‘Scared and betrayed’ — workers are reeling from chaos at federal agencies
1 min read
Summary
Federal employees in the US face an unprecedented level of chaos.
In the third week of Donald Trump’s presidency, workers at federal agencies are scrambling to find their footing in the midst of significant change.
Elon Musk’s attempt to take control of the USAID humanitarian agency has caused insecurity for other agency workers, who wonder if their workplace will be next.
Employees are working in an atmosphere of paranoia and hyper-vigilance, with messages relating to work being conducted via encrypted messaging service Signal.
Lawmakers staged a protest in front of the USAID headquarters on Monday, with one stating: “We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk”.
Attempts to remove gender references have led to some agencies removing all references to gender, and all US government employees have been told to remove pronouns from email signatures.
Federal employees are planning to stage demonstrations of solidarity outside the Office of Personnel Management every morning this week at 7.30am.
Employees are wondering how much more they can take, with one stating: “There’s a climate of fear, but also of solidarity, or resilience”.