Workers are reeling from the chaos at federal agencies

The DOGE Musk Effect: Recruiting Young Federal Employees to Leave Their Jobs in the Presence of Budget Cuts and Other Censorship Problems

WIRED.com reported last week that several of Musk’s lieutenants were granted access to key computer systems controlled by the GSA, a government agency tasked with overseeing federal buildings and providing equipment, supplies and IT support across the government.

An earlier email from the Office of Personnel Management that encouraged federal employees to resign from their jobs received widespread anger and resistance from labor unions, and follow-up emails purporting to answer questions have been cold comfort. Another email from OPM sent this weekend — along with an FAQ page online — addresses questions from the workforce but has not put federal employees at ease.

WIRED reported last week that Musk’s outfit had effectively taken over the Office of Personnel Management, the US government’s human resources department. In this and other efforts, it is employing inexperienced young engineers whose ages range from 19 to 24—many of whom, public records show, are former interns or have been affiliated with Musk-aligned companies.

The Trump administration began a campaign last week to encourage federal workers to leave their jobs before they are affected by budget cuts. The effort is spearheaded by the leader of the DOGE, Musk, a task force that has effectively seized control of several federal agencies and sensitive government systems with apparent clearance from the White House.

Last week, an image of a wall being painted over at the FBI academy in Virginia was discovered due to its listing of “diversity” among the bureau’s core values. (According to an email from the FBI’s Office of Integrity and Compliance obtained by Mother Jones, the bureau no longer counts “diversity” among its core values.)

What Have We Learned about the Deactivation of Pronouns from US Department of Labor? How Do You Know What Your Federal Employees Think?

A staffer at USAID says the formal deactivation of their ability to list pronouns occurred last week, in response to executive orders defining sexes issued by President Trump on his first day in office. A GSA staffer says pronouns were wiped from employees’ email signatures after hours on Friday and were also no longer visible in Slack, the workplace messaging app.

Are you a current or former employee with a government agency impacted by this? Tell us about you, we want to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact Dell Cameron securely at dell.3030 on Signal.

The agency directors sent emails stating that they were removing the pronoun capability from Office 365 because of Donald Trump’s executive order. Employees were told they had to remove their pronouns from their email signatures in order to comply with the directive.

The General Services Administration (GSA), the US Department of Agriculture, and the United States Agency for International Development are some of the organizations that have automated efforts with employees.

A lack of clarity internally has prompted alternative channels for federal workers to share information with one another. Federal employees have become so immersed in the subreddit r/fednews that they’ve created a central space for them to talk about their agency and compare notes. Other grassroots accounts like the Alt National Parks Service account serve as an updates feed for federal employees and concerns members of the public.

The Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump and Musk Administrations: Why Labor and the Public Sector are Faking to meet the Embarrassment of the LA Fires

“I personally am pretty disgusted at the lack of any fire in their bellies,” a person who works with the Coast Guard told The Verge. Another federal worker says that many lawmakers are “absolutely failing to meet the moment,” and questions why Democrats aren’t doing more to throw sand in the gears, like refusing to confirm Trump’s nominees or speaking in stronger terms against the demolition of government agencies and norms. “If not now, when?”

The pressure from elected officials ramped up on Monday, when a group of Democratic lawmakers held a press conference outside the USAID headquarters, calling Trump and Musk’s attempts to shut down USAID illegal.

“We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), said. The group then attempted to enter the building but were blocked by law enforcement.

The EPA was told by email last week it has the right to immediately fire employees. The email, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge, was sent to employees on a probationary/trial period who were hired within the past year. The EPA was warned by the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the unions that represents the agency’s employees.

New hires that are still in a probationary period have fewer protections than other employees, says Cantello. I think the Trump administration is exploiting them because it is easier to get rid of them.

The email states that you will get a notice of Termination and your Employment will be Ended Immediately, but it doesn’t say when that process will begin.

According to Cantello, the agency is at risk of losing 10 percent of its workforce if it takes into account those who choose to take a deferred resignation.

Losing this amount of staff would hurt the EPA in protecting human health and the environment, including the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires. The agency has been trying to rebuild after a large exodus of scientists from federal agencies during the first year of the Trump administration.

The EPA’s intranet service was also down for most of the work day on Monday, keeping employees from accessing their personnel records. Workers want to keep those types of documents in case they ever take legal action against the agency if they believe they were fired illegally. The intranet service is also vital to the agency’s enforcement of environmental regulation. It’s where employees record complaints, for example. The EPA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

As nonpartisan staffers used to the changing whims of different administrations, federal civil servants are often not the quintessential activists. Every morning this week at 7:30 AM, there will be a show of peaceful protest in front of the Office of Personnel Management. A third rally is planned for Wednesday in front of the Senate.

Through conversations with half a dozen federal workers, all but one of whom were granted anonymity because they feared retaliation for speaking out about the Trump administration’s actions, it’s clear that the hostile takeover of federal agencies is putting employees and contractors on edge, uncertain if they’ll have a job the next day.

The crackdown on things like work from home or acknowledging gender has created an atmosphere of paranoia and hyper vigilance. Many federal employees have moved work-related conversations to encrypted messaging app Signal. And the tech industry’s embrace of right wing politics and politicians has created a sense of distrust, a federal contractor says, with people fearing that communication on other platforms could be leaked by pro-Trump companies.

Many federal employees are trying to figure out what would push them over the edge to leave. It’s one thing to bring about a change, but it might be another to install new policies that violate their morals when they could lose funding under a Trump administration. The DOL worker says, “This stuff is awful, but we haven’t gotten to the real bad part yet, where they start weaponizing us against the people we serve.”

“People are angry at being accused of cheating the government by working from home,” one person who received the email said. “We’re feeling not valued by the administration.”

The Department of Labor told grantees that their funding could be stopped if they supported DEI initiatives. One employee said that if they didn’t send it, their boss would send it. The grantees were a bit freaked out since many organizations that depend on such funds can not afford to fight back in a lengthy battle. The employee said that sending it made him feel bad.

One example is how the agencies had to respond to Trumps executive order which mandated they not include the term “gender” in official documents. But because of how quickly agencies needed to get into compliance, at least one opted to remove references to many gender resources altogether because there wasn’t enough time to change the wording in every instance.

“A lot of us are scared and feel betrayed,” a person who works for USAID told The Verge. “When [people] get hired, they take an oath to protect the constitution.” Workers are wondering if other agencies could also be in the same boat as Musk dismantled the humanitarian agency. One Department of Labor employee claims that everyone is scared because they don’t think that was possible.