Trump administration directs agencies to fire recent hires en masse [View all]

[KPN]

The Trump administration is moving to aggressively fire nearly all recent hires still in their probationary periods, a move that could lead to the dismissal of hundreds of thousands of staff. 
The Office of Personnel Management has instructed agencies across government to terminate employees in their probationary periods—typically those who were hired into government for within the last one or two years, depending on their hiring mechanism—while allowing for limited exceptions, according to a source familiar with the directive. OPM previously asked agencies to compile lists of their probationary period employees and in some cases federal offices sent warnings that firings may be imminent. 

At the Forest Service, for example, 2,400 recent hires are being let go, according to Andy Vanderheuel, who represents the workers as part of the National Federation of Federal Employees. The agency is excluding firefighters, law enforcement, meteorologists who forecast avalanches and bridge inspectors from the firings, but is otherwise dismissing every recent hire in the competitive service. The termination notices were going out Thursday evening on the west coast, Vanderheuel said, and expected on the east coast Friday morning. 
The Veterans Affairs Department announced Thursday evening it had dismissed 1,000 probationers, though it said it exempted those directly providing care and benefits to veterans and the number was just a fraction of its 43,000 employees in their trial.
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/02/trump-administration-directs-agencies-fire-recent-hires-en-masse/403017/
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Heartless. I know a young man who moved here to Oregon from North Carolina in August to accept a career position as a forester with the Bureau of Land Mgmt. He’s been so damned excited to have this job. Heartbreaking that young, capable, enthusiastic young people like him are having their lives upended by these scum. Having made a similar journey to work and have a rewarding, wonderful career in my chosen field with the dame agency, this makes me sngry as hell.