A U.S. Forest Service sign at the entrance of the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota. As many as 2,400 recent hires are being let go at the agency, according to Andy Vanderheuel, who represents the workers as part of the National Federation of Federal Employees. Tony Webster/Wikimedia
Trump administration directs agencies to fire recent hires en masse
Thousands of employees were already let go as of Thursday, a number that is expected to skyrocket in the coming days.
Updated on Feb. 13 at 11:19 p.m.
The Trump administration is moving to aggressively fire nearly all recent hires still in their probationary periods, a move that could lead to the dismissal of hundreds of thousands of staff.
The Office of Personnel Management has instructed agencies across government to terminate employees in their probationary periods—typically those who were hired into government for within the last one or two years, depending on their hiring mechanism—while allowing for limited exceptions, according to a source familiar with the directive. OPM previously asked agencies to compile lists of their probationary period employees and in some cases federal offices sent warnings that firings may be imminent.
At the Forest Service, for example, 2,400 recent hires are being let go, according to Andy Vanderheuel, who represents the workers as part of the National Federation of Federal Employees. The agency is excluding firefighters, law enforcement, meteorologists who forecast avalanches and bridge inspectors from the firings, but is otherwise dismissing every recent hire in the competitive service. The termination notices were going out Thursday evening on the west coast, Vanderheuel said, and expected on the east coast Friday morning.
The Veterans Affairs Department announced Thursday evening it had dismissed 1,000 probationers, though it said it exempted those directly providing care and benefits to veterans and the number was just a fraction of its 43,000 employees in their trial periods.
“This was a tough decision, but ultimately it’s the right call to better support the Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors the department exists to serve,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said.
OPM abruptly fired its own probationary period employees on Thursday, giving staff less than an hour before they had to exit their offices and lost access to their work accounts.
Even before OPM’s latest guidance, dismissals of recent hires had taken place on a widespread basis at least at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Small Business Administration, Education Department and General Services Administration. Various termination notices obtained by Government Executive have cited poor performance or that the employees’ “ability, knowledge and skills do not fit” the agency’s needs. In some cases, the letters stated the cause was poor performance “and/or” a lack of fitness.
One SBA employee who received a termination notice for poor performance said the letter arrived despite not yet working a single day for the agency. Others said they had only received outstanding grades in their performance reviews.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said his union will fight the firings "every step of the way."
He added the government was getting rid of "the next generation of public servants" that agencies need to function effectively in the coming years.
"This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office," Kelley said. "These firings are not about poor performance—there is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants."
Targeting probationary employees is just one of the tools the Trump administration is using to downsize the federal workforce. It has also incentivized 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.
The probationary period employee actions are not layoffs, or RIFs, which initiate unique procedures, but regular, for-cause employment terminations. As of May 2024, federal data maintained by OPM showed agencies employed more than 200,000 employees hired within the last year. Probationers can still appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board if they allege the firings took place for partisan political reasons.
David DiMolfetta contributed to this report, which has been updated with details related to VA.