(WASHINGTON) — Two weeks since the Trump administration eliminated nearly half of the Department of Education’s workforce through an overhaul that affected roughly 2,000 people and just days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to diminish the department, scores of former department employees say there is chaos and confusion among them.
And as the agency continues its massive restructuring, zoom calls and clap-outs for employees affected by the reduction in force are happening this week. The civil servants have been coming back into Department of Education offices to retrieve their belongings and having virtual celebrations for the departed colleagues.
The former Department of Education employees, some who were reinstated but placed on paid administrative leave, and several who spoke with ABC News on the condition of anonymity, said they are in shock and disbelief and are nervous about the future.
“I think right now, the name of the game is uncertainty,” one former Department of Education probationary employee told ABC News. “There is a lot of uncertainty about where do things stand, what is going to be next, what protections are we going to be able to maintain.”
“Until we hear directly from the administration what their actual plan or intent is, like, we don’t have a full scope to decide what’s going to be next,” the employee added.
Reinstated — then their entire division was eliminated
This former Department of Education public affairs specialist said he or she cried “nonstop” after being terminated alongside dozens of probationary hires in February.
After a federal judge reinstated thousands of probationary employees throughout the federal government last week, the public affairs specialist was rehired, put on paid administrative leave and then laid off again because his or her entire communications division was shuttered.
“It has been very hard,” the person said. “It really has been hard and heartbreaking because I was planning on having a career with the department.”
Not only were close to 2,000 department employees dismissed during the “reduction in force,” but there are still a handful of staffers on paid administrative leave, who were put on leave in January, eight weeks ago, for taking voluntary diversity trainings during Trump’s first term.
One of the department employees on paid leave, who spoke with ABC News on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, also lost their job during the RIF
The employee worked in a New York City division of the Office of Federal Student Aid, which was one of the regional offices the department announced was closing to downsize the already-lean agency.
“I was shocked and especially when I heard how many divisions were being closed,” the FSA employee said. “It is reckless.”
FSA civil servants are tasked with helping the nation’s students achieve higher education, including overseeing an over $1 trillion portfolio of student loans and providing grants to students to attend college.
It’s one of the largest offices within the Education Department. The office has over 1,000 employees — over a quarter of the entire agency’s workforce. It also took a massive hit during the RIF, and the president has said the FSA office will move under the Small Business Administration.
The former employee worked in one of the FSA’s school eligibility and oversight service branches, helping to provide a check on schools that administered loans and grants to students. Through a process called program review, the employee’s position goes to schools and reviews them for their compliance.
Losing this division will “harm students,” the former employee said.
“It’s sickening,” the former employee told ABC News. “This pool of students will be paying back on loans that are millions of dollars too high.”
Reinstated — but everything is confusing
Those who were fired and now reinstated have been given no further details about their positions, some reinstated employees told ABC News. They said it is unclear when their health insurance is expiring and if they will continue to receive paychecks.
An FSA probationary attorney, who did oversight and enforcement in the borrower defense unit, told ABC News he or she went on unemployment recently after being fired on Feb. 12. The employee’s final prorated paycheck for the last three days of work of that pay period was on March 4, but he or she was reinstated last Monday.
The employee didn’t receive notice of the reinstatement until repeatedly reaching out to management on personal email accounts because he or she no longer has access to Department of Education systems.
“We’re all just very confused,” the employee said. “The team of us that were let go altogether have all been emailing whoever we can find out and the big thing is: No one knows anything.”
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