Alaska federal employees disheartened by the reality, or threat, of termination

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – After rounds of mass layoffs within the federal government, a growing number of Alaskans find themselves without a job or fear they might be the next to receive a termination notice.

Last week, dozens of U.S. Forest Service Workers in Alaska received the news that they would no longer be employed if they were still a probationary employee. Now, other federal employees in Alaska fear the same might be in store for them when the workweek starts on Tuesday.

“We have been stressed. It’s not getting any easier, you know, but we’re doing our best to kind of show up and do our jobs every day.” said Federal Employee Morgan Saladino. “It’s really disheartening to see the public, a lot of people in the public, either not understanding or caring about what’s going on, or actively rooting for it, when really we’re all just trying to show up and do our jobs every day,” she explained.

Saladino, speaking on behalf of herself and not her employers, said she is concerned she may be next to receive a termination notice given she is still a probationary employee.

“I got an e-mail that said that they had passed on a list of probationary employees, but so far it was just a list. They have no knowledge so far of what’s going to be done with it.” said Saladino. “It is disheartening, though, to see what’s happening in other agencies, and it does kind of make you think about, okay, Where’s this information? You know what’s going to happen? Are we next?”

Jillian Jablonski is one of the U.S. Forest service employees who already received the news she would no longer have her position, despite receiving positive performance reviews, and even heard from her supervisor that they were planning to keep her on after the probationary period, just a few weeks before the layoffs.

“I think especially this type of mass termination of probationary employees to me that clearly indicates that it can’t possibly be for cause for literally hundreds of thousands of employees at the same time, which would be in conflict with the reasons that we can be terminated,” Jablonski said.

Prior to the mass termination, Jablonski said her department was already understaffed and stretched thin due the fact that they would not be getting seasonal employees this year as they usually have.

Now she is searching for new employment.

“To just suddenly be unemployed,” Jablonski says, “and I’ve never in my life been suddenly unemployed and not have a job lined up.” She continues, “so definitely feeling a little nervous and a little bit scared and trying not to dwell on it. “

Meanwhile, Saladino is hoping she and fellow federal employees won’t face the same fate.

“It’s also going to be really hard to see what happens to Alaska specifically in light of all of this,” Saladino said. “Because I mean, so many employees are federal or work with public lands, or the fisheries like I work for and a lot of stuff is super important to the Alaskan economy and to the livelihood of so many people here, and I just. People to try and start understanding how unbelievably devastating this is.”

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