The week after Martin Basch was fired from his federal job in February, he started applying for state unemployment benefits in Ohio, his home state, determined to find a new path.
But he soon found himself facing an unexpected snag: He kept receiving paychecks, beyond his official termination date of March 14.
This might not seem like a problem. But for Basch, it was a sign of the chaotic and costly limbo in which he and many other federal workers have found themselves as President Trump seeks to streamline the federal government.
I’ve been talking to federal workers for months about the
mass firings’ impact on them
, and one thing has been clear: The cuts have been anything but straightforward and efficient.
For many, the layoff was just the beginning. Workers have found themselves locked in a Kafkaesque cycle of getting fired and rehired, and some have struggled to track down the documentation they need to move on.
Basic questions, elusive answers
Their terminations came abruptly, and with little explanation. Legal challenges have added more chaos as judges ordered thousands of fired workers to be temporarily reinstated, and higher courts have reversed some of those decisions.
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