Probation ends in termination for Va. FEMA worker caught in mass layoffs

by Ian Stewart, Virginia Mercury
March 3, 2025

Like many a few weeks ago, Travis Pettit was taking advantage of the three-day weekend because of President’s Day at his home in Stanley, Virginia.

Then the call came around noon.

“It was a federal holiday. I was running some errands and my supervisor called my personal cell phone,” said Pettit. “She said, ‘Hey, you know, I’m calling to give you an informal heads up that we received a list of probationary employees who are being terminated and your name is on them.’”

Pettit said his supervisor was very upset about the situation. 

“She informed me that they did not have input into this decision. It came from senior FEMA leadership,” he said. “And she was just basically exacerbated, just angry at the situation, because she knew that my performance evaluations were outstanding and they did not want to lose me, but they had no say in the matter.”

Pettit was told to expect an email with his formal termination that night, along with all of his separation paperwork. The next day, Pettit would have to send his company laptop and phone back to FEMA, who provided a shipping label for the process.

Pettit was one of the many probationary employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who got fired on President’s Day. The agency dismissed about 200 employees, according to National Public Radio and ironically, just last year, the agency reported staffing shortages.

The layoffs, led by billionaire Musk under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have primarily targeted probationary employees — those with a year or less on the job — according to States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau. 

University of Virginia School of Law professor J.H. “Rip” Verkerke has a few thoughts on the massive firings happening throughout the federal government.

“The Trump administration’s strategy, guided by Elon Musk’s DOGE team, strikes me as chaotic, cruel, and counter-productive,” Verkerke said in an email. “As many people have observed, we are seeing many echoes of Musk’s indiscriminate termination of employees at Twitter after he purchased the company. He currently faces a number of lawsuits challenging some of those terminations and particularly alleging that his company failed to pay promised severance benefits.”

Civil servants are typically granted statutory protections against termination, depending on their job classification and tenure, Verkerke said.

“So far, it appears that the administration has principally targeted probationary employees for mass terminations,” he said. 

“These workers are comparatively vulnerable because they don’t receive full civil service job protection until they have served for at least one year. The fact that they are being mandated by White House officials who have no meaningful contact with the agency workers, and the patently false statements contained in at least some of the termination notices may provide some legal grounds for these employees to challenge their firing.”

Pettit was an instructional systems specialist at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which operates under FEMA. He developed specialized training courses for firefighters.

“I was still in my probationary period,” he said. “I was hired in March of 2024, so I was about three weeks shy of being out of that probationary period when I was terminated.” 

Probation periods vary by position and agency but typically last at least a year. Employees are expected to transition to either a career or  career-conditional appointment based on performance. 

Since his termination, Pettit has been considering his next steps, including the possibility of contesting FEMA’s decision.

“It basically said something to the effect of, because you’re a probationary employee, you have not demonstrated that your performance warrants further employment or is in the public’s interest, and you’re being separated as of tomorrow,” he said. 

After researching his options, Pettit came across a sample response letter online. 

“I had found a sample letter on Reddit which told me they couldn’t possibly be actually assessing our performance individually if I’m a high performer, and I’m getting this form letter that everybody else is getting,” he said. 

“So I typed up my response, which said, ‘Hey, you’re making these unfounded claims about me. I would like documentation. If you can provide notices that I allegedly received regarding my performance or performance improvement plans, but I want an explanation for this.”

He never received a reply.

Pettit filed a claim with the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency  that investigates terminations of civil servants. The office has agreed to take on his case. 

Meanwhile, multiple lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal employees have emerged, according to the Public Broadcasting Service. 

Pettit has also started the process of applying for unemployment benefits. 

“I did go ahead and file basically the next day after I found out I was getting laid off just because I didn’t know how long any of these processes were gonna take,” he said. “I am in the process of searching for work and submitting everything I need to the unemployment office. It’s been a difficult week.”

Unemployment benefit claims in Virginia

More than 144,000 federal civil workers live in Virginia, according to a 2024 report put out by the Congressional Research Service. 

However, for those federal employees who have been terminated and are thinking about possibly applying for unemployment benefits, they need to understand which state to fill out the forms in, according to Demetrios “Mitch” Melis, commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC). 

“The only individuals that are going to file in Virginia are people that worked in Virginia,” Melis explained. “So if you worked in D.C. and that’s where your duty station was, you’re filing in D.C. If your duty station was in Maryland, you’re filing in Maryland.”

The federal government determines an employee’s duty station, Melis added. 

Despite the thousands of Virginia-based federal employees, the number of filed claims has not shot up, said Melis. When The Mercury interviewed Melis last week, Virginia’s unemployment rate for the last week of January remained unchanged. He noted that the VEC does not track claims by job type.  

“We don’t report on a person by person. The unemployment numbers are kind of consolidated and then they’re broken down,” Melis said. “So we don’t currently have a breakout specific for federal employees.” However, he added, “The majority of these jobs that we’re seeing thus far seem to be based in D.C.”

Nationally, unemployment claims did rise, according to figures released by the Department of Labor on Feb. 27. The DOL reported that “in the week ending Feb. 22 was 242,000, an increase of 22,000 from the previous week’s revised level.”

The previous week’s report, for the week of Feb. 22 from the DOL showed an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised level — that’s a jump of 17,000 claims. Claims from federal workers also rose, from 613 to 614. Last year at this time, the number was 337.

Melis said his office typically sees seasonal spikes in unemployment during this time of year.

“We are not seeing a correlation at the moment between the federal workforce transitions and changes that are happening and the unemployment rate,” he said. “We typically see a seasonal spike right at this time of year, every single year. And that’s typically a result of post-holiday layoffs, winter slowdowns.”

The latest report for Virginia, released Feb. 27, even showed a slight decline in claims: 

“2,473 unemployment insurance weekly initial claims were filed during the week ending February 22, 2025, which is 14.7% lower than last week’s 2,899 claims and 23.9% higher than the comparable week of last year (1,996).”

Melis said the VEC is monitoring the numbers weekly and emphasized that claim fluctuations depend on when and if people file. If unemployment claims rise, the agency is prepared. 

“I do want to reiterate that in no way are we taking it lightly,” he said. “We certainly understand the impact it has, which is why we have quickly made some adjustments to our website. Virginia currently has a very large number of jobs available — 290,000 jobs available currently for individuals to be able to transition to.”

The VEC is also creating instructional videos to guide federal employees through the application process, outlining required documentation and eligibility criteria t. 

“Our focus at the moment is truly preparing for those that may be impacted. And we are prepared to provide as much support as we can for anyone that’s impacted,” Melis said. “We certainly understand it’s a time that they’re going through, but our job is to be prepared with the state resources that we have. And that’s what we’re in a position to do and we’ll be continuing to do.”

Gov.Glenn Youngkin’s response

Amid the initial wave of DOGE-led firings, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin defended Trump’s actions while expressing  concern for those feeling anxious about the job cuts. At the same time, he said that his administration was developing a plan to assist federal workers. 

That plan was unveiled last week  as an online job hub. The initiative promises an estimated 250,000 new jobs across Virginia’s public and private sectors.

For those employees who may be thinking about other options, Verkerke said there may be some hope. He said the way DOGE is operating will turn out to be illegal.

“Federal employees who object to those actions or who report those actions to appropriate authorities may be able to raise whistleblowing claims against the agency that fires them,” said Verkerke. “Specific statutory protections vary, but it would be no surprise to find that some Trump appointees have retaliated against federal employees for protected activity.”

Although Verkeke said the current situation is so fluid that it’s difficult to predict what claims may succeed. 

“However, one fact is undeniable. The Trump administration’s actions are utterly without prior precedent,” he said.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.

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