A Massive Harsh Layoffs: Trump 2.0 Fires Federal Employees via Team Meeting and Given 30 Minutes to Leave

In an ambitious attempt to downsize the federal workforce, the Trump administration has dismissed more than 9,500 federal employees. Many received last-minute notifications via Microsoft Teams calls and an order to vacate their offices within half an hour. 

Musk via his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) mostly focuses on probationary employees who are those that have worked for less than a year from the Department of Interior, the Department of Energy, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. 

The manner in which these dismissals were handled has drawn considerable controversy. It has been reported that dozens of probationary employees in the OPM had their dismissals finalized in a Microsoft Teams group meeting and were instructed to leave within a half hour. 

Critics noted that these abrupt dismissals violate worker’s rights and due process stating “no notice, no due process and no opportunity to defend themselves,” and the actions represented a violation of the principles of fairness and merit associated with federal employment. 

The administration insists that the layoffs are its in-house, necessary measures to reduce what it perceives as a bloated federal bureaucracy, yet the nature and timing of such terminations caused terrific chaos and confusion among federal employees and generated real doubts about the ethics and legal validity of such mass firings. 

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