During the spring of 2025, Michaela felt a sharp pain radiate from her hip as she leaned down to tend to her garden. Then she fell over and was unable to rise.
Her spouse summoned emergency services and she spent the night in a hospital, where, at 57, she found out she had a mass on her spine. The diagnosis was metastatic breast cancer.
"I had no warning that that was going to happen, and I was devastated. At first, I wasn't fully aware that it was part of my breast cancer that had metastasized to my spine, a location was a common place for it to go," she said.
"Should I pass away early, I could not imagine leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have little family. We are without any children."
When Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Michaela’s husband braced to be mandated back into the office at the DOT in Washington DC. He had been teleworking since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, from their home outside Baltimore.
On Trump’s first day in office on 20 January, an executive order was signed requiring all federal agencies terminate all remote work arrangements. Federal personnel officials instructed agencies to enact the order despite collective bargaining contracts.
"My spouse is a long-time employee with the administration, and he’s an expert in his field. He has worked for 20 years more now, so it is draining 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 real name is withheld as her husband still works at the agency and fears retaliation.
In July, Michaela had surgery, a laminectomy. A few weeks after that, she had targeted radiation therapy, and is currently on an cancer treatment called Kisqali and hormone therapy.
She was previously diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in 2014, but was able to treat it, as it was caught early, with a partial lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal medication. Through regular checkups, she stayed on top of it, before her latest diagnosis of advanced metastatic breast cancer.
Navigating Job Cuts and Restructuring
Over the past year, her spouse avoided reductions in force at the Department of Transportation. By spring, nearly 2,800 employees had departed the department, due to the cuts as well as employees retiring and voluntary resignations.
According to a internal document on its plan for staff reductions and restructuring, the agency estimated that by December 31, 2025, its workforce would be reduced by one-fifth from levels at the start of the year.
This would correlate to more than 10,000 fewer employees at the department. Government workforce reductions have exceeded goals, with hundreds of thousands of workers leaving the federal government and a small number of new hires.
"We were worried about layoffs. It is clear given the way things are operating, that this remains a constant threat because policies disregard established rules," Michaela explained.
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 October 1st a closure of the U.S. government began, continuing for 43 days, the longest in US history.
Michaela and her husband marked their 18th anniversary in the fall, during the ongoing closure, but stayed at home because finances prevented them to go out to eat due to her husband going without a paycheck for multiple weeks.
She is relieved the government shutdown ended as she was worried about medical bills, but rues the rising costs in insurance premiums she and her husband have experienced, and for those who rely on healthcare through the ACA exchanges.
"I felt hopeless. I felt destitute. I was astonished, frightened, and I watched my husband and on several occasions where he was sitting at his desk and he was just staring out the window. He was getting depressed," she said.
Feeling Targeted
"We are merely one example in a ocean of millions people who work so hard to get where they are, who try to do the right thing, and those who are making all the decisions are seemingly dismantling and leading the government and viewing federal workers like adversaries, that they are not citizens, and that they deserve targeting. I find this personally offensive to that," she said.
Future Uncertainty
Her current concern is a potential approaching government shutdown in late January, with the bulk of federal funds set to expire again absent a permanent agreement.
"The continuing resolution is up for renewal again at the end of January and I am thinking this is going to happen once more. We have endured several shutdowns. This was decidedly the worst," she said. "I’m already battling a life-threatening illness, and I don’t know where it’s going to take me. I could be here for another year or two. I could be here for 10 years."
