Three former federal employees from Maine whose positions were cut last month said they would return to their jobs without a second thought if given the option, despite knowing they could get fired again.
On Feb. 14, Allen White, an Air Force veteran and former employee at Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta, was tucking his 3-year-old daughter into bed when he received an email. It stated he had been fired due to “poor performance.”
White’s role at the medical center was to manage employee training programs, help onboard new employees and ensure broken equipment got fixed quickly. He had been in the position for only four months.
“I agree with trimming the fat and making things more efficient, but how [the federal government] is going about doing it is, for lack of a better word, asinine,” White said.
White is among the thousands of probationary federal workers who were fired last month when President Donald Trump cut positions in an effort to slim federal departments and increase efficiency.
Last week, however, two federal judges ordered the administration to reinstate the thousands of employees who were fired unjustly. But many employees, including three in Maine, are stuck in limbo waiting to be called back to work.
The three federal employees, alongside other Maine organization leaders and invested residents, gathered in Brewer on Wednesday to discuss how the slew of firings, cuts and executive orders Trump has issued in his first few weeks in office have already impacted Mainers.
While at the event on Wednesday, White received an email stating he’s on administrative leave until further notice, but will be brought back to work and receive backpay. Prior to that, he was told only that “meetings are being held.”
White said he plans to take his job back, despite the whiplash of being fired without warning.
“Being a veteran, I appreciate the opportunity to move forward in my career path and serve veterans,” White said. “I didn’t necessarily see myself working in education and training, but I absolutely love it.”
Tessa Corsetti of Kittery was the former regional bat coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before she was fired on Feb. 14. In her role, Corsetti focused on conserving bat populations in the northeast, which have declined significantly in recent years due to white-nose syndrome.
Fewer bats is an issue, Corsetti said, because bats are vital for seed dispersal, pollination and pest control, as they eat mosquitos. This is especially important now because New England has started to see an increase of mosquito-borne illnesses.
Corsetti was told in a meeting, alongside 420 colleagues, that their positions were terminated effective immediately. However, they were assured the cut had “nothing to do with performance or anything we personally had done.”
Instead, Corsetti, who had been in the position since December 2024, was told her “skills and expertise no longer aligned with the needs of the Department of Interior.”
“We had two hours to get our affairs in order and were then locked out of our computers and accounts,” Corsetti said.
Since then, Corsetti received one email from her supervisor saying they’re working on bringing her back, but she hasn’t heard anything since.
Regardless, Corsetti said she’d return to work “in a heartbeat” because working for the federal government was her career goal, and losing it in an instant has been “devastating.”
“My experiences as a wildlife biologist have been some of the most precious of my life,” Corsetti said. “I find so much value in it because animals are innocent. We have a responsibility to protect them and make sure they’re not irrevocably harmed by our actions. There’s so much beauty that we’re at risk of losing.”
Scott Gagnon of Gray received an email on Feb. 15 — his wedding anniversary — stating he was fired from the U.S. Department Health and Human Services after working in the position for eight months.
What hurt the most, Gagnon said, was being told he was fired due to “poor performance” because his performance review was excellent. Regardless, Gagnon said he’d take his job back, if offered.
Most recently, Gagnon received an email on Tuesday stating he’ll get another week of paid administrative leave, but he doesn’t know what will happen after Friday.
“The words they used is, ‘my separation has been canceled,’ but the only thing they can guarantee is one more week of administrative leave,” Gagnon said. “I’ll keep getting paid and get benefits, but I can’t go back and do my job.”
Gagnon is a certified prevention specialist and former regional director for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMSA, covering Maine and the rest of New England. In his role, Gagnon worked with local organizations that serve anyone affected by substance use, mental health or behavioral health disorder.
“I’m a very mission-driven person,” Gagnon said. “I want to serve and help Mainers address their mental and behavioral health issues. That’s why I came to SAMSA.”
While the three federal employees are all anxiously waiting to return to their jobs, they’re also thinking about their colleagues who kept their jobs, but are being overworked and subjected to “a very hostile and traumatic work environment,” Corsetti said.
“The people who are still there are traumatized — it’s a very bad work environment, which is by design,” Gagnon said. “They want people to leave.”
