‘I feel betrayed’: federal health workers fired by Trump tell of ‘nightmare’

As protesters gathered outside the headquarters of US health agencies to call attention to mass layoffs devastating the federal service in recent days, more employees at health agencies were terminated on Wednesday, including employees with years of experience and stellar performance reviews who were not probationary.

Thousands of terminated employees across the federal government are appealing the decision. Some former employees are struggling to apply for unemployment or understand when their benefits expire in the chaotic termination process.

At the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the layoffs included all public health fellows stationed at state, local and regional health departments, as well as staff working on global health and outbreak response – even as the bird flu outbreak ramps up and the CDC suspends its seasonal flu vaccine campaign.

The Guardian spoke to four employees at the CDC who were terminated in recent days. Three requested anonymity to avoid retribution from the Trump administration. All of them recently received satisfactory or outstanding performance reviews, and none of them had been placed on performance review plans.

Mack Guthrie was part of the Public Health Associate Program at the CDC – until everyone in the program was let go over the weekend. He worked in Minneapolis public schools to help prevent STIs and unintended pregnancies by educating students, testing and counseling patients in clinics, and tracking STI rates and trends.

All of these layoffs are “a major hit to America’s health infrastructure”, said Guthrie, who had an outstanding performance review so was stunned to see his performance listed as the reason for termination.

While all of the public health fellows were told they were being laid off, some never received letters, Guthrie said, adding: “The whole process has been dominated by chaos and confusion.”

The state, tribal, local and territorial departments where they were deployed “are already starting to feel the effect of our absence”, Guthrie said.

“For some of my colleagues, they are filling gaps at host sites that would simply not get filled otherwise,” he said. “These organizations simply don’t have the funds to hire people.”

When one CDC employee attempted to log into their laptop on Wednesday morning, they received an error message and realized they were locked out of the system, unable to communicate with their team or even say goodbye. They’d been laid off overnight and because they have not yet received a letter, they don’t know the reason for their termination. This employee had years of experience and excellent performance reviews, and was not probationary.

Employees in probationary periods were especially hard-hit in this round of layoffs. That status has nothing to do with their performance, unlike employees who may be put on probation in the private sector. Rather, it usually means they have been in their current position for less than two years, and thus they don’t have the same legal protections as other federal workers.

One terminated employee who has been in the same position for four and a half years was surprised to receive notice that their job was considered probationary and they were being let go, despite high praise on performance reviews. They are appealing the decision to human resources, but have not received responses yet.

Form letters sent to terminated employees say that they “are not fit for continued employment” because their “ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency’s current needs”, and their performances have “not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency”.

Former CDC employees told the Guardian they are now part of a class-action wrongful termination appeal to the US Merit Systems Protection Board – joining about 2,000 federal employees represented by the Washington law firm James & Hoffman.

The leader of the merit board was herself reinstated by a judge on Wednesday after the Trump administration tried to fire her.

“If you’re going to terminate my position, don’t tell me it’s because of my performance,” said another employee who worked as a CDC contractor for four years before entering a probationary period after being hired permanently.

Donald Trump with Elon Musk at the White House earlier this month. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Employees who were locked out of their systems with little or no notice are now scrambling to collect their final paychecks, apply for unemployment, return equipment, and understand their benefits.

The longtime employee who was locked out on Wednesday told the Guardian they were not given the proper documentation in order to apply for unemployment.

“When I called HR, the team simply did not know what to do and I was left with, ‘Please call back tomorrow, we will have better guidance,’” the employee said. “Folks don’t even have essential documents to properly separate from the agency.”

The employees said they haven’t been offered details on whether their annual leave will pay out, or even how long their health insurance will last.

“I still need to communicate with my center in terms of what is happening with my final paycheck, how do I return my equipment, and I have no idea how they intend to do that,” said the employee who worked at the CDC for five years.

The so-called “department of government efficiency,” known as Doge, has targeted certain agencies for layoffs in a purported bid to cut back on government spending, despite representing a very small portion of the federal budget.

“They feel fake,” the employee said. “It seems like a giant scam that they were trying to see if it would work, and it did … I can’t believe that I lost my job as a result of this group of people.”

The layoffs cap a stressful month for CDC staffers rushing to implement Trump’s flurry of executive orders.

“We were working around the clock. If not working, I couldn’t sleep – for weeks, since the administration came in – thinking of all the things we had to do to meet those orders,” said the employee who was at the CDC for four and a half years.

All the while, they were waiting to learn if they would keep their job – a “dream job” that has become “a nightmare”.

“It was really part of my identity – I lived and ate it around the clock,” the employee said. “That was such a big part of my life … I feel betrayed.”

The employee urged former supervisors and teammates to check in on the wellbeing of terminated staffers, some of whom report experiencing depression and anxiety.

“All of us have always looked at CDC as being the final goalpost for a public career,” said the longtime employee.

“It feels like I worked so hard to be where I’m at, only to look back and see an empty space. I know I did the work, but it’s rapidly being taken away.”

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