Former government standout uses FedSupport resources to navigate chaos in the federal workforce

In April 2025, a leading federal communicator found herself without a job for the first time in nearly two decades, ​​let go as part of the Trump administration’s haphazard workforce reductions despite an exemplary career that included helping to spearhead outreach for a landmark effort to reduce health disparities for millions of Americans.

The news was part of a chaotic rollout of thousands of layoffs across her agency that left the employee and her team reeling. 

“It was a masterclass on how not to do a layoff,” she said.  

To jumpstart her career transition, the employee turned to the Partnership for Public Service, which had launched a new FedSupport initiative to provide current and former civil servants with resources to navigate the current environment, either by continuing to serve or by transitioning out of government.   

“The Partnership was there from the start, a trusted resource for us that met our needs and provided a sense of solidarity,” she said.  

A career of achievement upended

Since January, the Trump administration has made sweeping—and often chaotic and arbitrary—cuts to the civil service. As of late October 2025, more than 211,000 employees have left the federal government due to layoffs or voluntary buyouts, according to the Partnership’s Federal Harms Tracker.   

This unprecedented dismantling of the federal workforce ushered in a period of “prolonged pain” at the employee’s agency.  

In February, thousands of probationary employees were let go. Many had previously been government contractors and possessed years of expertise in public health. Then, news started to leak in dribs and drabs that more cuts were coming.  

When they came, chaos ensued. 

Employees were let go piecemeal, in seemingly random order, with leadership often in the dark about who was targeted and HR staff swamped by inquiries about the layoffs even as their own teams faced cuts too. With answers in short supply, employees relied on Reddit for information, a situation that made for a confusing and disruptive work environment. 

“I had always heard that there was an organized process for reductions in force and that talent decisions would be made strategically. Instead, comms offices across the whole agency were cut wholesale, leaving very few people at all,” she said.  

All of this was hardly befitting for an accomplished public servant of deep integrity. As the child of parents whose work in education and scientific research relied on support from the government, the employee sought to enter federal service from an early age. 

Eventually, she earned a Presidential Management Fellowship, a premier leadership development program that helped thousands of graduate-degree holders enter public service over nearly five decades. President Trump canceled the program in February 2025.   

“I wanted ​to ​make the world a better place,” she said.  

Later, as a communications lead at her agency, she provided diverse communities with critical health information, bringing them into medical studies that are today informing better health interventions for underrepresented groups.  

Her proudest accomplishment was ​​supporting ​​outreach efforts for a precision-medicine study that engaged hundreds ​​of ​​thousands of people nationwide. The initiative continues despite budget cuts and the recent government shutdown, but its entire communications function is now gone, leaving the agency devoid of a team to conduct additional outreach.  

“Public servants are used to serving under different administrations and adapting to new policies, but this was really jumbled and affected our work in big ways,” she said. “The whole process was not implemented in the spirit of efficiency or information-sharing.”   

Looking to the Partnership

As an Excellence in Government Fellows Program alum, the employee knew the Partnership had deep knowledge of federal workforce issues and could be trusted. 

So, after the reductions began, she and her team immediately looked to the organization for support.  

What they found was a treasure trove of resources that helped her understand her legal options to challenge the ​​termination ​​and how to pivot professionally. 

She credited the Partnership with being one of the first organizations to put out FAQs and fact sheets on employee rights and due process, how reductions in force worked and the legalities of agency reorganizations.  

The resources helped inform her decision to appeal her termination with the Merit Systems Protection Board. Her claim is still before the board, which until recently lacked a quorum, potentially slowing the adjudication of thousands of appeals. 

The employee also enrolled in the Partnership’s Career Pivot Bootcamp, a free online course that helps current or former federal employees transition out of the federal government, as well as a career fair that featured more than 75 state and local government agencies.  

A webinar on resilience also offered helpful tips for managing adversity and uncertainty.  

“The Partnership was one of the few places supplying us with critical information that helped me wrap my head around how to navigate all of these challenges,” she said. 

Looking to the future

As for landing a job? That is still a work in progress. With former federal employees flooding the Washington, D.C., labor market, times are tough.  

The employee is currently applying for different roles, seeking to apply her expertise and service orientation to a mission-driven organization outside the federal sector.  

She said it would be a “gift” to work with her team again but does not know whether she will return to her job if her appeal is upheld.  

As for an eventual return to the federal government, she has not ruled it out down the road, in a different climate.   

“I still believe in the work that government does, and I am still inspired by people who work there,” she said.