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Scores of federal workers lined up outside their offices on April Fools’ Day to see if their badges worked. If it didn’t, it wasn’t a joke; it meant their job had been cut as part of the latest reduction in force, or RIF, efforts being carried out by the Trump administration.
One worker who spoke to WTOP recalled the experience of showing up Tuesday morning to a long line of colleagues at a D.C.-area Department of Health and Human Services building. One by one, workers would go through a security check and put their badge up to the door.
If the light turned green, they still had their job. If it turned red, they didn’t.
“It felt like ‘Squid Games,’” the worker said.
For this federal employee who worked in a division that addressed mental health and substance use, a two-hour wait in line to swipe their badge resulted in the latter — they saw a red light.
“It was humiliating, and then you had to walk all the way back through security and have someone escort you through the building,” the worker said.
The worker was among several willing to sit down with WTOP after they received the unfortunate news. Their time with the federal government ranged from just over a year to 14 years on the job. They did not want their names used since they are still on administrative leave with the agency until June 2.
Another HHS employee said that they arrived just after 5 a.m. with a colleague, and they “had a feeling” their job was targeted when the person’s badge didn’t work at the garage.
“They are torturing federal workers right now,” another employee told WTOP.
On X, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the RIF a “difficult moment,” but said the decision was made because “what we’ve been doing isn’t working.”
“Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year. In the past four years alone, the agency’s budget has grown by 38% — yet outcomes continue to decline,” Kennedy said in the post.
“This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy continued.
One worker told WTOP that while they want agencies to be more efficient and accountable, the strategy being used does not make sense. They said many units in the agency consist of “small teams” that are “efficient,” especially in what they are able to accomplish.
“I have not seen any data and evidence to show how these cuts would bring us to efficiency,” they said.
The employees who spoke to WTOP all worked in areas that addressed mental health and substance use concerns in the community, and they said their work has saved lives.
One worker, in response to comments that better jobs will come along, said: “It means so much more than just the job itself. … It’s like wiping out an entire collection of history, of knowledge and being like it doesn’t matter. … It doesn’t matter, and these groups of people don’t matter.”
‘Overdose deaths are going to rise’
With the HHS cuts, the workers said no community is “untouched” by behavioral health concerns, including mental health issues and substance abuse. The cuts will end research and federal support for programs that address those concerns, they said.
“There are so many direct programs and supports in our country that are predominantly helping rural communities, low-income communities, communities in the southeastern region of the United States,” one worker said.
Another employee said overcoming an opioid addiction themselves led to their desire to one day work for the HHS and help others facing similar battles. Overcome with emotion, they said seeing programs end, such as the Drug Abuse Warning Network, has them very worried.
“Something we’re going to see almost immediately is that overdose deaths are going to rise, and most marginalized communities are going to be impacted most, and my heart breaks,” one said.
Another said they also fear a spike in suicides could be seen with the loss of many of the agency’s programs and research.
“I am really sad to think what this world is going to be like for my kid, our kids,” another said.
‘People go into public health because they want to help people’
For these HHS employees, they believe support for the cuts are a result of Americans not truly understanding what most federal workers do.
“We touch everything, there isn’t a single person on this planet who doesn’t get a service from the government,” one employee said.
“People go into public health because they want to help people — that’s why we go into public health,” another stated.
The employees said they all took an oath when taking the job — a job they were proud of having.
“There is no higher calling (than) to work for the federal government, to serve the American people,” one worker said. “We’re not here to make money. If we wanted to make money, we would have been on the contracting side of things.”
The workers said they chose working in the federal government not just for the stability it provided, but also because they felt they could do more meaningful work than they would have in the private sector.
“It’s a very different mindset when you have stocks and other things that come into play that are not about the people and the service,” one said.
All who spoke said the treatment of federal workers in recent months has been difficult to endure, with one calling it “dehumanizing.”
For some, personal networks have been affected as well, with family expressing support for the administration’s actions even if it cost their loved ones their jobs.
“People don’t understand what the job means to me,” one worker said.
They said the past months of uncertainty led to many sleepless nights and stress both in and outside of work. There is also concern about how they’ll support their family and pay their bills.
As they figure out what’s next for them, some said they may be willing to return to the government for work in the future, while others said they won’t.
“It was an honor and a privilege to serve this country, and I think it’s heartbreaking that people dismiss us so readily,” one worker stated.
‘They’ve terminated me twice now’
WTOP also heard from a probationary employee who worked in the National Institutes of Health’s communications department who was shown the door in February when probationary employees were the target of layoffs. The courts stepped in and ordered the Trump administration to rehire those employees. But the employee said on Tuesday, her department was “decimated.”
“I got to be part of the ‘Valentine’s Day Massacre’ and the ‘April Fools’ Day Massacre.’ They’ve terminated me twice now,” she told WTOP.
She said the way she and other federal employees have been treated in recent weeks has resulted in feeling a lot of “rage.”
“It doesn’t feel good to have my livelihood treated like a yo-yo. I mean, I’m in, I’m out, I’m in, I’m out. And no one can explain to me the rationale behind it, because there is no rationale. It is pure cruelty. It is pure callous, cowardly behavior,” she said.
She said her search for work remains “bleak” as she competes for jobs with thousands of others in the same situation as her.
“I see job advertisements go up, and literally within less than 30 minutes, I see the numbers just blow up with how many people have applied for that job,” she said of job posts seen on LinkedIn.
“We are all out here now trying to find new employment, and it’s going to be hard,” she added.
Seeing her communications department effectively shut down, she said, should be a cause of concern for all Americans.
“There’s no way for our institute now to communicate its work, and that is one of the rights of the American people, is to know what their federal tax dollars are going toward. And it’s their right to know what research is happening at NIH,” she said.
Speaking of all the cuts seen across HHS, she believes the full extent of the impact won’t be realized until it is too late.
“People are going to start realizing that loss is going to be dangerous and it’s going to be detrimental and it’s, unfortunately, going to cause suffering, and in many cases, death,” she said.
You can connect with Mike Murillo on Signal: mikemurilloWTOP.1035
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