‘A slap in the face’: Federal workers in Wisconsin fight their firings after mass layoffs

James Stancil came to work at the Zablocki Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee just like every other Monday.

As a supply technician, he made sure nurses and doctors had the medical equipment they needed, like wound vacuum supplies or infusion pumps that deliver fluids and medications. He cleaned, stored and sterilized equipment used to care for veterans just like him.

But by the end of the day, he was out of a job.

The 61-year-old veteran served in the Army from 1985 to 1989, spending two years in West Germany along the Iron Curtain. Stancil said he received an honorable discharge, but that’s not how he described his firing on Feb. 24.

“This is just a slap in the face,” he said.

Stancil is among 10 employees who were fired at Zablocki and more than 2,400 veterans who have been laid off in recent weeks by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Stancil was on “probationary” status after he was hired last April. He, along with other federal employees in Wisconsin, received almost identical termination notices that said their performance did not show “further employment at the agency would be in the public interest.”

“To disparage my character by saying my performance has not met the burden to show that I’d be in the public interest. How dare you?” Stancil said, adding he’s appealing the decision.

The most recent available federal data shows Wisconsin had around 3,000 federal workers who have been serving for less than one or two years in their current roles. Often called probationary employees, they’ve been the first to be fired as President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency seek to slash the federal workforce.

While a federal judge has ruled the firings were illegal, the Trump administration is directing agencies to develop plans for “large-scale reductions in force” by March 13.

Almost 11,000 federal employees work for the VA in Wisconsin, but it’s unclear how many have been affected. A VA spokesperson didn’t provide details on how many workers have been fired in Wisconsin, but they confirmed a “small number of probationary staff” had been “dismissed” at Zablocki.

“This decision will have no negative effect on Veteran health care, benefits or other services and will allow VA to focus more effectively on its core mission of serving Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors,” VA spokesperson Bill Putnam said.

Michele Malone is president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3 union that represents Zablocki, which she said has more than 2,000 employees. Even so, she said the center was already running on a “skeleton” crew. A report last year by the VA’s Office of Inspector General found the facility had a severe shortage for 21 types of positions, including one of the positions held by Stancil.

“They’re harming people that work hard…. They do an awesome job in their jobs, and they’re just deliberately dismissing them without any probable cause,” Malone said.

Stancil said he was among two guys fired out of four in his department, saying that means double the work for those who remain. As for him, he still receives VA benefits as a veteran, but he received no severance and must now seek unemployment benefits.

“I drive a 1990 Buick that I just spent 1,800 bucks on to get out of the shop, so to lose that paycheck…I’ll be running out of money here in about 10 days,” Stancil said.

In recent town hall meetings, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin noted veterans can receive special preference for jobs and may work their entire career on probationary status. She demanded transparency over mass layoffs at the agency. When asked by a constituent about cuts at the VA, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said the agency has been mismanaged, adding he hoped Trump and Musk could make it run more efficiently.

Disabled combat vet says this isn’t what he fought for after firing

Rob, a disabled combat veteran, found out via email on Feb. 13 that he had been fired from his position at the Natural Resources Conservation Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Rob requested WPR to only use his first name because he fears retaliation as he appeals his termination.

Rob served for more than a decade in the U.S. Army, including in the 82nd Airborne Division. He deployed in 2003 to Iraq and in 2004 to Afghanistan. In 2005, he joined the honor guard at Arlington National Cemetery, performing military honors for late President Gerald Ford and thousands of fallen service members.

When he got out of the military, he went back to school and worked in the oil and timber industries. Last year, he and his wife moved roughly 2,200 miles from northwest California to Chippewa Falls to accept a job he had held about three months before his firing. Struggling for words, his face reddened as he described his termination.

“It was frustrating. I’ve served my country and I’ve fought in war, and this is what I get,” Rob said.

Rob said he feels betrayed and wants to see all federal workers reinstated, including more than 50 people he said lost their jobs at the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Wisconsin. He said he’s heard some farmers may lose their farms due to the loss of aid from the agency.

With no severance, Rob is trying to figure out unemployment benefits and applying for jobs in his field with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and private consulting firms.

“My wife and I gave up everything. We owned a house that hasn’t sold yet. We’re renting here till our house sells. We left our friends, our family, everything, to come across the country for this,” Rob said. “Then, we just get basically kicked to the curb, and they haven’t even paid me my last paycheck yet.”

He and his wife reached out multiple times to the office of former Navy SEAL and Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, but Rob said that’s gone nowhere. He said his 10 years of military service counts toward time served in the federal government.

WPR reached out to Van Orden’s office about Rob’s termination and veteran status. In a statement, a spokesperson said the office has reached out to him.

“Since he is a veteran, he was first contacted by the Congressman’s veterans liaison to ensure his well-being. Additionally, our agriculture staffer spoke with (Rob) today to gather more information on his situation. We are actively looking into ways to assist him,” the spokesperson said.

With a baby on the way, Ashland mom hunts for jobs after firing

Five months pregnant with her second child, Hayley Matanowski was planning to take maternity leave in the coming months. Now, she’s hunting for a job after the U.S. Forest Service fired her from her role as an administrative operations specialist at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland.

Matanowski said she was terminated for poor performance on Feb. 18 after working in the role for about 10 months. Her husband also works for the agency.

“It’s been really hard. We have a 3-year-old, so at home when she’s awake and we’re interacting with her, we’re trying really hard to just be, you know, business as usual,” Matanowski said. “She doesn’t know that mommy lost her job.”

Matanowski said three other center employees were also fired, including two she supervised who had no record of poor performance. At least a dozen employees with the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest have been fired, according to a union official.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service, said it didn’t have state-specific figures on firings. The agency said thousands have been let go in line with Trump’s order to “eliminate inefficiencies” and strengthen services.

“As part of this effort, USDA has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service,” a USDA spokesperson said. “To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters. Released employees were probationary in status, many of whom were compensated by temporary IRA funding.”

In her position, Matanowski supervised three front desk staff and assisted the center’s director with overseeing the annual budget. The Forest Service shares the center with several other agencies, and she said they lost half of the four staff members who interact with visitors.

A 2013 report found as many as 125,000 people stopped at the center annually. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the center operates five days each week when it was previously open daily. Even so, an official with the center said they saw close to 80,000 visitors last year.

“It’s hard for us to schedule our five days a week with just three people, like, if someone’s out sick,” Matanowski said. “With two of the four gone, I know for a fact that they’ve had to have other completely non-related Forest Service and also partner employees step in to staff the front desk that…are being taken away from their other duties and responsibilities.”

As for Matanowski, she said she and her husband have some savings, as well as support from family for child care. While he’s still employed, they stress over whether his job may also be eliminated.

She still worries more for others who have been let go, including her fired staff. One of whom shared with WPR that they had lost their “dream job.”

NIH worker says she’s reeling the loss of her ‘dream job’

That’s how Rachel felt when she was placed on administrative leave on Feb. 15. She was responsible for translating research for patients, clinicians and policymakers in her role working remotely in Milwaukee for the National Institutes of Health.

Rachel asked WPR to use only her first name because she fears retaliation as she’s appealing her termination.

Her work included helping people understand the science behind daily habits or preventive measures that can either avoid chronic conditions or keep them from growing worse. Rachel felt her job helped make the agency more efficient and accountable, which included developing a report to Congress on the agency’s performance.

She was just shy of her one-year anniversary when she received her notice of termination, which is set to take effect on March 14.

“It’s just really hard to accept. I wasn’t prepared for this. I’m pretty devastated,” Rachel said, her voice wavering.

The day before, she said a virtual goodbye to her team and frantically downloaded her performance review and federal records in anticipation of mass firings. As many as 1,500 probationary workers were cut at the National Institutes of Health, according to NPR.

Rachel lost her health insurance, and she said she never thought she would be applying for unemployment benefits. It’s still unclear whether her termination letter that cited poor performance will affect her ability to apply for benefits or future employment prospects.

While Rachel’s partner has a stable job, it’s been unsettling and destabilizing for them both. As she appeals her termination, Rachel doesn’t know what the future holds if she’s reinstated due to “return to work” mandates.

“The return-to-office (order) puts some pretty big barriers in the way because I’m not sure that we can afford for me to move out to (Washington) D.C. I’m not sure I want to do a long-distance marriage,” she said. “I’ve even thought about commuting weekly and finding an apartment, but I don’t think that that’s feasible either.”

She thought her USDA job was secure. Now, she’s looking for work.

In the days leading up to her firing, Jules Reynolds had heard from leadership that the Department of Agriculture was a “safe ship” amid rumors of looming layoffs.

On the morning of Feb. 14, she woke to an email notifying her she had been terminated from her position at the Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison due to poor performance.

The center is the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service station. Reynolds had been employed for about six months as program coordinator for the Soil Health Alliance for Research and Engagement or SHARE initiative. She supported research conducted by the program’s partners on issues like soil health and education by strengthening collaboration and guiding internal resources.

Reynolds said around a quarter of the center’s staff were fired, which included 20 scientists. That morning, she went into the office where she was told she needed to return a government-issued laptop and access card by the end of the day.

“There was this overwhelming sense of loss at the center, and not sure what would happen within the research or the projects of the center, because we had lost so many people,” Reynolds said.

While she said about half a dozen researchers were reinstated, Reynolds said the future of her position remains uncertain.

She was able to download her employment records and has since signed up to be part of a class action lawsuit. For the last six years, Reynolds said she worked as a server and bartender during grad school. Now, she’s once again looking for jobs or other sources of income to pay her rent and other bills.

“Even though I want my career to be one thing in the short term, I can go back to the service industry and at least buy groceries that way,” she said.

While she wants her USDA job back, she wonders whether it may be only temporary. She fears the firings will have ripple effects on early career scientists, as well as research that relies on federal funding.

As federal workers stare down large-scale layoffs, Reynolds said they’re not alone and support systems are available.

Rachel encouraged federal employees to hang in there, and Rob urged employees who have not yet been cut to download their electronic Official Personnel Folder to maintain copies of their records.

As federal workers fight for their jobs, James Stancil said he would go back to the Zablocki VA Medical Center in a heartbeat if reinstated. He likes the work and helping fellow veterans.

If not, Stancil said he’s not too worried because he believes God’s plan is more about being a good person rather than any job or title one may hold.

“If you’re a good person, don’t worry about the other stuff,” Stancil said. “It’ll take care of itself.”

Editor’s note: Anna Marie Yanny contributed reporting for this story. Jules Reynolds, Rob and Rachel connected with WPR through the WHYsconsin project. The story has also been updated with more recent figures on the number of visitors to the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center.