In February, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) asked agencies to submit lists of their probationary employees and whether the agencies wanted to keep them. The memo noted probationary period workers are the easiest to terminate from their jobs.

OPM subsequently revised its guidance, stating “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” and that “agencies have ultimate decision-making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.”

However, the OPM guidance led to the immediate termination of tens of thousands of employees in their probationary periods. Nearly 7,000 Internal Revenue Service probationary employees were terminated, and 5,400 employees at the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) have been let go, as well.

Many of these employees were in their initial probationary period, typically a one- or two-year timeframe, to judge their suitability for federal employment, although it can also impact employees with decades of government experience who had recently accepted a new position.

Many probationary employees who were terminated were subsequently re-hired, including more than 300 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, responsible for designing, building and overseeing the US nuclear weapons stockpile, employees involved in bird flu response, and Food and Drug Administration employees involved in food safety and review of medical devices.

Other fired employees have been reinstated, at least temporarily, after the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) found reasonable grounds that their terminations were unlawful as a prohibited personnel practice. Agencies are required to follow specific procedures when conducting reductions in force (RIFs). It’s important to note the administration initiated RIF protocols on February 26, as explored in another article in this Washington Report. For example, the 5,400 fired DLA employees are the first wave of what is expected to be a 5-8 percent reduction of the Department of Defense.