Federal employees reeling from a wave of firings that began last week have focused on language in their termination letters targeting their “performance” as particularly upsetting.

USA TODAY reviewed 10 termination letters. All but one mentioned performance concerns.

Fired probationary employees interviewed by USA TODAY all said they were never told of any performance problems. One hadn’t been in the job long enough to have a performance review. Another was fired just a month into her job after relocating from more than 1,700 miles away to take it. And a third employee said his supervisor explicitly told him he wasn’t being terminated for performance reasons.
The performance language in the letters added insult to injury, the fired employees said, arguing it unfairly impugns their work records. Some worried the language could impact their ability to file for unemployment benefits and find a new job.

“It’s a lie. It’s simply not true,” said fired U.S. Forest Service worker Gavan Harmon.
President Donald Trump’s administration has launched an aggressive effort to cut federal agencies and completely shutter some. The push is being led by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is headed by billionaire Elon Musk. The administration offered buyouts to nearly all federal workers and then began mass terminations targeting probationary employees who recently were hired.
Federal employees told USA TODAY they believe citing their job performance is an attempt by the government to provide legal justification for the firings. However, a labor attorney said the government has wide latitude to fire probationary employees and performance language in the termination letters may be “boilerplate.”

Lawyer Greg Rinckey speculated that the government may be citing performance issues in an attempt to avoid having the terminations considered a “reduction in force” that would trigger other legal requirements and take longer. He said the employees’ interpretation is understandable.
“While the language is boilerplate … a fair interpretation on the part of a probationary employee receiving this is that their performance was inadequate,” said Rinckey, who practices federal labor law.

Asked about the performance language in the termination letters, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said “President Trump returned to Washington with a mandate from the American people to bring about unprecedented change in our federal government to uproot waste, fraud, and abuse.”

“This isn’t easy to do in a broken system entrenched in bureaucracy and bloat, but it’s a task long overdue,” Fields added in a statement that did not directly address the language in the letters.
Termination letters shared by a U.S. Department of Education employee, a U.S. Department of Agriculture employee, a Natural Resources Conservation Service worker and four workers for the U.S. Forest Service all state that probationary employees must demonstrate why it’s in “the public interest for the Government to finalize their appointment to the civil service.”
“The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,” the letters continue. The workers interviewed by USA TODAY said they had good performance records.

Most of the fired workers viewed the termination letter as targeting their personal performance, although one said she thought it was a broader statement.
“This is not personal, this is a government takeover,” said Edith Robinson, 32, a fired Forest Service worker who performed hiking trail maintenance in Montana.

“For me personally, I read it as a biased opinion of what is in the public interest,” Robinson added.
An employee with the U.S. Department of Transportation also shared a termination letter with nearly identical language. A letter sent by the Small Business Administration to a fired probationary employee has different language but still mentions performance.

“You have failed to demonstrate fitness for continued federal employment,” the SBA letter reads. “The Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the Agency.”
The Forest Service, USDA, Small Business Administration, Department of Education and Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday. Federal labor union representatives also didn’t immediately respond Sunday to questions about the performance language.

‘An illegal termination’

Fired U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs data scientist Elena Moseyko was incensed to see that her termination letter mentioned her performance. Moseyko said she has “an excellent performance record” and plans to challenge her dismissal.

“This was an illegal termination,” Moseyko said, adding: “They terminated thousands of people, and thousands of people cannot possibly all have bad performance. It’s not possible. So basically this is illegal.”