Government Worker Protections — Week of Apr 28, 2025

This week, the White House issued an executive order that changes how new federal employees keep their jobs. Under Strengthening Probationary Periods in the Federal Service, probationary workers will now be automatically fired at the end of their trial period unless their agency head specifically certifies they should stay. Previously, employees who weren't flagged for poor performance simply continued in their roles. The order removes existing procedural protections, calling them unnecessary burdens. The administration says this implements recommendations that government auditors have made for years. Separately, OPM proposed a new rule that would allow agencies to cap how many senior executives can receive top performance ratings—a change the administration says addresses a real problem with inflated ratings, but which could also give political appointees more influence over career leaders' evaluations.

This might matter because the merit-based civil service system exists to ensure federal workers are hired and retained based on competence rather than political loyalty. Changing the default from "you keep your job unless there's a problem" to "you lose your job unless someone vouches for you" could affect this protection in ways that make career employees more vulnerable to political pressure, especially during periods of leadership transition.

Members of Congress highlighted related concerns. Senator Reed described mass firings of senior military leaders and civilian workforce cuts at the Pentagon. Representative Foster raised alarms about an entire CDC blood safety division being placed on administrative leave. Multiple senators described what they characterized as illegal firings of federal employees and veterans.

Alternative explanations to consider: The most likely benign interpretation is that the probationary period reform addresses a real, well-documented problem—government auditors have said for years that agencies fail to screen out underperforming new hires. The executive order cites specific recommendations from the Merit Systems Protection Board itself. Similarly, the SES ratings proposal addresses a genuine anomaly where nearly all senior executives receive the highest marks, which undermines accountability. It is also worth noting that the concerns about these policies come almost entirely from opposition lawmakers during a politically charged "100 days" period.

Limitations: This analysis is based on the text of executive orders and congressional speeches. We do not yet have data on how many employees have actually been terminated under these new policies or whether the changes are being applied in politically targeted ways.