Fired Federal Employees Describe Turmoil in Final Days: ‘Massacre’

Annelise Waling found out February 16 that she was fired from the U.S. Forest Service. It was a deeply unsettling feeling, but she said she felt coming.

Waling is among 3,400 U.S. Forest Service (USFS) probationary employees terminated in the past week as part of mass layoffs of federal government workers—overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Another 1,000 National Park Service (NPS) workers have been relieved of their positions, according to the Associated Press.

“I was heartbroken and devastated,” Waling, 25, said. “This really was a pretty incredible job where I felt very fulfilled in my soul. I feel like I was positively contributing to the world, which is all that I kind of want out of a job.”

NPS reported that 325.5 million visitors spent $26.4 billion in communities near national parks in 2023 and supported 415,400 jobs, leading to a record high of $55.6 billion in U.S. economic output.

Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, told Newsweek that the litany of firings and loss of institutional knowledge will only hurt the national parks in the long run.

“National parks are more popular than they ever have been…from Gettysburg to Independence Hall, to the Everglades, to Rocky Mountain, to Yellowstone and Yosemite,” Brengel said. “Millions upon millions of Americans love our national parks and visit them every year.

“If people aren’t having those quality experiences, or those bathrooms aren’t open, or the visitor centers aren’t available, and there aren’t enough park rangers—that can really affect the quality of people’s visits and may deter [them] from visiting. The effects are dramatic and harmful both to the parks themselves, but also to the local communities that depend on them economically.”

The National Park Service has lost about 28 percent of its staff since 2010, she said, because of staffing reduction levels since 2010 due to an underfunding by Congress.

Probationary employees reference more recent federal hires and include individuals who may be long-serving but move to new positions or are promoted. Probationary periods can last a year or two depending on the agency.

Some workers were hinted of their impending unemployment in advance by their supervisors; others found out from social networking sites like Reddit or through group chats with industry colleagues.

Many workers were told via email with wording that called them underperforming and not executing duties “in the public interest.”

Waling, in a LinkedIn post written post-firing, said she and her ilk were “illegally fired.”

U.S. Federal Code 315.804 states that an agency must have documented reasons (performance evaluations, counseling records, and any prior warnings or notices) supporting the termination of a probationary employee. Advanced notice is also required.

“I felt pretty angry because all of us were fired based on the grounds of poor performance, which I totally have no record of,” said Waling, a two-year probationary employee through the now-defunct Presidential Management Fellows program. “I have very, very good performance reviews.

“My direct supervisor thought that if they were taking performance into account, there is no way that I should have been fired.”

That sentiment was echoed by Angela Moxley, who worked for NPS for a year as a biological science technician at the 3,700-acre Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. Her job consisted of protecting the forest, grasslands and wetlands from invasive species and supporting endangered species.

She and her colleagues heard rumors on Reddit. By the time she came into her office on February 14, dubbed by some now ex-federal employees to Newsweek as the “Valentine’s massacre,” she knew she “was on the chopping block.”

“We could be making a lot more money in the private sector, but a lot of those jobs are just to pave the way for development and construction,” she told Newsweek. “We got into this field to preserve and conserve the environment.”

That includes years of stringing together seasonal positions and bolstering a resume to earn a permanent position within the federal government.

“These aren’t glamorous jobs,” Moxley added. “You’re crawling through thorny shrubs, getting poison ivy and getting stung.”

“The jobs are few and far between; anytime a job opens up we’re competing against the people that we know and work with every day.”

In June 2024, Claire Sneed began working as a hydrologic technician at Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. It was the 22-year-old’s first full-time job since graduating from Ohio State University.

Sneed told Newsweek that she found out she was fired from a series of Reddit posts after she was forewarned by a supervisor of likely federal cuts.

She called the reasoning expressed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture “bulls***.”

“I had been emotionally prepared since Trump’s actions during week one of his presidency,” said Sneed, who’s now applying for jobs in the private sector. “Me and all my other co-workers…were all watching very closely to what was happening with the executive orders and the federal hiring freeze.

“It was kind of a slow realization of acceptance.”

Stephanie Teasley, a longtime University of Michigan professor, spent three years at the National Science Foundation (NSF) before being asked to return in August 2024 to a contract role as an expert/consultant with a focus on data science education.

On February 18, she and others couldn’t access virtual meetings. Back-and-forth emails ultimately confirmed that jobs were lost.

“It was very upsetting. … I expected to be given some notice and some amount of time to put my work in order before it was shut down,” she told Newsweek.

The news blindsided Karl Rockne, who served as the director of the environmental engineering program at NSF in Alexandria, Virginia, where he managed a $100 million research portfolio of over 250 projects and a $35 million National Science and Technology Center.

“My position requires deep expert knowledge amassed over my decades of scientific research in environmental pollution to protect human and ecological health,” Rockne told Newsweek. “As part of this position, I assemble expert panels to assess the scientific merit of the hundreds of research proposals received in the program.

“I utilize these assessments, together with my expertise and administrative background, to decide which projects to fund based on our foundational mission to advance knowledge and benefit society.”

That included serving as an expert in contaminants of emerging concern, such as PFAS and hazardous algal blooms.

The non-probationary (permanent) Rockne served two stints at NSF and was “shocked” when he was included among the probationary firings on February 18. He said he wrote all his managers asking why he was part of the meeting and cuts “but no one responded.”

He and others were provided two hours before being locked out of the system. Rockne shared project files and contacted dozens of program directors as fast as he could.

“These firings left NSF without the necessary talent to make funding decisions that benefit the American public,” he said. “NSF-supported research has led to an astonishing 268 Nobel laureates. So much of modern life would not be possible without the scientific innovation that NSF investments supported.

“There is no guarantee that the U.S. will continue to lead in scientific innovation, and without innovation, talent and resources will naturally flow elsewhere.”