Federal worker in Oklahoma says colleagues have been fired by OPM without manager’s knowledge

By Jason Burger

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    OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — Federal workers in Oklahoma City are confused, frustrated and worried about the future.

With recent federal layoffs, one woman who has worked under the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City for more than two decades said she now worries her job could be in jeopardy. Those worries stem from an email she and other federal workers received over the weekend telling them to respond with five bullet points describing what they accomplished last week.

“We got the emails on Saturday, so it’s obviously very stressful, and I was worried about it all weekend long. (I) waited to hear from someone to give us direction on what to do,” said a federal employee who asked to be anonymous due to the fear of being terminated.

The federal employee worked at an FAA facility near Will Rogers World Airport for more than two decades. She thought she would retire there, but now she said she questions that.

“I’ll be honest, when all this started happening, I thought I was safe. I wasn’t worried. I’ve been out there over two decades, and I know my job inside and out,” the employee said.

Like many others, she was a recipient of an email from a sender outside the FAA, asking her to list what she accomplished last week.

Elon Musk, who oversees the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, said if federal workers don’t respond, it will be seen as a resignation The deadline to respond to the email from HR@OPM.gov, which is from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday.

“I meet with my manager on a weekly basis and talk to him multiple times throughout the week on progress with things I’m working on and things I’m taking care of,” the employee said.

The email request isn’t the problem. The federal worker said she works hard and has nothing to hide, but she worries that the future of her career hangs in the balance.

“You’re kind of just going to work in limbo, not knowing what’s going to happen?” KOCO’s Jason Burger asked.

“Yes,” the federal employee responded.

“And you don’t know what’s going to happen one way or another?” Jason asked.

“Nope. I do not, and that’s how everyone feels,” the employee responded.

Terminations in her building seem to happen without much warning, meetings with managers or communication at all other than an email.

“The last round of terminations they had last week, and the week before, was people just getting an email from this OPM website, saying their job is no longer needed,” the employee said.

She said her managers don’t even know when layoffs might happen.

“These managers sometimes don’t even know their employees are being fired. They find out from the employees. It’s coming straight from OPM emails, and managers don’t even know it,” she said.

At her facility, lots of aircraft technology and air traffic control equipment is repaired and maintained to keep it operating in the National Airspace System. With fewer staff, air passengers could see a difference.

“It is scary because this is the flying public we’re taking care of, and you put a bottleneck on this and slow processes down, that’s slowing everybody down,” she said.

The OPM said publicly that responding to that email is voluntary. Musk initially posted that employees would be fired if they did not respond.

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