ST. LOUIS — Francesca Wise woke up one morning last month, opened her email, and learned that she was no longer a federal contractor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The notice said she was being let go because she was considered a probationary employee, or someone in their position for less than a year, but what struck her was the fact that the notice also cited her work performance.
“I didn’t even have a work performance appraisal in my file because I was still going through training. So how can you say I’m being let go for my performance? We don’t even have a review on my performance,” Wise said.
Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired since President Donald Trump took office, with more cuts planned. Thousands of these workers were probationary employees like Francesca. At the USDA, an independent federal board has ordered the government to reinstate close to 6,000 probationary workers as it investigates whether the firings were legal.
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According to the order, the board asserted that it had reasonable grounds to believe “the agency engaged in prohibited personnel practices.”
At the end of 2024, more than 57,000 people in Missouri worked for the federal government, according to state records.
Wise remembers the “disbelief” from her supervisors when they found out she was being let go.
Francesca Wise stands at an AFGE town hall held in support of federal workers. Wise, like thousands of others, learned she no longer had a job after receiving a notice via email. Photo by Gabrielle Hays/PBS News
Weeks later, she’s left trying to figure out what comes next, and how to explain what’s happening to her children.
“I haven’t been without a job in 15 years,” the mother of three said. “For someone to send me an email to say that my services are not needed … for my work performance. I’m like … how am I going to take care of our children? How am I going to pay the bills?”
Wise and others took to the street March 8 to rally in support of federal workers who had been laid off and those who feared it could happen to them.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 employees of the federal government, led the rally. Erick Castellanos, an AFGE member and bilingual auditor for the USDA, said the union has heard from many people who share Wise’s story.
“They contacted the union and we’re like, ‘If you’re fired, if that’s what [the email] says, how are you still on the system?’” he said.
An hour later, everybody was then knocked off the system without any notice, he added.
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Federal workers at the rally told PBS News that the mass firings and layoffs caused panic among them and that the country needed to keep the promises it had made, specifically to support veterans.
Diana Hicks, national vice president of AFGE District 9, which represents more than 54,000 workers in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, said watching people be let go from jobs they’ve dedicated their lives to has been heartbreaking.
“These are people. We are humans. We’re not just a number on a payroll. It’s very sad that we have an administration that has begun categorizing groups of people. They lost their jobs simply because they’re probationary, but they’re the future of civil service,” she said. Before she was a leader in the union, Hicks worked at the Department of Veteran Affairs for 18 years.
John Horn, a professor of practice in economics at Washington University’s Olin Business School in St. Louis, said the idea that federal jobs could be cut with no effect on the country and the world is not true.
Federal workers “also are living in the community and when they lose their jobs, they are not able to spend. They pull back on their consumption and spending in the economy and if that’s a large enough number, that can lead to a reduction in spending at restaurants and other discretionary functions,” he said.
The Trump administration has suggested federal workers could transition into the private sector. But it’s unclear that such private sector jobs exist, said Horn, who’s currently teaching in Germany for one of the university’s international programs. The national unemployment rate at the moment is around 4 percent.
The framing of these firings could also affect workers’ ability to get those jobs.
“The federal government, DOGE in particular, is framing this as,‘These are the worst workers, these are the unproductive workers. These are the people that don’t provide any value to the government,’” he said, which could create a barrier to getting hired.
Horn challenged the idea that federal workers aren’t working just because the general public doesn’t see what they’re doing.
“When we don’t notice what they’re doing, that means they’re doing their job, that the economy runs smoothly because the federal workers are doing things that keep their portion … to keep things active,” he said. “They’re doing a job, and that job is something which isn’t as immediately noticeable to us, but it matters.”
Daniel Szyman served in the Army Reserve for 22 years. He’s now a nurse at a government facility and a local member of AFGE. He attended the rally because he felt energized to stand up against the mass firings.
“Not only am I a veteran and a federal worker, but I’m also a father and working families are being hurt by the decisions made by billionaires in Washington, D.C. And I’m here to say it needs to stop,” he said.
Daniel Szyman stands with his son at a rally on March 8 in support of federal workers. Szyman served in the Army Reserves for 22 years. Photo by Gabrielle Hays/PBS News
The Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative led by Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk, has directed the firings of as many as 6,000 veterans in recent weeks, according to the Washington Post. When asked about the cuts, Alina Habba, a counselor to Trump, told reporters veterans who were fired “perhaps” are “not fit to have a job at this moment or are not willing to come to work.”
For Szyman, who gave more than two decades of his life to the military, this struck a nerve.
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“The government made a promise to veterans. When they signed up, they made a promise that no matter what happens to us, they are going to take care of us. And that’s the deal. That’s the deal that President [Abraham] Lincoln made for us. And that’s why people sign up. Because they know our country is not going to let us down. And right now, it seems like the people in charge are letting us down,” he said.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said he showed up to the rally to represent the county government and to support the workers who were experiencing the “unbelievable.”
“Their phones are turned off. Their badges don’t work. They’ve been told to stay home, their emails turned off. It’s the most unusual and erratic way to manage a government that anybody has ever seen,” he said.
Wise said she cannot sit back and be quiet and she wants others to know they are not alone. “ My voice needs to be heard,” she said.
“Stand up, fight, be strong. Stay prayed up by phone and just keep, keep going,” she said.
