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Erin Cagney was supposed to hear on Monday that she could go back to doing the job she loved \u2014 as an archaeologist with the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. But the day came and went without a word.<\/p>\n
Ms. Cagney finally learned her fate on Wednesday evening. She was being reinstated, but immediately being placed on administrative leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cI desperately want to return to my job,\u201d she said in an interview on Wednesday. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be on administrative leave, in limbo, for some unknown duration of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Cagney, first ensnared in the Trump administration\u2019s purge of thousands of probationary employees, now finds herself caught in the slow-motion chaos playing out across the government as 18 federal agencies contend with two court orders requiring workers to be rehired<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In interviews, more than a dozen fired probationary workers described a kind of purgatory in which information about their livelihoods and what might happen next was difficult, if not impossible, to come by. Most of the fired workers interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing for their future job prospects and citing their desire to get back to work.<\/p>\n In some cases, fired employees say they have received emails informing them of their reinstatement. Some have seen back pay appear in their bank accounts.<\/p>\n But more than a dozen federal agencies \u2014 including the Interior Department, Ms. Cagney\u2019s parent agency \u2014 have reinstated employees and immediately placed them on administrative leave, according to interviews and a review of status updates provided by agencies that were filed in court.<\/p>\n Several workers said that this indefinite period of leave has only unnerved them further as agencies eye deep additional cuts ordered by President Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI worry that that means they\u2019re just planning to put us in a wider layoff in the future,\u201d Ms. Cagney said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For the Trump administration, firing thousands of federal employees with probationary status was relatively quick work, with waves of dismissals rolling out in February at the direction of the Office of Personnel Management, the government\u2019s human resources arm. Reinstatements have proved more difficult, human resources officials detailed in court filings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Restoring all the fired employees to \u201cfull duty status\u201d would impose significant burdens on the Energy Department, \u201cand cause significant confusion and turmoil for the terminated employees,\u201d the agency\u2019s acting chief human capital officer, Reesha Trznadel, wrote in a status report on Monday. The report was filed to two federal judges, James Bredar of the District of Maryland and William H. Alsup of the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n The judges are presiding over legal challenges to the probationary terminations, two of many lawsuits filed against the government because of the indiscriminate firings of federal workers since Mr. Trump took office. The Energy Department fired 555 probationary employees in February, Ms. Trznadel wrote.<\/p>\n Rehiring the employees, she wrote, means filling out paperwork, issuing new security badges and government equipment and restoring security clearances. Ms. Trznadel said all 555 employees had been reinstated by the end of the day on Monday and then placed on administrative leave.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Other agencies\u2019 court declarations were similar, laying out the challenges with complying with the court order and stating how far along they were in reinstatements. In some cases, sections of the declarations are identical.<\/p>\n Judge Alsup has taken issue with agencies\u2019 placing reinstated employees on administrative leave rather than fully bringing them back to work, signaling the potential for further action on the issue. Late Monday, he ordered the agencies involved in the case before him to respond the next day with details about the number of employees placed on administrative leave.<\/p>\n The government responded Tuesday in a court filing<\/a> that administrative leave was just one stage in the process of returning the probationary employees to their jobs, but did not give further details or a timeline for next steps.<\/p>\n