NOAA staff members, like thousands of others, were caught up in the mass terminations underway in the federal government as part of the Trump Administration’s cost-cutting measures.
“Excited for what’s next!” wrote physical scientist Andy Hazelton in October when joining NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center.
Hazelton, like others, was still considered probationary, not for poor performance, but because he’d been in his job for less than a year. Eovino said he was caught up because his conversion paperwork to be off probation was submitted in time but never processed because of the hiring freeze.
The probationary terminations are the second of what is expected to be at least three waves of departures for federal employees. The first were tens of thousands who agreed to accept the administration’s proffered “Fork in the Road” plan, agreeing to be placed on administrative leave and paid until Sept. 30. A third wave is expected to be the result of a reduction in force the president has ordered across the federal government.
To Hazelton, and others, one line in the form emails shared with USA TODAY jumped out as a cruel blow: “the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”
“It made me sad and bewildered,” said Hazelton, who specializes in the computer models used to analyze weather and atmospheric data and help forecast where hurricanes are going and how strong they’ll be.
“It feels like a slap in the face to get something so impersonal when I’ve devoted so much of my time and effort to serving the public,” he said. It isn’t like the agency isn’t familiar with its employees and their skills when they’re hired, he said.
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