questions about how agencies will function going forward.
Thousands of workers are already being affected. The Forest Service alone laid off as many as 3,400 workers.
At NOAA, two former senior officials in close contact with agency staffers said supervisors were told to provide lists of probationary employees to the Commerce Department by Friday. One current NOAA employee who is still within their probationary period — and was preparing to be laid off — said they understood the list would be turned in by noon.
OPM declined to comment when asked for a final total of staffers who have been let go.
Federal agencies have also been mum on the sudden loss of workers. The Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Fish and Wildlife Service or the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service, didn’t immediately respond to a request for a department-wide figure. Most employees in the USDA’s conservation programs work in local field offices around the country, where departures would be felt by farmers and others who work with the USDA on numerous land management and other programs.
Forest Service employees, too, work mainly in the field. A lobbyist for a forest policy group who works closely with the agency — and was granted anonymity to speak openly — said the agency is in danger of becoming even more top-heavy in staffing, a frequent complaint in some circles.
The chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), declined through a spokesperson to comment on the cuts at the USDA.
At the Interior Department, a cone of silence coupled with widespread anxiety hung over the agency as the probationary employees awaited news while career staffers stayed in their foxholes with their heads down.
Representatives for Interior and its myriad agencies — including the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation — went silent or provided scant information on the personnel cuts pushed by the Trump administration and its operatives with tech mogul Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
‘Limited appeal rights’
The focus, for now, is on new hires who have little recourse to fight the administration’s decision.
Probationary periods for federal employees can last for between one and two years. According to OPM’s FedScope database, in May of 2024 there were almost 220,000 government workers still within their one-year probationary period.
A November 2020 Interior Department personnel bulletin issued during the first Trump administration underscored the traditional purpose of the probationary period in noting that supervisors should use the period for “determining the fitness of an employee and terminating his or her employment if the employee fails to demonstrate fully his or her qualification for continued employment.”
Memos sent to employees viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News did not cite job performance or fitness for continued employment, but did emphasize the fired workers had few options to protest.
“Your status as an employee serving a probationary period provides you with limited appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board,” wrote authors of one memo.
“If the termination occurs for reasons arising either before or after the probationary appointment, and the termination is not required by statute, then the probationer can appeal the action if he or she alleges that it was based on partisan political reasons or marital status,” the board’s website notes.
The MSPB states that individuals terminated for “unsatisfactory performance or conduct” during the probationary period are entitled to a written notice of the reasons.
Staff at the 20,000-strong National Park Service was on tenterhooks Friday morning, after news that many of its probationary hires would be fired, potentially exacerbating existing staffing shortages ahead of the summer busy season.
More than 1,700 NPS employees are within their probationary employment period — a commitment of one year — according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
Park superintendents were allowed to write justifications for why their probationary hires were needed.
Due to the rural nature of many national parks, some workers live in staff apartments, meaning the layoffs could terminate both employment and housing for some NPS employees.
One ranger at a Western national park, granted anonymity because they feared reprisal from the Trump administration, said their probational staffers had been encouraged by park leaders to take the administration’s “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation offer because they feared most probationals would be fired.
Democratic lawmakers have already warned Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that the employees are needed to staff parks ahead of the boom in visitors this spring.
The lawmakers have also asked the secretary to exempt NPS seasonal staff from the administration’s hiring freeze, which has stalled the employment of between 7,000 and 9,000 seasonal employees brought on each year for the busy season.
‘Systemic concerns’ for EPA
Many staffers at EPA are stressed about downsizing at the agency.
Its probationary employees were put on notice about the tenuousness of their situation soon after the Trump administration took charge. They received a Jan. 29 email telling them, “As a probationary/trial period employee, the agency has the right to immediately terminate you.”
Like other agencies, EPA has assembled a list of its probationary staff, as required by OPM guidance. That move has driven anxiety within the agency too.
When that list was presented to staff last week, it mistakenly had several people who were not on probationary status, said Gary Jonesi, a recently retired senior EPA enforcement attorney. Some had started new positions at EPA but had more than a year of federal service.
Firing all of EPA’s probationary employees would be a direct strike at the rebuilding effort the agency underwent during the previous administration. More than 6,000 full-time EPA employees were hired during former President Joe Biden’s term.
“This would be a major hit to EPA’s mission to protect public health and the environment” if the agency were to push out its probationary staffers, Zealan Hoover, formerly director of implementation at the Biden EPA, told reporters Friday.
He added, “You cannot seriously state that your focus is on preventing waste, fraud and abuse, if at the same time, you are firing audit specialists and grant specialists and project officers whose job is to go out and prevent waste, fraud and abuse.”
EPA had close to 1,600 employees with less than a year of federal service as of May 2024, according to OPM data.
EPA press officials didn’t respond to questions for this story, including whether the agency plans to fire its probationary employees and how many the agency currently has.
EPA has already placed about 170 employees on paid leave who worked for environmental justice and diversity programs. Terminating probationary staff would have an even broader reach.
Hoover said, “If EPA is firing thousands of employees, it is going to cripple the agency’s ability” to respond to emergencies, monitor water systems and air quality, and enforce environmental laws.
“These are going to be really systemic concerns,” Hoover said.
Reporters Marc Heller, Scott Streater, Jennifer Yachnin and Daniel Cusick contributed.
Contact these reporters on Signal:
Kevin Bogardus at KevinBogardus.89
Jennifer Yachnin at jyachnin.35
Heather Richards at h_richards.99
