Mike Macans stands for a portrait exterior of his residence in Anchorage, Alaska, on Feb. 23, 2025. Macans served within the U.S. Military for 5 years and was most not too long ago working as a catastrophe restoration coordinator for the Small Enterprise Administration. He was formally terminated from his job on Feb. 11, 2025.
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Ash Adams for NPR
It has been greater than two weeks since Mike Macans discovered — for the primary time — that the Small Enterprise Administration was firing him from his job as a catastrophe restoration coordinator based mostly in Anchorage, Alaska.
Nonetheless, the federal government hasn’t despatched him the paperwork he wants to assert unemployment. He is gotten no official phrase on when his household’s medical insurance will probably be minimize off.
“They locked me out of all my methods,” says Macans. “The one place I’ve gotten any assistance is on-line — on frickin’ Reddit.”
The Trump administration has fired tens of hundreds of federal staff over the previous two weeks as a part of a seemingly indiscriminate purge of probationary staff, usually these of their first or second yr on the job.
The mass firings have been marked by a lot chaos and sloppiness that some businesses have recalled employees that they terminated days and even hours earlier.
Labor unions have asked a federal court in San Francisco to order the federal government to cease the firings and rescind the terminations which have already occurred. Attorneys in Washington, D.C., have filed a classwide complaint, asking the Workplace of Particular Counsel to intervene.
In the meantime, anger among the many fired is on the rise.
“Do not abandon and villainize the very people who have served this nation and work to convey providers to our residents,” says Macans.
One piece of a broader technique
The terminations are only one a part of the Trump administration’s broad effort to slash the federal workforce of two.3 million folks. In late January got here an ultimatum to federal staff: Resign out of your jobs with pay and advantages by means of September, or danger being laid off. It has put thousands across government on administrative leave, unable to do their work.
And this previous weekend, billionaire Elon Musk — a particular adviser to Trump — issued another ultimatum to remaining staff.
In a submit on X, previously Twitter, Musk steered that staff might lose their jobs in the event that they did not reply to an e-mail blast from the Workplace of Personnel Administration asking for a listing of 5 issues they did up to now week. With the legality of the ask doubtful, some company leaders have advised their staff to not reply.
Now jobless, Macans’ high concern is medical insurance. His spouse, a most cancers survivor, wants pricey drugs to maintain her autoimmune dysfunction below management. The couple have a five-month previous and a toddler.
Lara Macans faults the federal government for failing to contemplate the impression that mass firings are having on the households of federal staff.
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“Simply the disregard for the impression that this has, on not solely the worker however his entire household, is astounding,” says Lara Macans, his spouse.
An ideal match for the job
Macans’ job with the Small Enterprise Administration was his second stint serving the nation. His first was as an airborne infantryman with the U.S. Military, stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson exterior Anchorage.
After 5 years within the Military, he took a job in safety on Alaska’s North Slope adopted by a job in emergency administration with the state authorities, a job that made him really feel like he might actually make a distinction.
“Alaska has each doable catastrophe risk you would consider, from volcanoes to hurricane to tsunami, earthquake, hearth, flood — you identify it,” he says.
Macans’ job concerned serving to communities navigate state and federal grants to restore roads, bridges, buildings, dams, seawalls and different infrastructure. He shortly constructed a community within the catastrophe restoration area, together with with folks at FEMA and the Small Enterprise Administration.
Then final August got here a chance to fill a model new place with the Small Enterprise Administration. Macans was employed as restoration coordinator for Area 10, protecting Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
He describes it as “the phone-a-friend” for the area. He offered steerage after the preliminary shock of a catastrophe had handed, serving to companies construct resilience and handle different long-term wants.
His deep data of Alaska’s wild climate and terrain, in addition to its various inhabitants, made him an ideal match for the job.
“We had talked like — that is going to be your profession. You are going to retire from this job,” says Lara Macans. “That was actually thrilling.”
Fired, unfired and fired once more
Macans was first knowledgeable he was being terminated on Feb. 7. An e-mail arrived in his inbox late that Friday afternoon with the topic line “Notification – Termination of Probationary Interval.”
An hooked up letter advised him: “The Company finds that that [sic] you aren’t match for continued employment as a result of your means, data and abilities don’t match the Company’s present wants, and your efficiency has not been satisfactory to justify additional employment on the Company.”
It gave him a termination date of Feb. 21.
Like so many federal staff who’ve been fired this month, Macans was shocked.
In his six months on the job, he’d had no complaints about his efficiency. His first analysis, posted the next week, described him as “an distinctive asset to the Company,” somebody who’s “all the time up for a brand new problem, completes work to a excessive normal, and proactively generates alternatives to construct and keep relationships that facilitate the supply of SBA’s catastrophe mortgage program.”
Lara and Mike Macans are mother and father to a five-month previous and a toddler. The couple relied totally on his revenue and advantages to help the household.
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When Lara, a part-time nurse, got here residence from her job that afternoon, she knew instantly one thing was incorrect.
“That is when he dropped the bomb,” she says. “I could not even consider it.”
It was a foul weekend. Macans was indignant. He could not sleep.
“You flip off the lights and check out to fall asleep, and also you’re simply left alone along with your ideas,” he says. “There’s nothing to do however stew.”
Then on Monday got here one other shock. A colleague advised him one thing was up. Extra steerage was coming in regards to the termination letters despatched Friday.
“Certain sufficient, an hour or two later, we acquired that e-mail that stated it was despatched in error, and as such, ‘It’s not presently in impact,'” Macans says. “Properly, what does that imply?”
He wasn’t too reassured. The next afternoon, he obtained a 3rd notification, after which a fourth, confirming that he was, in reality, being terminated, efficient shut of enterprise that very same day, Feb. 11. The 2 letters had been almost an identical.
“That’s actually the final official correspondence concerning my employment standing that I obtained from the SBA,” he says. “There’s completely no observe up.”
Thankfully, Macans had gotten a head begin on saving his employment information.
“As a result of they fired me after which unfired me, I instantly began forwarding all the things I might to my private e-mail,” he says.
He has appealed his termination to the Advantage Programs Safety Board, the physique set as much as deal with labor disputes inside the federal workforce, although he isn’t optimistic he’ll get his job again.
“By no means felt extra betrayed”
In the meantime, Macans says his belief in authorities is shattered.
“I’ve by no means felt extra betrayed in my total life,” he says.
He is sympathetic to the view that there must be modifications to how authorities paperwork works and the way cash is spent.
“I believe these are particularly reasonable criticisms of the federal government,” he says. “I’m attempting to be a part of the answer.”
For now although, he has began in search of a brand new job.
“You understand, household of 4. We’d like a paycheck coming in, and we’d like well being care,” he says. “When it actually comes right down to it, I am going to do no matter I must do for them.”
Have data you need to share about ongoing modifications throughout the federal authorities? NPR’s Andrea Hsu could be contacted by means of encrypted communications on Sign at andreahsu.08.
