‘A slap in the face’: Atlanta single mom fired from CDC job only 66 days before her probation ended — now she’s had to turn to food stamps, Medicaid to get by

In a video call to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Musk reportedly stated the need to “delete entire agencies” as opposed to leaving a lot of them behind. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back,” CBS News reports.

Last month, government agencies were ordered to lay off almost all probationary employees, like Corrigan, and potentially hundreds of thousands of others.

It’s not a surprise, Republican strategist Brian Robinson points out. He told Fox5 News that American voters elected a president who would shrink the government.

“Conservatives in this country believe that the government has to be smaller, that there will be some pain involved. The president and Elon Musk said that there will be some pain in this transition.”

What can you do?

Corrigan is appealing her firing to the Office of Special Counsel, as other impacted federal workers can. While there may or may not be recourse for them, here are some steps the nonprofit, nonpartisan Protect Democracy group suggests.

1. Download personnel and benefits documents, including your full eOPF file, performance reviews and position description, ideally before employment ends.

2. Remove any personal documents from your work computer and exchange personal contact information with colleagues.

3. Learn about your rights and find resources. Protect Democracy provides overviews of substantive and procedural employee protections, the process for challenging violations of those protections and guides on what probationary employees should know. It also offers information about organizations that support civil servants and finding legal counsel.