When Elon Musk of the Department of Government Efficiency waved a chainsaw around onstage in February, many federal employees interpreted the symbol quite literally. Others thought perhaps their departments would be spared.
“Even with the rumors, I thought it wouldn’t happen to us. We usually have pretty good bipartisan support,” says Dalton Behringer, union steward for the Monterey office of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. “We are deemed essential, even in a shutdown.”
Three of his colleagues at the NWS Monterey station – which serves 11 counties, home to roughly 8 million people – were terminated on Thursday, Feb. 27. The firings were part of widespread termination notices to employees within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Another impacted local agency is NOAA Fisheries, where three employees were terminated on Feb. 27. All six were on probation, a standard one-year period for civilian federal employees. They all received emails with the language: “The agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs.”
“The employees got the emails they were being terminated before their supervisors were even aware,” Behringer says, noting there was about a half-hour window for them to pack up their belongings.
The terminated employees at NOAA are a meteorologist, a facilities technician and an administrative assistant. At NOAA Fisheries, they are a physical scientist, a marine biologist and a communications specialist. No employees were fired from the local office of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, another NOAA division.
A federal spokesperson for NOAA declined to respond to specific questions, but writes by email, “Per long-standing practice, we are not discussing internal personnel and management matters. NOAA remains dedicated to its mission.”