New careers, relocations and medical problems: How ex-federal workers’ lives have been upended since DOGE

CNN ^ | 2/14/26 | Kaanita Iyer, Marshall Cohen, Tami Luhby, Sunlen Serfaty, René Marsh

[cotton1706]

For Ashley Garley, the past year has been “messy, challenging and heartbreaking.”

Garley, a former contractor and malaria expert with the US Agency for International Development, was among the first people impacted by the Department of Government Efficiency’s massive shrinking of the federal workforce last year, led by billionaire Elon Musk, which began almost immediately after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Garley, who lost her job after the US froze all foreign aid in late January 2025, is struggling to find a full-time job with benefits more than a year later. To contribute to the bills, she has returned to a job she held in her teens and 20s: swim instructor.

Going from a jet-setting job with global impact, to teaching part-time at her county pool in Maryland has been “pretty emotional,” Garley told CNN.

Like Garley, hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contractors have had their lives upended by Trump’s quest to clamp down on the federal workforce, whom he sees as a threat to his ability to execute his priorities.

More than 350,000 workers have left the federal government’s payroll since the president started his second term on January 20, 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

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TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS:

[cotton1706]

"Skills" learned in government work don't translate well to the private sector, eh?

[cotton1706]

“The stress of losing her dream job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention landed Morgan Hall in the hospital. A few months after she received her final paycheck in August, Hall told CNN that she had been in bed for days without eating or answering the phone. Her son ultimately found her, and she was hospitalized in October for 10 days with severe depression, anxiety, and physical complications tied to a preexisting medical condition that can be worsened by stress.”

“Medical expert” can’t deal with life.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Did CNN write this story about coal miners whose lives were destroyed by Obama’s and Biden’s deliberate attempt to destroy the coal industry? Ex-federal workers are no different than anyone else who loses a job. Learn to deal with it and move on.

[ChronicMA]

a person does not have the right to continue to collect taxpayers money to do a job deemed not useful to society.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

...whom he [i.e., Trump] sees as a threat to his ability to execute his priorities.

Bias, much? Why, the very NERVE of a POTUS having priorities!

Could it possibly be that the federal "workforce" has grown way beyond any sensible bounds? That it is far too large, too smothering to individual freedoms and liberty? Too devastating to private enterprise? Doing far too many things and doing them poorly? Doing things that are best left to the private sector? Doing things way beyond what the Constitution permits?

The leftist rags never ask these fundamental questions. Nope, this collection of jerks (Kaanita Iyer, Marshall Cohen, Tami Luhby, Sunlen Serfaty, René Marsh) instinctively frame it as a deranged Trump dealing with threats against him.

[batazoid]

Now tell me these guys didn’t know these agencies weren’t scamming billions of taxpayers’ dollars.

[Joann37]

Boo hoo!

I’ve been laid off in the private sector many times! Market conditions, etc. No one cried for me, nor did I feel sorry for myself.

[03A3]

So if Musk is right and the only safe space is those that push molecules, AI should start with government.

[Hot Tabasco]

Garley, who lost her job after the US froze all foreign aid in late January 2025, is struggling to find a full-time job with benefits more than a year later.

Welcome to the real world. Auto workers have faced extended layoffs and job terminations for decades with not a peep from the dems or the media.

[gdzla]

BOO HOO HOO.

[Sicon]

To Doge'd fed employees:

[john drake]

Welcome to the real world, or 70% of the work force (private) that deals with economic realities of global competition, technological changes, government regulation changes, etc. that put our jobs at risk, EVERY DAY. In my career, several companies were merged out of existence and we hit the street wearing out shoe leather in order to find another position, sometimes at more, or equal compensation, and sometimes at less compensation, sometimes substantially less. You make it work. Period. No crybabies allowed in the real world. End of story.

[fella]

Well . . .
Welcome to the world you created for your subjects.

[Tell It Right]

Did CNN write this story about coal miners whose lives were destroyed by Obama’s and Biden’s deliberate attempt to destroy the coal industry?

I believe those were the stories that the leftist media glorified being out of work over: spending time with families, going to college in your free time, etc.

[blackdog]

Problems the rest of us deal with every day.

[Resolute Conservative]

“US Agency for International Development”

Why do we have this pos money waster? I do not care about helping the international community develop anything with my money.

[neverevergiveup]

I ONLY feel bad for those who aren’t liberal tools. I have a hard time having empathy for people who make themselves feel morally superior by supporting government giving away the shirts off of other people’s backs.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

So the only skill she has is knowing how to swim.

[falcon99]

Another CNN propaganda, BS “tear jerker” story.

[dfwgator]

The world needs ditchdiggers, too.