During the spring of 2025, a woman experienced a sudden, stabbing ache shoot from her hip while she bent over to tend to her garden. She collapsed and couldn’t get back up.
Her husband called an ambulance and she spent the night in a hospital, where, in her late fifties, doctors discovered she had a mass on her spine. The diagnosis was metastatic breast cancer.
"There was no indication this would occur, and I was devastated. At first, I wasn't fully aware that it was part of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, a location is common for it to go," she explained.
"If I were to die prematurely, I cannot bear the thought of leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have any family. We don’t have any children."
When Trump won the 2024 election, her spouse braced to be mandated to return to in-person work at the DOT in Washington DC. He had been teleworking since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, from their residence outside Baltimore.
On Trump’s first day in office on 20 January, he issued demanding all federal agencies end all telework arrangements. Federal personnel officials directed agencies to implement the policy despite collective bargaining contracts.
"My husband’s a veteran in government service, and he is highly skilled in his field. He’s been doing this for 20 years now, so it’s exhausting for him. We are in our fifties. He departed the house at 5 a.m. in the morning and getting home at seven at night," she stated. Her identity is protected as her husband remains employed at the Department of Transportation and is concerned about reprisal.
During the summer, she underwent an operation, a laminectomy. Shortly following that, she had targeted radiation therapy, and is now taking an cancer treatment called Kisqali alongside hormone therapy.
She had stage one breast cancer a decade ago, but was able to treat it, as it was caught early, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal medication. Through regular checkups, she managed her health, prior to her latest diagnosis of advanced metastatic breast cancer.
Surviving Reductions in Force and Reorganization
Throughout this year, Michaela’s husband avoided reductions in force at the DOT. By spring, nearly 2,800 employees had departed the department, due to those reductions as well as retirements and voluntary resignations.
Per a memo on its plan for staff reductions and restructuring, the agency estimated that by the end of next year, its workforce would be reduced by approximately 20 percent from earlier levels.
This would correlate to over ten thousand fewer employees at the department. Federal employee cuts have exceeded goals, with hundreds of thousands of workers leaving the federal government and a small number of new hires.
"We were worried about RIFs. It is clear given the way things are operating, that this is always on the table because they ignore established rules," she elaborated.
She noted that jobs for specializations at the agency are hard to come by and contractors often want to pay reduced wages.
Enduring a Government Shutdown
As the Department of Transportation was shedding employees, on 1 October a shutdown of the federal government began, lasting for over a month, the most protracted in US history.
Michaela and her husband celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary in the fall, during the ongoing closure, but stayed at home because they couldn’t afford to go out to eat due to her husband going without a paycheck for several weeks.
She is relieved the federal closure ended as she was anxious over healthcare costs, but rues the rising costs in healthcare premiums she and her husband have experienced, as well as for those who rely on healthcare through the ACA exchanges.
"I felt desperate. I felt impoverished. I was astonished, frightened, and I watched my husband and on several occasions where he was sitting at his desk and he gazed out the window. He was getting depressed," she said.
Feeling Targeted
"We’re just one drop in a ocean of countless people who strive diligently to get where they are, who try to do the correct thing, and those who are setting policy are seemingly dismantling and managing the government and viewing federal workers like they are enemies, that they are lesser citizens, and that they deserve targeting. And I take personal offense to that," she expressed.
Future Uncertainty
She is now worried is another possible approaching federal closure on 30 January 2026, with the vast majority of government funding set to expire again without a permanent agreement.
"The temporary funding measure is up for renewal again on the 30th of January and I am thinking this is going to happen all over again. We’ve been through several shutdowns. This was decidedly the most severe," she stated. "I’m already battling a life-threatening illness, and I don’t know where it’s going to take me. I may survive for another year or two. I might live for a decade."
