It’s a tough time to work for the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s a disaster,” one employee told GBH News. “Every day there is some new horror.”

With the EPA among the federal workforces targeted in the Trump administration’s quest to slash the size and reach of the federal government, current employees describe a demoralized and frightened workforce still attempting to do their jobs, despite ongoing setbacks to their mission.

GBH News interviewed some employees in the EPA’s region 1 office in Boston, which covers New England. The employees did not want their names used in this story out of fear of retribution.

Fellow staff members, they say, have been put on administrative leave for ideological reasons, and others have illegally been fired under false pretenses. And with the announcement last week that the agency’s budget will be cut by 65%, they say they’re bracing for an impact that will be devastating both to the families of terminated workers and to the agency’s mission to protect the environment and public health.

“We continue to work as hard as we can to protect public health and the environment for our fellow New Englanders,” one employee said, “even as we feel completely devastated about what is happening around us.”

In the Boston office, among the first faces to disappear were seven employees whose work focused on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or on low-income communities that bear a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards. Those EPA employees were among the 171 nationwide put on administrative leave in early February and told their work is under review. Current employees say it’s not clear how long that review will take, and they fear those workers will be terminated.

About 10 other employees in the Boston office were fired on Valentine’s Day during a mass firing that targeted probationary employees . Current employees say some of those fired colleagues showed up for work the following workday, not knowing they’d been terminated. The fired employees were told the terminations were due to poor performance, but current staff say supervisors were never asked for performance information or input into who should be let go or retained.

“They were done en masse and had nothing to do with an individualized performance assessment for each employee,” one current EPA worker said, adding that it was disheartening to see the EPA follow direction from the Office of Personnel Management.

“We work for the EPA, not for OPM,” another employee said, noting that a federal judge said OPM does not have the authority to fire federal employees. “But this administration doesn’t seem interested in following the law.”

Current employees say it’s tough to nail down exactly how many of their colleagues were fired, because there’s been no official communication about the terminations, leaving only word-of-mouth. It’s also not clear yet how many staffers chose to take the so-called “fork in the road” resignation plan offered by the Office of Personnel Management in January. Anyone who chose to take that offer would have officially left their jobs on Friday.

Some employees who have stayed, meanwhile, say they’ve been hamstrung by the staff reductions as well as executive orders. At the end of January, an executive order required federal agencies to identify 10 regulations to be repealed for every one new one proposed. EPA staff have also been banned from communicating with outside entities. And it’s gotten harder for the public to find them, since an online staff directory has been down since last week.

Environmental grants that have already been awarded were temporarily frozen, but became accessible again following a court order.

EPA-issued credit cards haven’t technically been taken away, current employees say, but most have been limited to purchases of $1. Each of the EPA’s regional offices is now limited to a single “purchaser” authorized to buy anything for the office, including equipment and materials needed for lab work and analysis. Ordinarily, staff would search for the best deals, they say, but a single purchaser doesn’t have time for that, undercutting the administration’s stated goal of cutting wasteful spending.

Workers in Boston’s EPA office say they’re trying to do their jobs and keep up each other’s spirits, despite everything. They say “gallows humor” has become common, and bringing in donuts and coffee to share has become a frequent gesture, but can only do so much.

The EPA is made up of career scientists, engineers, attorneys and professionals at all levels that have dedicated their careers to the agency’s mission, the current employees say. They object to being cast as part of a “bloated, corrupt federal bureaucracy,” as the heads of the OPM and the Office of Management and Budget said in a memo last week.

“We’re corrupt for what, exactly?” an employee said. “Many of us have given up opportunities to have more lucrative careers so that we could work in the public’s interest. To be called corrupt and inefficient — it’s offensive and it’s patently wrong.”

The OMB and OPM memo issued last week requires federal agencies to issue plans for “large-scale reductions” in two phases, starting this month. The memo was released the same day that President Donald Trump said he plans to cut 65% of the EPA’s staff. The White House later clarified the plan is to cut 65% of the agency’s funding.

David Cash, who headed the EPA’s New England office in Boston under President Joe Biden, said the planned budget cut shows “a blatant disregard for the importance of protecting the air and water and ecosystems.”

“This would be devastating for the protection of the environment, for the basic things that we all depend on in our everyday lives,” Cash said. “What it really means is that for families in the United States, they’re going to have to worry more about the health of their children. For families in the United States, they’re going to have to worry about increased cancer for people who they love.”