GSA to cut at least 100 employees, feds inside the agency say

The General Services Administration appears to be dismissing at least 100 tech employees, according to estimates several current GSA employees not authorized to speak on the record told Nextgov/FCW. 

Many received calls from supervisors Wednesday letting them know they’re going to be dismissed, although official emails letting employees go haven’t been sent out, according to three current employees. 

Those slated to be let go are in their probationary periods — meaning that they don’t have the same job protections against firing that most feds do — or are new to their positions.

GSA is the latest agency to dismiss recent hires. On the first day of the new Trump administration, the government’s HR agency instructed agencies to collect names of probationary employees, who’ve since been reinterviewed and reminded of their probationary status at times, as GovExec has reported.

The dismissals at GSA are spread across a swath of programs within its Technology Transformation Services with no discernible pattern as to who is being let go, two current employees told Nextgov/FCW. 

18F, GSA’s tech consulting arm, was among the programs where people are apparently being removed. A significant number of people within the fellowship programs run by TTS, like the U.S. Digital Corps and Presidential Innovation Fellows, were also impacted. 

It’s unclear if other parts of the agency outside of TTS were targeted. 

Two GSA employees told Nextgov/FCW that many of those affected were women and people of color. Some of those set to be let go weren’t new to the government, but had moved agencies or jobs within GSA recently.

Supervisors didn’t have input into who was let go or why and leadership hasn’t sent any agencywide communications about the impending dismissals, according to several current GSA employees.

It’s unclear how this will affect the work GSA is paid to do for other agencies — meaning there could be ripple effects throughout the government, said two current employees.

GSA’s tech arm has provided assistance for several government projects, such as the IRS’ Direct File program, which allows people to file online with the tax agency for free. Other work includes helping government programs set up text notifications for people receiving public benefits.

The expected cuts come as the Trump administration continues to try to slash the government’s workforce writ large. Within GSA, the agency is also reportedly looking to severely cut its own workforce and budget as well as its building portfolio, which it manages on behalf of the entire federal government.

Billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are at the center of continued efforts to shrink the government’s workforce. Musk’s surrogates in the DOGE enabled the delayed resignation offer emailed to feds a week into the Trump administration, which a judge has allowed to proceed following a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions.

“Since January 28th, TTS employees have been harassed with daily emails about ‘The Fork,’” the delayed resignation email sent to feds, one current GSA employee told Nextgov/FCW. “Our new TTS Director has not communicated with us via Slack or email since last week. News of these firings hit like a bombshell … The disrespect has been omnipresent since day one.”

In internal meetings at TTS since the start of the new administration, leadership has told employees that there would be more opportunity for tech and automation as the government shrinks, according to two GSA employees not authorized to speak on the record. Employees were told that there was going to be a push to use artificial intelligence more at the agency level. 

“Frankly, the biggest factor in making the government more efficient is modernizing the technology,” Musk posted on social media yesterday. 

“It defies logic how this is consistent with the stated goals of DOGE other than racking up a body count,” said one of the current GSA employees of the dismissals.

“The way they are making cuts shows they are not for efficiency nor to make services better, but to create further dysfunction,” another said. “The cuts to technical talent today are going to hurt the American people.”