At least dozens of workers for the Technology Transformation Services, housed within the US General Services Administration, were fired Wednesday afternoon, sources tell WIRED.
The sudden cuts seemingly targeted probationary and short-term staffers, including workers supplied by the Presidential Innovation Fellowship program, which brings skilled technologists from the private sector to work in government for a few years at a time. Around 50 of the 70 members of the US Digital Corps, an early-career, two-year government fellowship, were terminated as well, sources say. Sources also tell WIRED that TTS management met with workers individually prior to the terminations, giving them one last chance to take the deferred resignation offered in the “Fork in the Road” email from late last month.
One TTS staffer called the meetings “coercive for sure.”
It’s unclear how many people are being let go, but multiple sources tell WIRED that list could be upwards of 70 if not more. Prior, there were around 650 TTS employees. Fired staffers are expected to receive a formal termination email later Wednesday evening.
“From the beginning of this administration, GSA‘s leadership has been committed to supporting the administration’s initiatives to rightsize the federal workforce. GSA has taken immediate action to fully implement all current executive orders and is committed to taking action to implement any new executive orders,” a GSA spokesperson tells WIRED. “Like all agencies, GSA has been working to meet OPM [Office of Personnel Management] memo requirements as it relates to probationary periods. GSA has been and remains committed to ensuring a respectful and dignified process for our agency personnel during this transformation.”
Terminated employees’ last day is expected to be March 7, sources say.
Similar firings took place at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau on Tuesday evening. Dozens of staffers, primarily probationary ones with fewer than two years of service, received termination emails. Due to what appeared to be a failed mail merge, fired workers were addressed as [EmployeeFirstName][EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division].
When Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla software engineer, joined TTS, he told staff to expect workforce cuts. “We should expect that GSA will be operating with a significantly smaller budget and significantly reduced staff in future,” Shedd told TTS staffers in an all-hands meeting last week in audio obtained by WIRED.
GSA’s vision for the TTS, under new leadership, is an agency that runs like a “startup software company,” WIRED reported last week, focusing on AI, automating different internal processes, and centralizing data from across the federal government.
GSA was one of the first agencies Musk associates took over once President Donald Trump returned to power. Nicole Hollander, who aided Musk in his Twitter acquisition, has joined the upper levels of GSA, along with a slew of other young technologists associated with Musk companies.
The reductions in head count come as Shedd and TTS leadership are hoping to launch “GSAi,” a custom generative AI chatbot, within the next few weeks. WIRED recently reported that the goal of this initiative is to increase productivity among staff and to analyze massive amounts of data. The agency is also planning to sell more than 500 federal buildings to cut overall costs, while pushing for employees to return to in-person office work.
On Wednesday evening, a federal judge allowed the Trump administration to continue with its plans to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
Read More
Makena Kelly