Many fired probationary employees have not ‘moved on,’ survey shows

More than a year after some 25,000 probationary federal employees were fired under the Trump administration, a new survey is pushing back against the sentiment that those individuals have since “moved on.”

In September 2025, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that the Office of Personnel Management had unlawfully directed agencies to fire probationary federal employees en masse. Although he ordered agencies to revise employment records to reflect that employees were not removed for “performance,” the ruling did not call for the reinstatement of probationary employees.

At the time, Alsup said reinstatement was unlikely to provide much relief, since the employees “have moved on with their lives and found new jobs,” and that “many would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts.”

But the results of a recent survey beg to differ. Hundreds of former probationary employees described ongoing challenges related to their careers and mental health, as well as concerns of lasting impacts at their former agencies.

The survey was administered by 27 UNIHTED, a grassroots organization that advocates for current and former employees at the National Institutes of Health. More than 300 former probationary employees across dozens of agencies and 43 states filled out the survey. Respondents were self-selected and self-identified as former probationary employees.

Christa Reynolds, a former NIH employee, was one of the thousands dismissed last February while still under a probationary period and without tenured job protections.

“In September, I was still unemployed and looking for work, and definitely not feeling like I’d been able to move on, even though I would have liked to,” said Reynolds, one of the survey organizers, during an online town hall last week.

Tracy Starr, a former crisis operations specialist at USAID, said when she was hired in early 2025, it was her dream job. She had been there four weeks when she received a termination notice.

“To this day, I still think about what could have been and what I could be doing right now,” Starr, one of the survey respondents, said in an interview. “There were people like me who were coming in, who were just starting their career, just starting to do the good work that USAID did.”

“For people to say we’re doing great, we’ve moved on — no, we haven’t,” she added. “[The firings] ruined lives.”

Whitney Behr had been working at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for eight months when she learned in February 2025 that she was being fired. In the aftermath of her removal, Behr immediately began job searching because she “didn’t have a choice.”

“I was just in an absolute scramble trying to figure out how to rebuild my life or keep my life from falling fully apart,” Behr, a survey respondent, later said in an interview. “It was a really scary time.”

“Even as time passes, the wound still feels fresh,” Behr continued. “I am still experiencing the emotional fallout from this experience.”

The new survey results from 27 UNIHTED come more than a year after thousands of probationary federal employees were fired across government in February 2025. At the time, agencies stated that the employees were being removed for “performance,” although the vast majority of employees had no prior performance issues.

One of the survey organizers, speaking anonymously due to fear of retaliation, was removed from her federal job as a probationary employee last year and later rehired as a contractor working for the same agency program.

“A lot of this was fueled by anger, frustration and wanting the truth to come out, versus what was being said about us,” the employee said in an interview. “The survey results show that, for those of you who are struggling, you’re not alone.”

About 95% of survey respondents reported continuous mental health challenges, such as depression and sleep disruption, after their terminations. More than 50% said they have been experiencing trauma-related symptoms.

“I have tried to turn the page and move on, but this will reverberate through my life for years,” one respondent wrote in the survey results, which were published online.

“I still have nightmares about the firings,” another respondent wrote.

In a January 2026 press briefing, President Donald Trump lauded his administration’s workforce cuts as “tremendous,” and said many federal employees who were removed had landed private sector jobs with much higher salaries.

But according to the survey, 68% of respondents who have started new jobs reported they now have lower or significantly lower salaries compared with their pay in government. Some also described a loss of interest and passion in their careers after being removed.

“I have lost my love of doing anything but the job I had,” said Starr, the former USAID employee. “That’s really difficult to come to terms with. You have to settle, but it’s very hard when you’ve worked a whole life to get to your dream, and then have it ruthlessly taken away.”

Many have faced difficulties finding employment, according to the survey results. While some probationary employees were later reinstated at their agencies, others began job searching in the months following their terminations. On a question about the job search, the largest single group of survey respondents reported they had submitted more than 100 applications, or in some cases even more.

“Despite this effort, interviews were hard to come by, with most workers reporting only a handful of interviews,” 27 UNIHTED wrote in survey analysis. “Job offers were even scarcer, with the majority receiving just one, and a high number receiving none at all.”

Some respondents said they found work within a few months, but others spent six months or longer searching for jobs. About 17% of respondents were still unemployed a year later — the largest single group of respondents for that question.

“Accepting a role with the federal government was the worst mistake of my life, despite it being my dream job. I am now critically underemployed,” one respondent wrote.

Another wrote, “This set me back over a decade in my career. I will never find a job like this again.”

While some of the probationary employees were new to government, others were on a probationary period due to a promotion or transfer, and fired despite having worked in government for years or in some cases decades.

As a result of the terminations, many survey respondents said there has been a loss of institutional knowledge, higher workloads for remaining staff and worsening agency services. Behr, the former FWS employee, said when she was dismissed, there was one employee left behind to manage her program, covering work across eight U.S. states.

“Both of us were already stretched pretty thin,” Behr said. “I was haunted by how much work she had now that I had been fired.”

Many survey respondents also reported a lack of trust, transparency and inconsistent communication across agencies. Close to 82% said they do not trust top agency leadership following the firings. Just 16% said their agencies were transparent about the situation.

“This experience led me to believe that I am expendable,” one respondent wrote. “I live in fear that I will be fired again and it makes it hard to concentrate on my job even after being reinstated.”

Another respondent wrote, “It just doesn’t seem right that they were able to do this and then get away with it. And a year later, people are still suffering.”

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11

Copyright © 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.