Federal workers feel betrayed and alone in Trump administration’s chaotic purge

It’s been more than two weeks since Mike Macans learned — for the first time — that the Small Business Administration was firing him from his job as a disaster recovery coordinator based in Anchorage, Alaska.

Still, the government hasn’t sent him the documents he needs to claim unemployment. He’s gotten no official word on when his family’s health insurance will be cut off.

“They locked me out of all my systems,” says Macans. “The only place I’ve gotten any help is online — on frickin’ Reddit.”

The Trump administration has fired tens of thousands of federal workers over the past two weeks as part of a seemingly indiscriminate purge of probationary employees, typically those in their first or second year on the job.

The mass firings have been marked by so much chaos and sloppiness that some agencies have recalled employees that they terminated days or even hours earlier.

Labor unions have asked a federal court in San Francisco to order the government to stop the firings and rescind the terminations that have already occurred. Attorneys in Washington, D.C., have filed a classwide complaint, asking the Office of Special Counsel to intervene.

Meanwhile, anger among the fired is on the rise.

“Don’t abandon and villainize the very people that have served this country and work to bring services to our citizens,” says Macans.

One piece of a broader strategy

The terminations are just one part of the Trump administration’s broad effort to slash the federal workforce of 2.3 million people. In late January came an ultimatum to federal employees: Resign from your jobs with pay and benefits through September, or risk being laid off. It has put thousands across government on administrative leave, unable to do their work.

And this past weekend, billionaire Elon Musk — a special adviser to Trump — issued another ultimatum to remaining employees.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk suggested that workers could lose their jobs if they didn’t respond to an email blast from the Office of Personnel Management asking for a list of five things they did in the past week. With the legality of the ask in doubt, some agency leaders have told their employees not to respond.

Now jobless, Macans’ top concern is health insurance. His wife, a cancer survivor, needs costly medications to keep her autoimmune disorder under control. The couple have a five-month old and a toddler.

“Just the disregard for the impact that this has, on not only the employee but his whole family, is astounding,” says Lara Macans, his wife.

A perfect fit for the job

Macans’ job with the Small Business Administration was his second stint serving the country. His first was as an airborne infantryman with the U.S. Army, stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside Anchorage.

After five years in the Army, he took a job in security on Alaska’s North Slope followed by a role in emergency management with the state government, a job that made him feel like he could really make a difference.

“Alaska has every possible disaster threat you could think of, from volcanoes to hurricane to tsunami, earthquake, fire, flood — you name it,” he says.

Macans’ job involved helping communities navigate state and federal grants to repair roads, bridges, buildings, dams, seawalls and other infrastructure. He quickly built a network in the disaster recovery space, including with people at FEMA and the Small Business Administration.

Then last August came an opportunity to fill a brand new position with the Small Business Administration. Macans was hired as recovery coordinator for Region 10, covering Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

He describes it as “the phone-a-friend” for the region. He provided guidance after the initial shock of a disaster had passed, helping businesses build resilience and address other long-term needs.

His deep knowledge of Alaska’s wild weather and terrain, as well as its diverse population, made him a perfect fit for the job.

“We had talked like — this is going to be your career. You’re going to retire from this job,” says Lara Macans. “That was really exciting.”

Fired, unfired and fired again

Macans was first informed he was being terminated on Feb. 7. An email arrived in his inbox late that Friday afternoon with the subject line “Notification – Termination of Probationary Period.”

An attached letter told him: “The Agency finds that that [sic] you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the Agency.”

It gave him a termination date of Feb. 21.

Like so many federal employees who’ve been fired this month, Macans was stunned.

In his six months on the job, he’d had no complaints about his performance. His first evaluation, posted the following week, described him as “an exceptional asset to the Agency,” someone who is “always up for a new challenge, completes work to a high standard, and proactively generates opportunities to build and maintain relationships that facilitate the delivery of SBA’s disaster loan program.”

When Lara, a part-time nurse, came home from her job that afternoon, she knew immediately something was wrong.

“That’s when he dropped the bomb,” she says. “I couldn’t even believe it.”

It was a bad weekend. Macans was angry. He couldn’t sleep.

“You turn off the lights and try to go to sleep, and you’re just left alone with your thoughts,” he says. “There’s nothing to do but stew.”

Then on Monday came another surprise. A colleague told him something was up. More guidance was coming about the termination letters sent Friday.

“Sure enough, an hour or two later, we got that email that said it was sent in error, and as such, ‘It is not currently in effect,'” Macans says. “Well, what does that mean?”

He wasn’t too reassured. The following afternoon, he received a third notification, and then a fourth, confirming that he was, in fact, being terminated, effective close of business that same day, Feb. 11. The two letters were nearly identical.

“That is literally the last official correspondence regarding my employment status that I received from the SBA,” he says. “There’s absolutely no follow up.”

Fortunately, Macans had gotten a head start on saving his employment files.

“Because they fired me and then unfired me, I immediately started forwarding everything I could to my personal email,” he says.

He has appealed his termination to the Merit Systems Protection Board, the body set up to handle labor disputes within the federal workforce, though he’s not optimistic he’ll get his job back.

“Never felt more betrayed”

Meanwhile, Macans says his trust in government is shattered.

“I’ve never felt more betrayed in my entire life,” he says.

He’s sympathetic to the view that there should be changes to how government bureaucracy works and how money is spent.

“I think those are very fair criticisms of the government,” he says. “I am trying to be part of the solution.”

For now though, he has started looking for a new job.

“You know, family of four. We need a paycheck coming in, and we need health care,” he says. “When it really comes down to it, I’ll do whatever I need to do for them.”

Have information you want to share about ongoing changes across the federal government? NPR’s Andrea Hsu can be contacted through encrypted communications on Signal at andreahsu.08.