Layoffs have been happening in the public sector since Trump came into office. And it has to change.
Maybe this is common knowledge, maybe it isn't, but it's happening, and it's very real. When Elon Musk was instated into the US Government, he headed an organization called DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency. For simplicity's sake, I'm just going to call it DOGE. In general, this organization has done one thing and one thing only that's of any significance; try and get people fired. This seems... reasonable enough, on paper. I mean, sure, it sucks that people aren't going to be able to bring salaries home to their families for a while, or maybe they'll be behind on rent, but layoffs happen all the time. This is no different!
The issue, though, falls in the fact that it's the federal government that's experiencing these layoffs. A lot of people turn to employment in the public sector because it offers stability and consistency that private organizations do not offer. And now, plenty of federal employees have revealed their stressors when it comes to their lost jobs. One example of this stress includes a 54 year-old suicide prevention manager in the Department of Veteran's Affairs, who says that "when you have a purpose in life... and all of a sudden it's destroyed - you lose all hope." This is what the laid off federal employees, and the US as a whole, face in the wake of this crisis. It's hopelessness. And this feeling of hopelessness is one that's shared among many of the federal employees, no matter where they come from.
Imagine spending your entire life building a career, finding a place where you feel like you belong, where you're making a difference...
...Only for it to be upended by a multi-billionaire throwing a chainsaw around. That doesn't seem fair.
But the federal layoffs don't only influence the employees put out of work. Obviously. It’s held sway in plenty of other industries that affect the public’s mental health and their lives. The education department, in particular, has suffered a lot of changes. For starters, over 1,300 employees were fired on a single day less than a week ago. The effects of this change are causing anxiety among several people that are involved with the education department in one way or another. Alberto Carvalho, an LA superintendent for his local school district, for example, talked about the 750 million dollars his district receives for "poor students, English language-learners, students with disabilities..." In a word, minorities. These are people that rely on the Department of Education, even if they don't know it. Almost every US citizen relies on some department of the government, even if they don't know it.
But nobody cares.
There might be some faint glimmer of hope, though. With the way our nation is today, a lot of people don't really trust due process anymore, which is reasonable. Mass media hasn't really helped with that. But the legal side of America is still strong, and it can still fight back if it has to. Even if it feels like Trump. Musk, and all of the people associated with them are going to get away with this, there are still people that think what they're doing is wrong. One of those people is the District Court Judge William Alsup.
Just a few days ago, Alsup ordered almost 20,000 probationary employees firings to be blocked in the following departments: The Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Treasury. So it's a lot. The Trump Administration, of course, is trying to return fire. They claim that what Alsup is doing is a dangerous breach of authority, and that if Alsup wants some kind of executive power, "they can try and run for President themselves." Which is, of course, very mature. Still, Alsup realizes that what the Trump Administration and DOGE is doing is ultimately unlawful, and if they want to downsize the federal workforce, they'll have to do it right. It's definitely a start, and we can only hope that the public attention that the case is garnering will bring more attention to the issue of the mass layoffs.
5 comments:
This post makes an important point: the layoffs in the public sector aren’t about making the government more efficient, but about taking away jobs and weakening essential services. The people losing their jobs aren’t just numbers. They are workers who help veterans, students, and communities in need. Federal jobs provide stability that many private companies don’t, and cutting them only hurts working families. Judge Alsup’s decision to block some of these layoffs is a step in the right direction, but it shouldn’t take a court order to stop harmful policies. This is a clear attempt to shrink the government on purpose so conservatives can claim it doesn’t work. If people don’t push back by voting and speaking out, those who rely on public services will suffer while billionaires like Musk benefit.
I find the mass firing that the Department of Government Efficiency is doing to be kind of reckless. In a way, it shows no remorse and disregards the people who are behind the jobs. I believe that the government has a job to serve the public. Alberto Carvalho shares how his district is getting their funding cut which is obviously a concern for those in the district. Something like this happening makes me wonder why the Department of Education is being hammered. Rather than making the Department of Education more efficient, I find that the department is getting torn apart. The response to “run for President” seems extreme as it suggests that Alsup should run for more power. More of a power struggle rather than making the government better in my eyes.
I think they think from their personal experience that less people with more power makes government more efficient. They think by spending less money on employing workers they can distribute more to programs like the military or social security. They’re actions, such as defunding USAID, foreign aid and DEI clearly shows how he and Trump view the US as superior to any other country. It is also clear that by dismissing Alsup or anyone in the government who might be able to balance out their power, that they want to become the sole rulers of America. While I don’t think cutting down the federal workforce is a bad idea, I think the way they are going about trying to cut it down to make it more “efficient” is extremely damaging to the workers and the American economy and doesn’t in the end make any department of government more efficient. Eventually, we’re going to notice how much we rely on government programs that have been defunded or reduced in employees by Musk and Americans are going to suffer as a result.
The current federal firings do put millions of Americans, international citizens, and the employees themselves at risk of harm. As conveyed in the post, there is some hope due to the legal blocks to the DOGE's uncontrolled firings. However, there will continue to be turmoil within the running of these departments and those working there if they are continuously fired then rehired then fired again that will ultimately lead to exhaustion. Not to mention, who will accept federal jobs in the future for lower pay if they are no longer promised the stability of a government job? Hopefully these firings will also lead to some backlash from Republicans, as well, as many passionate Trump voters are among the groups of people being mass-fired from government positions.
One major concern that isn’t fully explored here is the long-term impact of these mass federal layoffs on institutional knowledge and government efficiency itself—the very thing DOGE was supposedly created to improve. Government agencies rely on experienced personnel who understand the complexities of their departments, from veterans’ mental health services to environmental protections. When these workers are abruptly fired, that expertise is lost, and agencies are forced to operate with fewer resources and less institutional memory, leading to inefficiencies, delays, and costly mistakes. Additionally, a weakened federal workforce may push more responsibilities onto private contractors, which can end up costing taxpayers even more in the long run. While Judge Alsup’s ruling provides a temporary reprieve, it raises a critical question: is this mass downsizing truly about efficiency, or is it an ideological move to shrink government at any cost?
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