As the Trump administration aggressively seeks to “reduce the size of the federal government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition,” as expressed in an executive order on Monday, workers in targeted positions worry their jobs are particularly at risk of being changed or eliminated.
In his most targeted move, President Donald Trump seeks to eliminate roles related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) – which supported Biden administration efforts – both in the federal workforce as well as in federal contracting and spending. The Biden-era initiative was intended to “promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce.”
In a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, agency heads were told all federal employees in DEIA roles should be placed on paid leave by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 22, and instructed to have a plan by Jan. 31 for formally dismissing them. All DEIA-related offices and programs will be closed, and their websites and social media accounts will be removed, the memo stated.
The memo further asks employees to report any efforts to “disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language” and added that “failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.”
The “DEIA order is clearly meant to initiate a reduction in force among those folks,” said Andrew Huddleston, a spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees, a federal workers union. “They are very at risk.”
Also read: For federal workers, Trump’s return-to-office order amounts to an unwelcome pay cut
Workers in DEI roles are far from the only federal employees at risk of losing their jobs. In a separate memo, the OPM also asked agencies to send a list of new hires who are still in their probationary periods – who have served either less than one year in a “competitive service appointment,” meaning they were hired through a competitive process, or have served less than two years in an “excepted service appointment,” meaning they weren’t required to go through the competitive process – by Friday.
“Agencies should promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency,” the OPM memo said, adding that those whose jobs are being eliminated or restructured can be placed on administrative leave.
In addition to new hires, people who have recently received job offers from federal agencies but haven’t yet started are now saying on social media those offers are being rescinded, leaving them displaced and looking for work again. A memo from the Office of Management and Budget and OPM shared with MarketWatch stated that as part of the hiring freeze, “No vacant positions existing at 11:59 A.M. on Jan. 20, 2025, may be filled and no new positions may be created, except in limited circumstances.”
If someone had been given a job offer prior to noon on Jan. 20, signed an offer letter accepting the position, and been given a start date on or before Feb. 8, their position is not impacted, the memo said. Candidates who may have received a job offer, but don’t meet those criteria (for example, having a start date later than Feb. 8, or no start date) will have their offers revoked. The agency will need OMB approval to reinstate a rescinded offer.
“Make no mistake – this action is not about making the federal government run more efficiently, but rather is about sowing chaos and targeting a group of patriotic Americans that President Trump openly calls crooked and dishonest,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley in a statement about the hiring freeze.
While jobs related to Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits could be exempt from the hiring freeze, according to the order, a freeze on hiring for the Internal Revenue Service will remain even after it expires for other agencies upon implementation of the OMB plan to reduce the workforce.
The IRS has been a target of Elon Musk, now head of the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” who wants to simplify the tax code and once asked users on X if funding for the agency should be “deleted.” Trump’s nominee for IRS commissioner, Billy Long, once voted to abolish the IRS as a member of Congress. The IRS received an $80 billion funding boost under the Inflation Reduction Act during Joe Biden’s presidency, and had been in the process of hiring thousands of employees before Trump took office.
It is not clear how many workers will be affected by Trump’s latest orders. The White House and OPM did not respond to requests for comment.
