Mar 10, 2025
Last month, Carolyn Corrigan was fired from her government job amid the Trump administration's efforts to decrease the federal workforce.
While “poor performance” was the reason cited, the single mom of two says she’s been with the government for nearly a decade, having never gotten a poor performance appraisal.
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She was 66 days away from completing her two-year probation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when she got the news, which she called “a slap in the face.”
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Fox5 News reported that Corrigan says she “wants Elon Musk to know she’s not just a number but a human being who now has to turn to public assistance to live.”
Homeownership dream dashed
As the 41-year-old struggles to make ends meet, she’s turned to food stamps, Medicaid and, “for the first time in my life, applied for temporary assistance [to] pay my rent.”
Also for the first time, Corrigan was nearly able to purchase a home for her family. “I was this close to being able to make a livable wage for me and my daughters, and in one second, that was all taken,” she told Fox5 through tears.
Corrigan started in a janitorial role and worked her way up to earning $67,000 per year as an education technician. She doesn’t see how “poor performance” is justified, stating she’s worked hard her whole life and was even promoted at the CDC.
“I earned every promotion with dedication and hard work, and now it’s devastating,” she told reporters.
As for what’s next, Corrigan is currently exploring a class action lawsuit. She’s appealed the CDC’s decision with the Office of Special Counsel, which she told Fox5 News has been helping her navigate this very difficult time.
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Government jobs shrinking
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk describe the administration’s cutting of U.S. government jobs as an effort to reduce spending and make the public workforce more responsive to its directives. Trump has called the federal government “bloated,” adding it’s full of “people that are unnecessary.”
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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.
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Download personnel and benefits documents, including your full eOPF file, performance reviews and position description, ideally before employment ends.
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Remove any personal documents from your work computer and exchange personal contact information with colleagues.
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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.
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 15 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech.
