FAIRBORN — Some Wright-Patterson Air Force Base employees are not sure if they will keep their jobs.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, these worries come after federal workers received an email asking for 5 bullet points on what they accomplished at work the previous week. The Department of Defense told staff to pause their replys.
The initial deadline to respond was Midnight on Monday. Elon Musk then posted online “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
News Center 7 Taylor Robertson sat down with a WPAFB civilian employee on Tuesday. He asked to remain anonymous as he fears speaking out could cost him his job or his put his supervisors in a bad position.
He wants people to know that some Wrigth-Patt employees are unsure about the future.
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“They can’t tell them things are going to be okay, because they don’t know if they’re going to be okay,” he said.
He has worked at the base for almost two years and said it’s the “best job” he’s ever had. But things have been different over the past six weeks.
“I’ve seen more people cry, I’ve seen more people just completely distraught, people worried that when they show up tomorrow, they’re going to check their email and find out that they’ve been terminated,” he said.
>>RELATED: Uncertainty looms around impacts to WPAFB amid defense department cuts
The Pentagon has said it plans to terminate five to eight percent of the military’s civilian employees to produce efficiencies.
The Department of Defense has an annual budget over $800 billion. “There are waste, redundancies and headcounts in headquarters that need to be addressed,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The employee from Wright-Patt said many of his colleagues were concerned about sending the bullet points because much of the work they do is classified.
“I don’t think any of us were offended by having to put five bullet points, I think 99% of us could do that very easily but it’s who the information is going to and the way in which it was requested,” he said.
He thinks the uncertainty is distracting WPAFB employees from their original mission.
“My concern is that we are weakening our ability to respond, our military readiness. That’s the national concern. The personal concern is that this is damaging a lot of our families, its damaging a lot of people that have sworn an oath to this country to do everything that we can for our warfighters,” he said.
He wanted to reiterate that his supervisors are doing everything they can to keep their employees in the loop about what’s going on.
When News Center 7 previously reached out to Wright-Patterson about potential cuts among probationary employees last week, they sent the following statement:
“There are rumors and speculation circulating regarding the status of probationary employees. As of now (Thursday, 20 Feb, 6:30 p.m.), NO probationary termination notices have been sent to AF employees at Wright-Patterson AFB. We do not have the number of Wright-Patterson AFB employees who may be affected by termination actions. We are supporting the Department of the Air Force as it makes decisions on the future of its workforce and continue to support our employees with extensive resources dedicated to their well-being.”
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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