After weeks of chaos, the future is uncertain for thousands of federal workers
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Last week, more employees across the federal government received termination notices as the Trump administration forged ahead with its plan to drastically reduce the federal workforce. One agency hit hard by layoffs was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Taylor Sonney was a compliance examiner at CFPB based in Houston, Texas.
My job was basically traveling across America physically to financial institutions, and really examining, making sure that they're treating people fairly.
He'd been working at the CFPB for 11 months, just one month shy of the end of his probationary period, when he found out he'd lost his job.
Everyone pretty much got fired via a mail merge form that was blasted out to everyone. That, in my opinion, wasn't very accurate. It sort of touched on points of merit. However, you know, all of us have gotten very high regards in performance reviews, and we're all very hardworking people.
Sonny and his colleagues are weighing what happens next. There could be opportunities for recourse, like filing an appeal if they believe they were fired for partisan political reasons. But for now, Sonny is processing the loss of his job and what mass layoffs could mean for the future of the CFPB.
I was incredibly happy to be able to protect consumers on a federal level. It truly is a nonpartisan mission, which is unfortunate that it's been so heavily politicized. It's really something that the American people can't afford to lose.
Across federal agencies, many who still have jobs are worried about what will happen next. Liz Goggin is a licensed clinical social worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs who lives with her family in Washington, D.C. After Trump's funding freeze, her job at the VA was safe. But her husband's foreign aid job wasn't.
It became pretty clear that he was very likely to lose his job.
Days later, Goggin received the fork-in-the-road email sent to nearly every federal employee, giving them a deadline to resign and stay on the payroll through September.
My initial reaction, honestly, was kind of fear, like, oh my gosh, you know, if... A lot of people take this, what's going to happen to services.
Goggin came to the VA a decade ago and loves working with veterans. But she thought if she could resign and keep getting paid through September, it might be the best move for her family after her husband lost his income.
My husband and I talked about it, and if this offer was legitimate, it seemed like, wow, this could give, you know, I'm a highly competitive worker. There's lots of jobs available. I could potentially be making double salary for six months. She took the offer. I did. I hit resign on the email.
Goggin got an automated reply saying her response had been received. But a few days later, she got an email from the VA saying she isn't eligible to resign.
It turns out... Actually, like, social workers are exempt, which didn't surprise me. So Liz Goggin thinks she still has a job? But, like, who knows? I had regrets about telling my supervisor, given that, you know, like the whole thing is kind of unraveling.
Consider this. The Trump administration's chaotic federal overhaul is underway, and that's left many federal workers scared, confused, or out of a job. From NPR, I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It's Consider This from NPR. President Donald Trump is forging ahead with his plans to dramatically shrink the government. Federal workers are facing mass layoffs as the Trump administration takes aim at agencies across the federal government. Thousands, likely tens of thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs, with many more expected to follow. So with us now is NPR's Andrea Hsu, who has been talking with federal workers as all of this unfolds. Hey, Andrea. Hey. All right. So there's been so much disruption, so much chaos. How are people reacting to the layoffs?
Well, there is a lot of distress. You know, I'm hearing from federal employees from all over the country, actually, who have never seen anything like this. You know, a number of people have described it as a hostile takeover, a coup by someone that they say, you know, we didn't elect. They see a lot of this as Elon Musk's doing.
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