'Will I have a job?' Federal workers full of uncertainty, fear over Trump plans

‘Will I have a job?’ Federal workers full of uncertainty, fear over Trump plans

Posted by author January 19, 2025 Jobs

Chelsea Milburn remembers feeling “blessed” to find her ideal job as a public affairs specialist for the Department of Education, a near-perfect situation after her life dramatically changed two years ago after an illness.

But, like more than 228,000 federal workers who telework, Milburn’s job is at risk if President Donald Trump makes good on his promise to require federal workers to return to the office five days a week. She has a disability that makes it hard for her to sit at her desk full-time.

During his inauguration parade celebration Monday in Washington, D.C., hours after being sworn in as president, Trump signed an executive order directing department heads to require federal employees to “return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis” immediately, with exemptions allowed.

“This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law,” the executive order said.

In response, the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing about 800,000 federal workers, including Milburn, filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure they comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

Union: Workers’ rights ‘not a gift, it’s called negotiation’

Many more of the 2.3 million civilian federal workers could lose their jobs if Trump fulfills other campaign promises to shutter the Department of Education, and overhaul agencies including the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services.

“It’s not the first time this has come up, it just feels louder this time,” said Milburn, who in November started remote work for the Department of Education after having a similar job for the Navy.

Trump, through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), believes he could save millions of dollars through reorganizing and layoffs, but restructuring the government would also cost jobs in unexpected places.

It’s easy to think federal workers are only in Washington, D.C., and serve within nameless bureaucracies. But only about 15% of federal employees work in the nation’s capital, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The remaining 85% are spread across big cities like Dallas and state capitals like Carson City, Nevada, where Milburn lives.

They are, among others, the postal workers, the civil engineers and the Transportation Security Administration agents. They are mostly represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, a union of 750,000 federal workers. About 56% of civil service workers are covered by collective bargaining contracts, many of which include remote work arrangements.

While Trump’s return-to-office mandate is expected to get major pushback from federal workers, he recently reinforced his strategy, threatening to take legal action against the AFGE’s latest contract that extended remote worker protections until 2029.

“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump told reporters about the deal on Dec. 23. “It was a gift to the union, and we are going to obviously be in court to stop it.”

However, AFGE National President Everett Kelley told USA TODAY the union will push back.

“What we worked for is not a gift, it’s called negotiation. Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency,” said Kelley, citing Office of Management and Budget statistics that only 10% of federal workers are remote.

Can DOGE work?

Although it’s unclear how exactly DOGE would cut government spending, Trump has entrusted Tesla CEO, SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur to lead the unofficial department’s effort to streamline the government. Musk was teamed with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, but the tech magnate and Cincinnati, Ohio, native is reportedly stepping aside for a possible run for Ohio governor.

The federal government’s spending in the 2024 fiscal year was $6.75 trillion.

Musk said he could quickly eliminate $2 trillion from the federal budget but has not provided any specifics on how, and later softened his stance, calling $2 trillion a “best-case outcome.”

He’s promised to make cuts that would shrink the federal workforce and cut federal agencies to about 99 from more than 440.

In Trump’s initial statement announcing DOGE, he said the new department would provide advice and guidance from outside the government and partner with the White House and the OMB to bring “large-scale structural reform.”

In AFGE’s lawsuit along with watchdog groups Public Citizen and State Democracy Defenders Fund (SDDF), they claim Trump and DOGE “do not represent the interests of everyday Americans… (they) will be considering cuts to government agencies and programs that protect health, benefits, consumer finance, and product safety.”

DOGE may be unable to do much, as Congress controls federal spending. Still, the increasing rhetoric has some government workers nationwide unsettled.

Fed worker, disabled veteran believes ‘I still have value’

Milburn, 34, began her public affairs specialist job for the Department of Education only two months ago. The Navy reservist, and a member of AFGE Local 252, a union representing Education Department workers, joined a tight-knit unit where most of her colleagues are veterans like her. Even though Milburn works remotely, she said, she’s quickly formed a bond.

Milburn developed “long COVID” shortly after a particularly severe bout with the virus in 2022. Then, last year, she was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome or POTS, a chronic condition that often leaves her dizzy when she stands, breathless and exhausted.

“I have chronic inflammation all over. I can’t stay in the same posture for too long,” said Milburn, who takes heart medication. “It’s been a life-altering experience.”

She was promoted to chief petty officer while on active duty in the Navy in San Diego and now believes she will soon receive a Medical Retention Review status to “determine her ability to continue serving” and likely a medical discharge.

“It’s been a really hard transition for me, going from an active person and a Navy chief to where I can’t work in an office,” Milburn said, choking up. “And when I got hired as a civil servant in this job I have now, it showed me that even with my disability, my country sees that as an individual, I still have value.”

‘People are in a panic’

Jesus Soriano, the president of an AFGE union representing workers at the National Science Foundation, doesn’t mince words about the incoming Trump administration’s desire to disrupt the federal government.

“Yeah, people are in a panic,” said Soriano, a program director for the NSF Partnerships for Innovation initiative, which helps provide funding to academic and nonprofit researchers and broaden access to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) research. “We are facing public harassment at a maximum scale.”

Soriano, 57, has worked for the NSF in numerous capacities for 13 years. He’s also been involved with his union for seven years, including serving as the NSF lead representative for the last two years. He lives in Northern Virginia and is married with three kids, including a freshman in college. Sleepless nights are common.

“I look at my kids, and as someone who works about 120 hours per pay period, I ask myself, ‘Will I have a job?'” Soriano said. “Will I be able to feed them two months from now?”He’s worried Trump’s federal government upheaval will also impact workers who live in Washington, Maryland and Virginia. Soriano cannot believe how some are not taking what could happen to the nation’s capital and the surrounding areas more seriously.

“If someone plans to fire about 300,000 in a region, why don’t you first talk with leaders in those cities, the towns, communities, and the governors in those states? Try telling them the purpose and what the impact would be,” Soriano said. “Evaluating the efficiency of the government is good and necessary, but why would you want to just blow it up?”

He said he and his colleagues were hired based on merit and expertise, and “have decided to dedicate our professional lives to this country.”

“We work extremely hard, and we’re being vilified as lazy thugs. So, I’m having a hard time grasping all of this. Can you imagine how painful this is?” he asked. “There is a whole gamut of feelings ranging from fear to depression when you think you are being rejected for doing nothing but your job.”

Trump threats are ‘different this time around’

As a civil rights attorney in the Department of Education, Sheria Smith’s job is to determine whether schools and districts nationwide are compliant, or whether they may risk losing federal funding.

As president and chief negotiator of AFGE Local 252, representing nearly 3,000 employees in her department, Smith, a Harvard graduate, fights for the rights of her colleagues who mostly work remotely from coast to coast.

“It feels like we’ve been down this road before, but the threats are different this time around,” Smith said. “Scary? Yeah, that’s the right word to use.”

Smith remembers her continuous struggles when she took the lead union position in 2019 with then-President Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos. This included the department imposing a non-union negotiated contract that workers said violated their rights.

The union filed an unfair labor practices charge with the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The union and the Education Department eventually settled in 2022.

“They were almost successful,” Smith said. “But we fought back.”

Smith now worries about Trump’s proposal to eliminate the 45-year-old education department and distribute some of its programs across other federal agencies.

Smith also said returning to the office isn’t realistic for everyone.

Many federal workers don’t have offices to go to, Smith said, as her union negotiated with the Department of Education to get out of the agency’s $12-million-per-year office lease in New York City in 2023.

Other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, have reduced office space post-pandemic and plan to do even more, according to an Office of Management and Budget report in August.

Smith and Kelley, the AFGE national president, contend working remotely increases productivity.

“It has worked well in our favor. They are passionate about the work, and if they don’t have a commute and set times, instead of making small talk or playing office politics, we have shown we can be productive and efficient,” said Smith, who lives in Dallas and practiced corporate law before joining the department in 2016.

“I did not take this job to be unduly influenced by changing political whims,” Smith said. “It’s disconcerting to have an incoming government department talk about your possible elimination in such a way that’s so callous. It’s as if we’re not American citizens who contribute in every way to this nation. Extremely disconcerting.”

‘I don’t want anything happening on my watch’

Although the federal government averted a shutdown last month, Johnny Jones said he still would’ve showed up to do his job — no matter what.

“They say we’re considered ‘essential,’” said Jones, 46, a longtime TSA agent at Love Field in Dallas and the secretary-treasurer for AGFE Council 100, the union representing 45,000 of his fellow TSA colleagues. “But right now, we’re certainly not feeling that way.”

Jones said the TSA workers who screen passengers at airport security and clear flights for takeoff would have continued working without pay in the short term, as mandated by their contract, as they anticipated screening about 40 million people during the holiday season.

But it’s also a matter of pride, he said.

“This is the profession we chose, to keep our fellow Americans safe, whether the government takes care of us or not, because we took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States,” said Jones, who was among the first group of TSA workers hired in 2002, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“And since the federal government took over, there hasn’t been a similar incident since,” said Jones, adding the TSA screens more than 2 million passengers daily. “It matters to us. I don’t want anything happening on my watch.”

He remembers working as a local restaurant manager in 2001 and, like most of his friends, feeling somewhat obligated to protect the country when he joined the TSA.

“It was a call to duty for me. Some of my friends joined the Marines, but I had custody of my two kids at the time, so it was impossible for me to go to the military as a single parent,” Jones said. “That was not in the cards. This was the next best option for me.”

The talk of government cost-cutting hasn’t mentioned the TSA, but Jones said it still makes him and other agents anxious.

“All of this uncertainty is affecting us,” Jones said. “The last thing we want to hear when you’re a frontline worker making sure people get from Point A to Point B is a bunch of political rhetoric coming out of Washington saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to cut this and cut that to save some money,’ possibly at our expense.”

Jones, a married father of four children, said he and his co-workers can’t afford to sugarcoat their feelings. He said the typical TSA worker makes between $60,000 and $70,000.

They worry about what Jan. 21, the day after Trump’s inauguration, will look like as he prepares to sign his initial stack of executive orders.

“It’s so childish,” Jones said. “You shouldn’t be playing security games with our livelihoods, as all it takes is for something bad to happen, and then the finger-pointing begins.”

This story has been updated to add new information.