‘They want to maximize the cruelty’: Laid-off federal workers share their frustrations

It was Friday night at 8:54 p.m. on Valentine’s Day when Jonathan Kamens was fired by email.

“They want to maximize the cruelty, so they do it on a Friday night to ruin your whole weekend. And they do it after hours,” Kamens told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday.

The email informed Kamens and 40 of his colleagues in the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) that their services were no longer required. Kamens was working as the lead cybersecurity expert on VeteransAffairs.Gov, the online portal where veterans access their benefits and services through the VA.

Also in February, meteorologist Francis Tarasiewicz of Norton was checking in with his supervisors after one month working for the National Weather Service. They told Tarasiewicz he was “doing great” and was a “good fit” for the agency.

Later that day, Tarasiewicz received an email from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, saying his position was being terminated due to poor performance, lack of expertise and knowledge.

“It was a huge slap in the face,” Tarasiewicz said, who had spent six to eight months interviewing for the position. “I actually had to be the one to call my managers to let them know that I, in fact, was let off.”

He had to remove his things from the office and return his ID cards within the hour.

Both men told GBH’s Boston Public Radio they are concerned about the public impact of DOGE firing thousands of federal workers.

Without adequate expertise and staffing — which Kamens said was already stretched thin — the cybersecurity of the VA site could degrade over time and leave sensitive private information at risk, he said. The portal contains information on diagnoses, disabilities, bank account numbers and social security numbers.

“If you don’t maintain the cybersecurity of a website, eventually someone breaks into it,” he said. Kamens said he’s also worried about DOGE having access and abusing that data.

The National Weather Service operates a network of weather observation tools — from satellites and radar to weather stations — across the country. Tarasiewicz used this data to forecast weather and coordinate with emergency management. He said he hopes the staff layoffs don’t lead to a situation where a natural disaster hits without people being informed.

There are many private sector weather forecasting companies, Tarasiewicz said, but those companies depend on data from the National Weather Service and NOAA.

“This could honestly upend the entire field of meteorology in the United States,” he said.

In the wake of losing his job, he wonders how NWS could have better communicated their mission. The NWS advises and serves citizens and does not make policy or enforce laws.

“We’re not some, like, ‘deep state.’ ... We’re just a bunch of sort of weather nerds that are really interested in serving as many people as we can,” he said.

Public service is what drew both Tarasiewicz and Kamens to their roles in the federal government, even though they could earn money more in the private sector.

Kamens worked for 30 years in Boston area tech startups before making the switch.

“I don’t care about the money. I wanted to be a public servant. That’s why I took this job,” Kamens said.