'No performance history:' Oklahoma man now jobless after only 3 weeks at IRS

Mass layoffs continue across the federal government, representing promises kept by the Trump administration to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 which ordered a federal hiring freeze, which has been lifted with special and limited exemptions, and also ordered agencies to examine ways to reduce the number of employees. Since then, more than 20,000 federal employees have been laid off.

Only weeks on the job

In Oklahoma City, one man moved more than 2,000 miles to start a job with the Internal Revenue Service as a revenue officer on Jan. 27, a week after President Trump issued his order.

Despite the order, the man, who wishes to only go by James to protect his future career prospects, said there was no earlier indication from the IRS that his position would be terminated so soon. Three weeks later, he received notice of termination.

"Down here in the fourth paragraph, it says that I'm being terminated because of the executive order that was signed on January 20th, 2025, performance, and 'in light of current mission needs,' the agency finds that my continued appointment at the agency is not in the public interest," James said.

James also produced a copy of his performance history, which was blank. He expected to get his first performance review at six months, and therefore he disagrees with the notion that his performance was to blame.

Impact on the big picture

James, who is a 50% disabled American veteran, took a pay cut of more than $20,000 to return to public service for his country after being medically discharged from the military in 2004.

He supports the notion of reducing waste and eliminating fraud. But, he's surprised to know he and his colleagues ended up as examples.

"That's where the revenue officer comes into play," he explained. "They go after that money that was never given to the IRS, but was still taken out of your paycheck."

He said his office in Oklahoma City already had fewer revenue officers than it needed and wanted. He fully expects delays for taxpayers during tax filing season.

There are also questions on how a reduced workforce at the IRS helps support slimming the national deficit, he said.

"It's not going to have a devastating impact on us, but it still feels like a punch in the gut," James said.