Trump administration revises directive to fire probationary employees

The Trump administration appears to be walking back its directive to fire probationary employees.

The reversal comes less than a week after a federal judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering the US defense department and other agencies to carry out the mass firings of some employees, including probationary employees who typically have less than a year of experience.

The ruling came after thousands of probationary employees were already let go.

“Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM [office of personnel management] is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees. Agencies have ultimate decision-making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions,” says a now revised document sent to federal department and agency heads.

It is not immediately clear how the revised guidance will affect the probationary workers who have already been fired.

The Trump administration has spearheaded an ongoing effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce, the country’s largest employer, by firing thousands of workers, including nearly all probationary employees in a previous directive.

Last month, the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides healthcare for veterans, reported that it had laid off more than 1,000 probationary workers. It was revealed that the US Forest Service was set to fire more than 3,000 workers.

Approximately 5,000 people have been terminated from the agencies that manage national parks, forests and other federal public lands in the US.

In total, at least 20,000 government workers have been fired so far during the first month of the Trump administration. Many of these layoffs stem from instructions given by Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) which has worked to dramatically diminish the workforce at federal agencies.

“Most of these changes are not only going to harm federal employees, but also everyone else who lives in the US,” a current federal employee in the National Archives in Washington DC who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation told the Guardian last month. “Cutting federal employees is not going to make inflation magically go down or their eggs become cheaper.”

There will be “a domino effect” with increasingly tangible impacts, they warned. “It’s going to severely interrupt operations like getting tax returns, serving healthcare to veterans, receiving subsidies that often benefit people who run farms and so much more.”