For Stunned Federal Workers, Sleeplessness, Anger and Tears

The New York Times ^ | Feb. 9, 2025 Updated 4:49 p.m. ET | Elisabeth Bumiller

[E. Pluribus Unum]

One was fired by email at 12:47 a.m. Another wept with colleagues as security escorted her from the office. A third frantically tried to fill a prescription after she got a 24-hour notice that her health care was ending.

Then there is Jacqueline Devine, a contractor in the office of H.I.V.-AIDS at the United States Agency for International Development. Ms. Devine, a behavioral scientist who worked largely in sub-Saharan Africa on H.I.V. treatment, was among those affected by an abrupt mass firing in her Washington office on Jan. 28. She received no severance pay.

“I’ve been going through the stages of grief, and it’s not a linear process, I’m finding out,” Ms. Devine said in an interview last week. “You kind of go back and move forward and go through anger and sadness.” Nights are difficult. “I either am not sleeping, or I’m sleeping to escape,” she said. “Or it’s waking up at 1 or 2 a.m. and not being able to fall asleep again.”

One thing lost in the Trump administration’s war on the federal bureaucracy is the collective voice of the workers. Many of those fired or in limbo say they feel silenced by Elon Musk, whose gleeful, vengeful posts describing U.S.A.I.D. as a “criminal organization” that he fed “into the wood chipper” make them fear retribution. Others don’t want to speak publicly because of pending lawsuits or orders from their agencies.

But a few from U.S.A.I.D., the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department spoke in interviews last week. Some gave their full names, and others asked that only their first names be used. U.S.A.I.D. workers worried about colleagues overseas abruptly ordered home, and said that gutting a $40 billion foreign assistance agency, though a judge has paused some of those plans for now, would mean lives...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A great Communist dictator once said “Elections have consequences. You lost. We won.”

Or something.

[blackdog]

I love a good bedtime story where the good guys win.

[sport]

I am crying with them. But they are tears of joy.

[TigersEye]

NYT’s manufactured sob stories completely ignoring the fraud, waste and corruption being cut out of these bloated slush-fund bureaucracies.

[blackdog]

You forgot, “Eat your peas”, and “Get to the back of the bus”. (B.H.Obama)

[dfwgator]

"Do you know what this is?"

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

Oh boo Hoo, welcome to the REAL WORLD, and what normal Americans have been living under in the civilian population FOREVER!!! It really is quite amazing that these asshats have believed they would be in government paid b6 taxpayers for 30+ years NEVER fearing a layoff or firing!!!

[Gene Eric]

>> For Stunned Federal Workers, Sleeplessness, Anger and Tears

I feel the same way about the tax & ACA systems taking at least 40% of my personal income

[BrexitBen]

The New York Times is going to have to stick to cheerleading for bloody, unnecessary wars.

[Strict9]

wow, a behavioral scientist working in Africa regarding AIDS — not my dream job

[TigersEye]

With a little luck our President will take that away from them too.

It will be fun watching the Democrat caucus go into hysterics over the end of mass bloodshed.

[HighSierra5]

Booey fricken hooey.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Gee, so they got laid off. Just like millions of people in private industry always have. Without NY Times sob stories being written about them.

[Jeff Chandler]

Sleeplessness, Anger and Tears

Oh I love that group. Lucretia McEvil, Spinning Wheel, etc. Good stuff.

[FlingWingFlyer]

All they have to do is go to work. It’s what normal people do when they work for somebody.

[Jonty30]

If Musk shrinks government to the degree that he must, Washington DC and Virginia are going to take a huge hit in their average incomes.

[nwrep]

Nancy Mace should respond. She is on a roll.

[dfwgator]

You mean they’ll actually have to go out and get a real job?

[know.your.why]

“I’ve been going through the stages of grief, and it’s not a linear process, I’m finding out,”

Why isn't this woman expressing her anger and disgust at the democrat partys criminal actions that ultimately caused her to be where she is now??