Victoria Chege’s seven-week stint at her new federal job came to an abrupt end last Saturday when she opened an email that flipped her world upside down. The 24-year-old, who started as a program and management analyst at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, D.C., in December 2024, was one of roughly 10,000 federal workers axed since President Donald Trump took office in January. For Chege, the news arrived not in a meeting or a phone call, but via a curt 2 p.m. email citing “performance reasons”—despite her never having a formal review.
“It’s been a whirlwind of chaos and frustration,” Chege told CNBC. She’d spent weeks on edge, sensing the axe might fall as Trump’s administration, fueled by Senior Advisor Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency, moved swiftly to shrink the federal workforce. Still, the impersonal delivery stung. “Seven weeks isn’t enough time to prove anything,” she said. “I barely got my bearings.”
The Trump administration’s purge has hit hard and fast, with thousands of probationary employees—those with less than a year or two on the job—bearing the brunt. Chege’s story mirrors a broader wave of terminations, many communicated through emails, group calls, or pre-recorded messages. At HHS alone, the cuts are part of a broader effort to “optimize” the bureaucracy, though critics argue it’s more about politics than performance.
For Chege, the timing couldn’t have been worse. She’d relocated to D.C. for the role, expecting stability after landing what she thought was a dream gig. Now, she’s scrambling to figure out what’s next. “I was still learning the ropes,” she said. “To get this over a weekend email—it’s like they didn’t even see me as a person.”
The layoffs, which ramped up in February 2025, have sparked outrage among federal unions, who call the process a “mass firing spree” targeting newer hires with fewer protections. The administration defends it as a necessary trim of an overgrown system, but for workers like Chege, it’s a jarring lesson in uncertainty. As she picks up the pieces, she’s left wondering how a job meant to serve the public could end so abruptly—and so coldly.