GSA takes ‘sledgehammer’ to workforce with planned layoffs

The General Services Administration will be laying off additional employees as the Trump administration continues to cut the federal workforce. 

The agency’s acting administrator, Salesforce alum Stephen Ehikian, told GSA employees on Monday that the agency would be conducting a reduction in force, according to an email obtained by Nextgov/FCW. 

It’s not yet clear who is going to be let go at the agency. At least 100 employees in GSA’s Technology Transformation Services have already been fired as part of the administration's sweeping dismissals of probationary feds, who have weaker civil service protections than other government employees.

The administration also offered feds a deferred resignation option just weeks into the new Trump administration. At GSA, the first tranche of feds that opted in were put on administrative leave at the end of last week, Ehikian wrote in the email, noting that that process — “the first step in GSA’s effort to refocus, modernize, and streamline the agency” — will finish by the end of next month. GSA is also looking to use voluntary early retirements to cull its workforce, Ehikian’s email states.

The impending layoffs at GSA are part of a broader government-wide effort being led by billionaire Elon Musk to shrink the workforce. Musk himself has already visited GSA, and several of his associates are now working there.

Within the agency, various offices have been presenting their roles and responsibilities to what senior executives are calling a “murder board,” on which Ehikian and other political appointees sit, to justify their positions. The focus of those meetings have been on staffing cuts, according to an employee briefed on the discussions. 

Ehikian has been particularly focused on utilizing AI to reduce headcount and at least some GSA employees have been tasked with reporting to their supervisors on ways the technology could assume their work responsibilities. 

The layoffs at GSA follow a reduction in force at the Office of Personnel Management, as GovExec reported, which Trump proposed merging with GSA in his first term. 

GSA plays a centralized role for government technology, procurement and real estate. 

“They’re just swinging the ‘sledgehammer’ and seeing what happens at this point,” said one current GSA employee not authorized to speak on the record. “There is already a tangible impact on continuity of operations, interagency commitments that GSA is failing to meet, and frustration / distrust among our agency partners.”

Another said that the “once innovative culture” at GSA has been “decimated,” and employees — who no longer trust their leadership — are “holding on for each other.”

A former GSA official defended the agency's role within government and suggested it should be setting itself up to contribute more, not less.

“The Administration should be positioning GSA to do more for agencies given the significant staffing reductions across government,” Mary Davie, former GSA employee who worked in the agency for over 30 years, told Nextgov/FCW in a statement. 

“GSA’s mission and role is to serve other federal agencies to streamline buying across government, reduce redundant programs, decrease costs, and provide shared contracts and services,” she said. “Reducing GSA’s workforce and services ultimately means other federal agencies will have to do more on their own.”