More layoffs have hit the federal government, this time at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States’s main weather forecaster and the world’s premier research agency for the seas and the skies.
CBS News reports that 880 employees were cut across NOAA, about 7 percent of the workforce, including earth scientists, meteorologists, computer modelers, and space weather forecasters. It’s already causing some functions — like weather balloon launches that provide raw data for weather models — to shut down.
What these employees had in common was that they were on probation. This is not a form of punishment but rather a quirk of the federal hiring system. By law, federal civil service employees start new roles on a one-year probationary period, if not longer. This mainly means new hires, but also covers people who have been at an agency for years who were promoted or transferred to different roles. About one in 10 government workers are on probation at any given time.
“Like most jobs, it kind of just gives your employer an opportunity to evaluate your performance,” said Amelia Glymph, deputy chief of staff at the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union for federal workers. “They don’t have as many rights as full-time employees.”
During the probationary period, workers have the “burden to demonstrate why it is in the public interest ” for the government to hire them, according to the US Merit Systems Protection Board.
“You should view your probationary period as kind of an extension of the hiring process,” said Robert Shriver, managing director for Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong initiative, which aims to provide information and resources to government workers. “I think any good federal manager can find out pretty quickly if somebody’s up for the job or not.”
Then why is the federal probation period so long, stretching up to two years?
Part of the reason is that many federal jobs like law enforcement require extensive training. Simply learning to navigate the government bureaucracy can take weeks. Certain job functions can only be performed at specific times of the year, like when Congress is in session. Other roles require workers to produce reports, analyses, or investigations that take months to assemble and weeks to evaluate.
Plus, once an employee graduates out of probation, they end up with strong job protections that make them harder to fire. This is to encourage civil service workers with specialized training and expertise to stay on the job. It also helps protect their roles from the whims of politicians.
But probationary employees have some protections too. They can’t be dismissed without some kind of performance problem, and the Trump administration’s mass firings may be illegal, according to federal courts. However, the judicial process is moving slowly while thousands of federal employees have already cleared out their desks and have been locked out of their offices.
“The courts are overwhelmed because there’s never been anything like this before, and I think that’s part of the [Trump administration’s] strategy,” Shriver said.
And layoffs aren’t the only way agencies are seeing their numbers dwindle. Vacancies are going unfilled, while existing staffers are taking buyouts alongside the normal attrition from retirements. The chaos across the government is making it a less appealing place to work, deterring prospective workers from applying.
For an agency like NOAA that performs urgent research unmatched by the private sector, it adds up to a long-term squeeze of their workforce that will impair the safety of Americans and the health of the economy.
