US government workers are describing an atmosphere of “fear” and “madness” as they grapple with a barrage of executive orders issued by Donald Trump and threats to their jobs from the office of personnel management, the agency tasked with managing the federal civil service, which has been taken over by the billionaire Elon Musk.
Weeks before the administration transition, federal worker unions reported low morale among workers in anticipation of pushes for intimidation, mass firings and harassment.
“I don’t think anybody expected things to escalate quite as quickly as this,” said Justin Chen, president of the American Federation of Government Employees local 1003, which represents employees at the Environmental Protection Agency in Texas.
He said that the office of personnel management had not sent out mass emails to agencies and employees before, and when he first saw the email, he thought it was a phishing attempt.
“It appears as if there is an unelected billionaire more or less running the federal government right now, who none of us voted for, who seems to be breaking both [the] law and potentially the constitution all over the place,” added Chen.
“It appears that the richest man in the world is literally causing most of the problems for my membership – and no one elected him. Quite frankly, who’s the president right now? Who’s actually running the show?”
Since taking over the office of personnel management, Musk’s team has also gained access to the US treasury payments system and has claimed Trump has agreed with him in efforts to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), the independent federal agency responsible for administering foreign aid and development assistance.
“It’s been madness,” said an employee at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) headquarters in Washington who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“Musk sends these from this sketchy email they set up days ago, almost always after 8pm. They seem clearly designed to disturb and scare people, among all of the things they actually say, which are clear threats,” they added.
They provided copies of emails from the office of personnel management and the newly appointed EEOC chair, including an email offering resignation buyouts; an email affirming the ending of any programs or contracts associated with diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); and a request for workers to report any allegations of programs or contracts with “DEIA or similar ideologies” within 10 days or face “adverse consequences”.
“Our agency is being forced to comply with the DEI EO [executive order] in direct violation of federal law, namely title VII/Bostock, and there have been no inter- complaints nor processing of said complaints because everyone is terrified of retaliation/immediate firing/mass reduction in force,” the worker said.
In 2020, the supreme court ruled in the Bostock case that title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The worker also criticized Trump’s appointee for acting chair of the EEOC, Andrea Lucas, and her comments criticizing gender identity policies. They also said individuals responsible for anything related to DEI have had their duties completely reassigned or are in the process of being rewritten.
As EEOC investigations are still proceeding, the employee expressed concern that findings or litigation recommendations will be halted by the acting chair and commissioners appointed by Trump.
“There are now no employee work groups, such as a Black employees’ organization, a Hispanic organization, or a pride organization – all special emphasis programs and training have ceased, down to even book clubs [being] banned,” they said. “The EEOC has always pursued reverse racism and sexism claims, but I assume those will be the primary sources of agency litigation.”
The EEOC would not comment.
The office of personnel management has continued pushing a voluntary resignation program, urging civil service workers to quit, while unions have filed lawsuits against Trump’s executive order to reclassify civil service workers as political appointees under schedule policy/career positions.
“Civil service protections keep the government honest, fair, transparent, accountable, and allow civil service employees to report fraud, waste, abuse, illegal activities and unethical activities. Once that is gone and they can no longer defend themselves or report illegal activity, you have full corruption of the executive branch,” said Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents around 110,000 federal workers in various agencies.
“The mood right now is one of fear and anxiety,” he added. “The fear that the executive branch is going to be taken over by very corrupt people and ask them to do very corrupt things. The general thought of these people are: they’re morons, they’re here for political reasons. They’re completely underqualified, don’t understand the government, and they certainly don’t care about the law and regulations – they are looking to evade all those.”
In addition to the pushes for voluntary resignations from the office of personnel management to reduce the federal workforce, and different agencies placing employees whose job duties involved DEI work on leave, more than 220,000 employees who work as probationary or trial-period employees with fewer civil service protections are fearful of being laid off en masse, though they are only supposed to be laid off for poor performance.
These workers are employed at various agencies in the federal government, with about 25% at the Veterans Health Administration.
“I am concerned we will all be mass fired,” said an employee at the US Department of Transportation who is on a probationary term appointment. “Teams would be hobbled and gutted. It would be like closing your eyes and randomly throwing acid on a flower garden. You would just have dead spots, and no planning for which ones.”
