Some agencies begin purges of recent hires even as OPM directs federal offices to pump the brakes

At least two federal agencies have dismissed some or all of their recent hires this week, though the Trump administration has otherwise instructed heads of government offices not to plan similar mass firings for those workers. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent termination notices on Tuesday to all staff still in their probationary periods, an Office of Management and Budget spokesperson confirmed, marking the latest step in the administration’s push to shutter the agency. Acting CFPB Director Russ Vought, who is also leading OMB, previously instructed employees at the bureau to cease their work activities as members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are spearheading an effort to unwind its authorities. 

The Office of Personnel Management instructed agencies on President Trump’s first day in office to collect names of probationary employees, typically those hired within the last year. Agencies have since gathered those lists and delivered them to OPM, and some subsequently sent notices to staff reminding them of their status and their vulnerability to rapid firings. Recent hires in probationary status do not maintain the same protections against firings as do most other federal workers. 

In some cases, employees have been asked to justify their roles or supervisors have faced directives to defend why their recent hires should be retained. 

On Tuesday evening, however, OPM convened a call with federal agencies’ general counsels and instructed them not to pursue widespread firings of probationary period workers. Instead, OPM said, they should terminate only such workers that they have deemed poor performers. The call was first reported by CBS News. 

“The Trump Administration is encouraging agencies to use the probationary period as it was intended: as a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment,” an OPM spokesperson said. 

Still, some non-CFPB probationary period employees are also receiving termination notices. The Small Business Administration sent out such dismissals on a widespread basis last week, only to recall them days later and say they were sent by mistake. On Tuesday, an untold number of SBA employees once again received notices that they were, in fact, fired. 

One SBA employee who had two months left in their probationary period told Government Executive they received a termination notice on Friday that was unsigned and did not have official agency letterhead. 

“It was sketchy,” the employee said. “It didn’t seem legit.” 

The employee’s top-level management told them they had the day before submitted a plea to retain the employee, who had already gone through one performance review cycle and received nearly flawless scores. The staffer’s supervisor expressed shock over the letter, said they received no notice it was coming and told the employee not to take any official action to leave the agency, the employee said. 

On Monday, the employee received an email that the prior notices were sent in error. The employee said they were pleased with the correction, but the relief was short-lived. On Tuesday afternoon they received two more termination notices. One came at 3 p.m. and another two hours later. These were more official and signed. The notice said the employee was “not a fit” for the agency “and/or” had performance issues, though the worker had only received positive reviews. 

The employee has been in touch with their union—a chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees—and a lawyer, but it is unlikely that they have any rights to challenge the dismissal.  

As of March, SBA employed about 1,000 workers hired within the last year. At CFPB, that figure was 60 individuals. 

Other agencies are still waiting to see the impacts of OPM's new directive. A supervisor at the Energy Department said their division recently sent a list to OPM suggesting 80% of the office's probationers be retained. Feedback provided to the division suggested that the figure was not high enough and a new list was created that would see two-thirds of the impacted workers dismissed. The supervisor said Wednesday it was not yet clear how OPM's new guidance would influence the final outcome. 

Targeting probationary employees is just one of the tools the Trump administration is using to downsize the federal workforce. It is also incentivizing employees to leave through its “deferred resignation program” and early retirement offers, seeking to shut down some agencies entirely and threatening widespread layoffs. On Tuesday, Trump issued an executive order requiring agencies to, once his hiring freeze is lifted, onboard just one new employee for every four who leave and to plan for significant reductions in force.