Laid-off federal workers are holding out hope that either the courts or a stagnate Congress will get them their jobs back — and trying to avoid the increasingly crowded job market if they can.
Dozens of former federal workers gathered at a Senate office building Tuesday for what they called a “job fair.” But workers who spoke to NOTUS said they haven’t been looking for new jobs yet.
“This happened about a week-and-a-half ago, I haven’t really been able to wrap my mind about it,” Hendrick Simoes, a veteran and former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employee who was laid off in the mass firing of probationary workers, told NOTUS.
Simoes described a sentence in the firing email that said, “your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs,” as the most jarring. “I know that’s flatly untrue. I had just received a quarterly review which called me exemplary, exceeding expectations,” Simoes said. “The dishonesty of it all is truly what gets me.”
He is, though, trying to stay optimistic. “What’s right is going to prevail here, I’m still holding onto that hope,” he said, pointing to ongoing lawsuits and the efforts of advocates in Congress, like Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who stopped by the gathering.
Two weeks ago, a federal judge ruled against the mass firing of probationary workers (who are mostly people hired within the last year), granting temporary relief as the case proceeds. But the ruling didn’t reinstate the already-fired probationary employees.
Van Hollen said Tuesday that Democrats in Congress “will use every tool in our power to put everybody back to work,” reflecting the sentiment of a sign workers held nearby, which read, “Put Us Back to Work.”
But without a majority in the House or Senate, that tool kit is limited, and even Van Hollen repeatedly pointed to the courts for hope. He said that he supports “every piece of legislation to reinstate illegally fired employees,” when a worker asked him about the House-led MERIT Act, which has no Republican sponsors.
Workers on the Hill on Tuesday tried to reach out to Republican senators, too, who have more power to move the needle. A group stopped by Sen. Katie Britt’s office, but were removed by Capitol police a few minutes later. (Britt’s office told NOTUS that it asked the workers to leave because they weren’t from Alabama, the senator’s state).
Some Republicans have signaled alarm about federal worker layoffs, and have been bombarded about it during town halls in their districts. And Republicans have reportedly privately expressed concern to the White House, while publicly voicing DOGE-style talking points.
One recently fired worker told NOTUS they’ve been waiting all week for a come-back-to-work email after the Merit Systems Protection Board last week ordered their former agency to temporarily reinstate laid-off workers.
But that email still hadn’t come, and “there’s a huge concern among us that even if we get reinstated, we’ll be terminated again,” said the worker, who asked for anonymity out of fear that speaking out could block their chance at reinstatement.
Meanwhile, outside organizations that support federal workers are trying to meet the need for resources, whether it’s providing help to those looking to be reinstated or those looking for a new job. An email blast Tuesday from the Partnership for Public Service gave tips on “How to maximize your LinkedIn profile” and promoted a webinar Wednesday about what to know about unemployment insurance in D.C.
One laid-off U.S. Agency for International Development doctor, Troy Jacobs, told NOTUS that, for now, this kind of organizing is his main job.
“In the immediate next term, I’m participating in the legal and advocacy, because hopefully we’ll be able to salvage some of USAID. It may not necessarily mean my position, unfortunately, but that’s the sort of goal in the short term,” Jacbos said.
“In the long term, I’m a pediatrician and there’s a lot of need, but I’ll have to find a job.”
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Claire Heddles is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.