WASHINGTON, D.C. (USA Today) — Federal employees reeling from a wave of firings that began last week have focused on language in their termination letters targeting their “performance” as particularly upsetting.
USA TODAY reviewed 10 termination letters. All but one mentioned performance concerns.
Fired probationary employees interviewed by USA TODAY all said they were never told of any performance problems. One hadn’t been in the job long enough to have a performance review. Another was fired just a month into her job after relocating from more than 1,700 miles away to take it. And a third employee said his supervisor explicitly told him he wasn’t being terminated for performance reasons.
The performance language in the letters added insult to injury, the fired employees said, arguing it unfairly impugns their work records. Some worried the language could impact their ability to file for unemployment benefits and find a new job.
“It’s a lie. It’s simply not true,” said fired U.S. Forest Service worker Gavan Harmon.
President Donald Trump’s administration has launched an aggressive effort to cut federal agencies and completely shutter some. The push is being led by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is headed by billionaire Elon Musk. The administration offered buyouts to nearly all federal workers and then began mass terminations targeting probationary employees who recently were hired.
Federal employees told USA TODAY they believe citing their job performance is an attempt by the government to provide legal justification for the firings. However, a labor attorney said the government has wide latitude to fire probationary employees and performance language in the termination letters may be “boilerplate.”
Lawyer Greg Rinckey speculated that the government may be citing performance issues in an attempt to avoid having the terminations considered a “reduction in force” that would trigger other legal requirements and take longer. He said the employees’ interpretation is understandable.
“While the language is boilerplate … a fair interpretation on the part of a probationary employee receiving this is that their performance was inadequate,” said Rinckey, who practices federal labor law.
Asked about the performance language in the termination letters, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said “President Trump returned to Washington with a mandate from the American people to bring about unprecedented change in our federal government to uproot waste, fraud, and abuse.”
“This isn’t easy to do in a broken system entrenched in bureaucracy and bloat, but it’s a task long overdue,” Fields added in a statement that did not directly address the language in the letters.
