The fallout from NOAA’s firing of hundreds of probationary employees rippled through the agency Friday morning amid empty desks of laid-off staffers and supervisors scrambling to fill gaps left by the new vacancies.
One NOAA contract employee who saw several of their colleagues fired Thursday said staffers’ emails were immediately deactivated.
The employee, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly and feared retaliation, also said fired employees they had communicated with were reluctant to talk about their experience. “It’s a pretty emotional time,” they said.
Janet Coit, the recently retired NOAA assistant administrator and director of NOAA Fisheries, said the shock had reverberated beyond Washington to science centers and field offices from Alaska to New England.
