Many fired probationary employees are still in limbo as they remain on administrative leave, awaiting further instructions from their agencies on returning to work.
But a few agencies are now indicating they may not return the previously fired employees to their duties at all, because the same workers also may face planned reductions in force (RIFs).
A court document published on Tuesday detailed many agencies’ plans and timelines for reinstating fired probationary employees. A majority of agencies, according to the document, are in the process of reinstating their probationary employees until they are fully in their jobs. But many of the affected employees are still on administrative leave, and some don’t yet have an official return-to-duty date.
The reinstatements come after two federal judges ordered agencies to reinstate their recently fired probationary employees. One judge, in Maryland, found that the firings amounted to large-scale RIFs, which are subject to specific rules. Another, in California, ruled that the Office of Personnel Management does not have the authority to direct governmentwide layoffs.
A federal judge in Maryland said Wednesday he will at least briefly extend a temporary order requiring the Trump administration to bring back federal workers who were fired, but the judge said he was struggling with the scope of a broad order.
The temporary restraining order expires Thursday night, but U.S. District Judge James Bredar said he would extend it until next Tuesday while attorneys in the case present additional arguments about how expansive a preliminary injunction in the case should be.
According to Tuesday’s court filings, a few agencies don’t appear to have solid plans to bring back their fired employees. The Treasury Department, for example, said that it expects its RIF will disproportionately affect reinstated probationary employees. In the meantime, the department said some of its bureaus may choose not to return the employees to their duties.
Currently, 7,560 of the 7,611 fired probationary employees at Treasury — the majority of whom are IRS employees — remain on administrative leave. The other 51 employees that Treasury initially fired have chosen not to return to their jobs.
The IRS fired about 6,500 employees last month. Many of the fired IRS employees have cast doubt that they will be reinstated at all, despite being put on administrative leave for the time being.
And at the Department of Homeland Security, probationary employees are technically being reinstated, but it appears they will remain on administrative leave indefinitely. In its court declaration, DHS did not detail when or if the employees would return to their duties before its upcoming RIF.
“The DHS has been, and will continue to be, reinstating the affected probationers into an administrative leave status. Reinstated employees will not be reporting to the worksite or performing the daily duties of their former position,” Roland Edwards, the department’s chief human capital officer wrote. “Reinstated employees will not have access to email, badging, government furnished equipment or systems.”
Probationary employees expecting more confusion, stress
In the meantime, many agencies have stated they are still in the process of reinstatements. In one example, the Department of Agriculture said most of its 5,714 reinstated probationary employees are still on paid administrative leave. But USDA added that the leave status is temporary and an “initial step” toward returning employees fully to work.
According to Tuesday’s court document, USDA plans to return fired probationary employees to their work duties in four phases, with most employees returning to work by April 7 at the latest. The first phase of returning employees to work began March 24.
Following the four return-to-duty phases, the more than 1,000 fired seasonal employees who were not in pay status at the time of the terminations will then be reinstated on a rolling basis throughout April and May, USDA said.
Laura Fitzmorris, an employee at the Forest Service, was one of the several thousand USDA workers terminated in February. Though spending many years in federal service, including as an Air Force reservist, Fitzmorris was put back in a probationary status last year when she accepted a public affairs position in the Forest Service. She was fired just weeks before her probationary period would have ended.
“It felt like utter betrayal to be thrown out with the words ‘poor performance’ cited as the reason. I don’t have a single derogatory remark in any of my performance reports and yet had to report to the unemployment office that I was terminated due to poor performance,” Fitzmorris wrote in an email to Federal News Network. “For someone like me who has put everything I have into this job, I felt like a complete failure.”
Fitzmorris is in USDA’s first round of employees being brought back, due to her qualifications as a wildland firefighter. But she said she doesn’t necessarily expect the reinstatement process to be easy or quick. When she was terminated last month, she had to turn in all her government equipment — her common access card and work laptop, plus all of her wildland firefighting gear.
“Now I’ll have to spend time getting those things reacquired before I can actually work. This has slowed down the mission extensively,” Fitzmorris said. “But I know we’ll do what we always do — as much as possible, in the shortest time possible, so we can ensure the forest is open to the public. Our focus, no matter what we’re going through as an agency, is always maintaining the health, wellness and safety of visitors. In that regard, nothing has changed.”
The Forest Service has said that it did not fire any full-time wildland firefighters. But the National Federation of Federal Employees, a federal union representing Forest Service employees, estimated that somewhere between one-third and one-half of the fired workers were still qualified as wildland firefighters, despite “wildland firefighter” not being their main job title. NFFE said the agency often relies on other staff members, like biologists and technicians, to staff up to fight wildland fires as needed.
Once she returns to duty, Fitzmorris said she expects to be greeted with confusion, chaos and stress among her co-workers. In the meantime, she said her colleagues who remained in their jobs have had to pick up extra work on account of the previously fired staff.
“I’m just excited to take some of the weight back on my own shoulders for a while,” Fitzmorris said.
Many feds remain uncertain as agencies process reinstatements
While some have been returned to duty following the judges’ orders, many other reinstated federal employees are still in limbo as they await further information from their agencies.
Sara, a biologist who works at the National Park Service, was one of the tens of thousands of employees fired last month. She has worked for the federal government for several years, but due to a recent promotion, she was placed once again in a probationary period, which led to her termination in February.
Speaking to Federal News Network on the condition that her last name was not published, Sara said she was thrilled to hear the news of the required reinstatements that came down after the judge’s orders earlier this month.
“I think I jumped out of my chair — my coffee went everywhere. I was so excited,” she said. “I was immediately texting the other people that I worked with, who were probationary employees who’d been terminated. We were all pretty excited.”
But underneath the excitement, Sara said she still feels unsure about what the future of her employment will look like. Though many of her co-workers have been returned to duty, Sara said she has not yet received a return-to-work date herself.
“I just have this distrust,” she said. “It still doesn’t feel incredibly steady, and it’s hard to make any plans because I know that there’s a reduction in force still going on, with no guidance on who’s going to be prioritized.”
In Tuesday’s court filings, the Department of Interior reported that it is in the process of reinstating 1,873 of the 1,877 fired employees. Of those workers, 461 have so far been returned to full-duty status. Four employees are not being reinstated because decided to resign instead. The remaining 1,412 employees are on administrative leave and still awaiting information on their return-to-duty.
The National Park Service, a component of Interior, confirmed that the agency is reinstating probationary employees in compliance with the latest court orders. But a spokesperson declined to tell Federal News Network when probationary employees would officially return to duty.
“The Department of the Interior remains committed to its mission of managing the nation’s resources and serving the American people while ensuring fiscal responsibility,” a spokesperson said by email. “All impacted employees will receive back pay, and the department will ensure continued compensation as the White House pursues its appeals process.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email [email protected] or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11
Copyright
© 2025 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
