Maggie was offered a buyout by the US Office of Personnel Management in February 2025, with the choice to quit or be fired. She accepted the offer in May 2025, was placed on administrative leave until September, and lost her job just 10 days before delivering her baby that same month. Maggie lost her health insurance at the end of October 2025, and she has been applying for jobs but awaits an ethics letter from her former agency to start work elsewhere.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the federal workforce has declined by about 355,000 employees, with 18,000 workers leaving in March 2026, reflecting Trump's efforts to cut government jobs. The US government's civilian workforce shrank by 12% between September 2024 and January 2026, a reduction of 386,826 workers, with cuts felt across departments like Treasury and Health and Human Services, though the Department of Homeland Security grew slightly. Mass layoffs were largely sparked by Elon Musk, chair of the Department of Government Efficiency, who worked to cut federal spending and get rid of 'fraud' within the government.
This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.
DOGE was set up in January 2025 shortly after Trump took office and made dramatic forays to rapidly shrink federal agencies, but the Office of Personnel Management has since taken over many of its functions. DOGE claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify this due to lack of detailed public accounting. The Trump administration attempted more expansive firings and cuts but was blocked by court decisions and, in some cases, rehired some workers after realizing it had cut too many jobs.
Current and former federal government employees report a difficult job market flooded with other former government workers, and cuts have left remaining workers scrambling to keep important functions afloat as they absorb the workloads of those who left. Charles Melton took an early retirement offer in September after 20 years at the US Department of Agriculture and has found another job outside Washington DC, helping former colleagues with résumé and cover letter writing.