US federal agency fires staff, calls it an error, fires them again

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration (SBA) told probationary staff members it had mistakenly sent them termination notices, and then informed some of them the next day that they were fired after all.

“Probationary employees across the Small Business Administration may have received an unsigned notice of employment termination,” according to an e-mail sent to some SBA staff on Feb 10 that was viewed by Bloomberg News.

“Please be advised that this draft letter (see attached) was sent in error – and as such, it is not currently in effect. If you are in receipt of the initial notice, your employment has not been terminated as was erroneously indicated in the initial notice,” the e-mail continued.

On Feb 11, some of those probationary staff – employees who are generally within their first year on the job – received a new message telling them they actually were, in fact, dismissed, according to a fired worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about being targeted.

“During this probationary or trial period, it has been determined that your continued employment does not promote the efficiency of the service because you have failed to demonstrate fitness for continued federal employment,” according to the e-mail sent on Feb 11.

The language of the termination notice matched the form letter that the agency said was previously erroneously sent to staff.

The White House and the SBA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) would not comment.

More terminations to come

The back-and-forth reflects the chaos and confusion marking Mr Trump’s campaign to transform the federal workforce, including efforts to override union contract protections and encourage mass departures of government employees through a deferred resignation program that faces a legal challenge.

There are likely to be more federal terminations to come.

Mr Trump

signed an executive order on Feb 11

directing agency heads to coordinate with Mr Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to “significantly reduce the size of the government” and “limit hiring to essential positions”, according to the White House.

The OPM has asked agencies to provide lists of poor-performing employees, and also to assess which probationary staff are essential to their operations.

Mr Trump’s order could be met with legal challenges from workers and the unions who represent them. Laws protecting federal workers and collective bargaining agreement will likely complicate Mr Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce.

Mr Musk’s companies have experienced swift, sweeping personnel cuts that sometimes have been accompanied by mistakes.

After he purchased Twitter in 2022 and fired thousands of workers, the social media company ended up reaching out to dozens of terminated employees to ask them to come back.

Last April, Mr Musk e-mailed Tesla employees to say that some severance packages that were part of its biggest-ever workforce reduction had been “incorrectly low”, and that the issue would be “corrected immediately”.

Mr Trump has nominated former senator Kelly Loeffler to serve as administrator of the SBA. BLOOMBERG