Trump HR Office Seeks List of Easy-to-Fire Federal Workers (3)

The federal government’s HR office is directing agency leaders to consider firing career employees hired within the past year, part of plans “regarding critical potential personnel actions.”

Acting Office of Personnel Management Director Charles Ezell asked agencies Monday to compile lists of probationary employees by Jan. 24, defined as career staff in their roles for less than a year or employees appointed to the “excepted service” within the past two years, according to a memo posted on the Chief Human Capital Officers Council website. He directed agency leaders to “promptly determine whether those employees should be retained” at the agencies.

Ezell directed agency leaders to send the lists to Amanda Scales, now OPM’s chief of staff, according to a Trump administration official who asked for anonymity to speak about personnel matters. The official said Scales worked recently at Elon Musk‘s xAI, which develops artificial intelligence tools including a chatbot called Grok available to paying users of Musk’s social media site X.

The HR office delivered the memo to agencies the same day unions representing federal workers filed lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump‘s orders to strip their job protections and assemble a team to cut government spending. Musk is leading an effort, also officially created Monday, to cut federal spending and reshape the public workforce, called the Department of Government Efficiency.

The guidance allows the Trump administration to begin shrinking the federal workforce without running into job protections for civil servants. Federal employees hired within the past year typically can’t appeal their firing to the Merit Systems Protection Board, the panel that mediates disputes between agencies and their workers.

The federal government hired nearly 64,000 people that meet that definition in the first quarter of 2024, according to federal employment statistics. That figure doesn’t include employees hired after that time period, or information on how many of them are still working for agencies in 2025.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal workers, declined to comment. OPM officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Offers Rescinded

Ezell also directed agency officials to reconsider bringing on staff that signed offer letters prior to 12 p.m. on Jan. 20, according to a separate memo posted on the council website.

New hires slated to start work by Feb. 8 will keep their offers, according to the memo also signed by Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Matthew Vaeth. New hires scheduled to start after Feb. 8 will not, unless OPM grants a written exception. The same applies for hires without a confirmed start date, they said.

The directive doesn’t apply to new hires for political positions, roles that change when a new president takes office.