Mass Federal Layoffs: How Schedule A Employees Became the First to Go

A digital illustration of an email notification with the bold subject line "You're Fired" displayed on a white sheet emerging from an open blue envelope. The background shows a blurred email inbox interface with unread messages, reinforcing the theme of job termination or layoffs.

It’s Valentine’s Day. A day for love and connection. But instead of unwinding, I’m fuming.

Because once again, disabled federal employees are being treated as disposable.

Last night, reports by The Washington Post, The New York Times and others confirmed what many of us feared: the Trump administration has escalated mass federal layoffs, targeting probationary employees first—including those hired under Schedule A, the federal hiring program for workers with disabilities.

It’s infuriating. It’s discriminatory. And it’s completely predictable.

For those unfamiliar, Schedule A is not a handout. It’s a hiring path for people with disabilities that requires extensive documentation, qualifications, and agency approval.

But here’s the kicker: while most new federal employees serve a one-year probationary period, Schedule A employees must prove themselves for two years. The justification? That disabled workers need extra assessment to determine if they "belong" in public service.

It’s blatant discrimination baked into policy.

And now, those extended probationary periods have made Schedule A employees an easy target for mass layoffs.

On Thursday, 200,000 probationary workers were put on notice. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Department of Education, and U.S. Small Business Administration were hit hard.

🔹 More than 1,000 VA employees—gone.
🔹 Entire teams at U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and SBA—fired overnight.
🔹 Education Department employees helping disabled students—cut loose.

These weren’t performance-based firings. No warnings. No due process. Just emails that never arrived and pre-recorded layoff videos.

This isn’t just about budget cuts. It’s part of a broader attack on disability inclusion in federal employment.

This administration has already gone after:
✅ Remote work policies (which help disabled workers)
✅ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives
✅ Reasonable accommodations (now “under review” by some agencies)

The pattern is clear. They don’t want us here.

What Needs to Happen Next?

🔹 Share this post. Get the word out.
🔹 Contact your representatives. Demand oversight.
🔹 Support federal worker unions. AFGE is fighting back—help them.
🔹 Push for Schedule A reform. The two-year probation rule is discriminatory and unjust.

People with disabilities fought for decades to secure a place in the federal workforce. We’ve been overlooked, underestimated, and discarded at every turn.

And now, we’re being purged again—just because we were the easiest to cut loose.

If we stay silent, this will happen again.

And next time, it might be worse.

Federal Workforce Cuts Are Coming—And Disabled Employees Are the First to Go

Elon Musk, with his son X Æ A-Xii, speaks with President Donald Trump and reporters in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday.

When the now infamous “buyout” offer hit my inbox a few weeks ago, I was dumbfounded. Just type, ‘resign’ in the body of the e-mail and we’ll pay you through September. It’s that easy!

I’ve seen Nigerian princes put more energy into their scams.

Federal employees like me—many of whom are disabled—are being left in limbo as the latest executive orders attempt to gut the federal workforce under the guise of “efficiency.” The latest round of chaos?

👉 A deferred resignation program designed to “persuade” employees to quit, which a judge has already paused due to legal challenges.
👉 A hiring freeze that mandates one new hire for every four who leave—essentially ensuring agencies shrink rapidly, with no plan to sustain essential functions.
👉 Agencies signaling they may reevaluate reasonable accommodations, adding yet another layer of red tape for disabled employees who already face enough hurdles.

These executive orders aren’t about “efficiency.” They are designed to break the civil service. And disabled employees—who rely on accommodations to do their jobs—are among the most vulnerable.

A judge temporarily paused the deferred resignation program after unions representing 800,000 civil servants called it an “arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum,” according to The Washington Post. Yet OPM is still pushing it, with the White House calling it a “very generous, once-in-a-lifetime offer.”

This administration has already been slapped down in court multiple times for executive overreach. Trump’s orders gutting birthright citizenship, freezing federal grants, and mass-firing USAID employees have all been blocked. That doesn’t stop them from trying.

When agencies need to cut positions fast, who gets targeted first? The
answer isn’t theoretical—it’s happening now:

✅ Federal workers with disabilities already face disproportionate scrutiny. Any reevaluation of accommodations means we’ll have to fight harder just to keep the support we already have.
✅ Layoffs disproportionately harm disabled employees who may have fewer opportunities to find comparable private-sector jobs with the same level of accessibility.
✅ The rhetoric doesn’t match reality. They claim this is about “efficiency,” but efficiency doesn’t look like forcing out experienced professionals while agencies struggle with understaffing.

As one EEOC lawyer put it:

“OPM’s breezily condescending emails don’t mention federal ethics laws at all. They’re either intentionally lying to us or didn’t bother to do basic research. Either way, they can’t be trusted.”

I have been a federal employee, a disability advocate, and a firsthand witness to the barriers disabled people face in the workplace. If these executive orders move forward unchallenged, we will see an exodus of talented, dedicated disabled professionals—pushed out not because we can’t do the job, but because bureaucracy is being weaponized against us.

Trump executive order vows substantial cuts to federal workforce

The Midnight Deadline That Could Change the Federal Workforce Forever

Demonstrators rally during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump and the actions he has taken in the first weeks of his presidency, outside of the Department of Labor (not pictured) in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2025.

As Tom Petty famously said, "You can stand me up at the gates of hell, I won't back down."

This morning, like every other federal employee, I received another email reminding me that time is almost up. The so-called "Fork in the Road" buyout offer—a forced choice that feels anything but voluntary—expires tonight.

This isn’t just another bureaucratic reshuffling. It’s an existential crisis for public service.

For more than a decade, I have proudly served as a federal employee, working across multiple administrations, and several agencies. I've advocated for healthcare with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), promoted innovation at the USPTO, and today I fight for the American worker at the U.S. Department of Labor. Now, that career—like those of thousands of my colleagues—hangs in the balance, not because of performance or budget constraints, but due to a politically motivated purge of the federal workforce.

And I’m not alone.

“If you have to send us 10 emails saying this is totally not a scam… then it’s probably a scam,” David Casserly told POLITICO.

Federal employees across agencies have voiced our concerns: we do not trust this offer.

There is no legal certainty that severance will be paid past March 14, when current government funding expires. Meanwhile, those who refuse the buyout face an implicit threat of future layoffs. Messaging from U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has been inconsistent, shifting policies and timelines in ways that appear designed to create confusion.

The irony? The very people being targeted for removal are the backbone of government efficiency.

Career civil servants do not take these jobs for money or prestige. We do this work because we believe in it. We are committed to upholding the rule of law, ensuring that government services run smoothly, and protecting the most vulnerable members of our society. We are the employees processing Social Security claims, enforcing labor laws, and ensuring accessibility in federal programs. Yet, we are now treated as obstacles to be removed.

So, what happens tomorrow?

For those of us refusing the buyout, we brace for retaliation. The Department of Government Efficiency met with Labor Department leadership yesterday, and the message was clear: this is only the beginning. We do not know if access to federal systems will be revoked overnight. We do not know if mass terminations are imminent. What we do know is that this administration is determined to eliminate career public servants, and it is not being subtle about it.

But we are still here. And we are not backing down.

If you are a federal worker—or if you know one—check in, reach out, and offer support. No matter what happens after midnight, we must stand together.

“Did You Do Anything Related to DEI?”—The Question That’s Destroying Federal Careers

The Education Department headquarters in Washington on Jan. 15.

I’ve spent over a decade in federal service, working across multiple administrations. I’ve proudly served my country, navigating shifting policies, political climates, and leadership changes. But what’s happening now? It’s not just a shift. It’s an erasure—one that’s putting careers, rights, and fundamental American values on the line.

If you’ve ever attended a DEI training, served on an affinity group, or simply advocated for fairness, you might be next.

This administration isn’t just eliminating DEI programs—it’s purging people. At least 50 Department for Education employees have been placed on leave, yet “almost none of them worked in jobs directly related to DEI,” according to The Washington Post. Their crime? Being associated with diversity efforts in any way.

That’s the threshold for being removed from service.

This isn’t just about diversity training—it’s about who belongs in the federal workforce at all. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent a mass email giving employees a “choice”: resign now with a deferred resignation package or risk losing your job without guarantees.

A U.S. Department of Justice worker summed it up perfectly to POLITICO “It felt like we were being asked to swear allegiance to a new form of government.”

DEI isn’t a radical concept—it’s the very promise of this country.

We have fought, legally and morally, to build a system where opportunity isn’t dictated by race, gender, ability, or background. And yet, this administration is doing everything it can to undo that progress.

They aren’t just removing DEI from federal offices—they’re erasing it from history. Government websites with EEOC information were taken down for days, making it harder for employees to even report discrimination .

For those of us with disabilities, this isn’t theoretical. I’ve advocated for policies that make federal spaces more accessible—not just for myself, but for millions of Americans who need those same protections.

So when people say “DEI is dead”, as Trump recently did , I hear something else: “People like you don’t belong.”

But here’s the thing: we’re still here. And we are not going quietly.

Federal employees—especially those of us from historically excluded backgrounds—are exhausted. We’re being pushed out, threatened, and told we don’t matter. But the truth is, we are the backbone of this government. Career staff keep the country running regardless of who is in office. We have institutional knowledge that no executive order can erase.

So if you’re reading this, check on your friends in government. We are holding on by a thread. We need allies. We need people to speak out. We need each other.

And if you’re in the private sector thinking, “This won’t affect me”? Think again. Because when DEI disappears from government, it emboldens companies to follow suit. And when institutional knowledge is lost, we all pay the price.

Trump’s DEI purge targets federal workers who did not work in DEI

The War on DEI: What It Means for Disability Advocacy in the Federal Workforce

The image shows a close-up of a document titled "Termination of Employment" placed on a wooden desk. To the side, there is a partial view of a keyboard and a yellow-tinted pair of eyeglasses resting on a closed book.

The federal government is currently experiencing a period of significant change in areas such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, return-to-office mandates, and executive orders that directly affect federal policies. As a long-time federal employee, I find myself closely observing these developments and working to adapt—just like many of you. This is undoubtedly a time of uncertainty for federal workers, and understandably so. Recent rollbacks in DEI programming, elimination of related roles, and the enforcement of RTO mandates are reshaping the workplace landscape at a rapid pace.

For me, these changes feel personal. As someone with a disability—navigating chronic pain, a visual impairment, and reliance on assistive technology—this shifting landscape poses significant challenges. The pace of change is unsettling, but it’s important to acknowledge that much remains unknown. While the push for these policy changes is concerning, full implementation will take time. Many of the fears we face today may not materialize immediately.

Despite the uncertainties, one thing remains clear: we all share a responsibility to uphold the humanity of our workplaces. Whether as colleagues or leaders, it’s on us to ensure that everyone—regardless of ability—can succeed in the roles they were hired to fulfill. While DEI initiatives and remote work policies are evolving, some measures remain stable for now.

The current RTO memo includes language that supports remote work as a reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities. This provision is a step in the right direction. However, the future of Schedule A—a hiring authority designed to bring individuals with disabilities into federal service—is less certain. While Schedule A has its limitations, it has served as a vital pathway into federal employment for many. For now, it remains intact, offering a glimmer of stability amidst the changes.

As federal employees, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the uncertainty and rapid shifts happening around us. But it’s important to take a moment to reflect and breathe. We are still in the early days of this administration, and much of what is being proposed will require time to take shape. The federal government’s processes are famously slow-moving, and significant changes often face bureaucratic resistance and legal challenges before they can be fully implemented.

This doesn’t diminish the real fears and concerns many of us are feeling. The anxiety around job security, workplace accessibility, and the future of DEI initiatives is valid and deeply felt. However, it’s also important to recognize that the laws protecting disabled workers have been hard-won and will not be easily undone. Legal safeguards and advocacy efforts remain powerful tools in preserving workplace equity.

As we navigate these turbulent times, let us move forward with care, grace, and resilience.