National Science Foundation fired nearly 170 workers Soaring Called Tuesday morning as part of the Trump administration’s agenda to reduce the federal workforce. The terminated workers were told that their work would end at 5 p.m. ET today, including those still on probation, as well as workers who have completed the necessary one-year probation period to become permanent workers and willing Worker employees considered permanent.
But earlier this month, the NSF suddenly told the permanent workers that their one-year probation period should be two years and will no longer be terminated.
Trump administration has ordered federal agencies Almost all fired Trial staff Those who have not yet obtained permanent status and thus receive protection from civil servants. But NSF workers who believe they are safe suddenly find themselves unemployed today.
The National Science Foundation is an independent body within the federal government, providing grants to universities and other institutions supporting scientific and engineering research. The foundation’s grants account for a quarter of all federal support for conducting research on academic institutions. NSF grants were suspended in late January due to freezing funds, but the agency Resuming the issuance of grants According to a court order earlier this month.
Many ended their roles as program managers and experts on Tuesday, and they evaluated and made recommendations by aligning research recommendations with the right plans and matching them with the most qualified reviewers.
“It’s hard to imagine this was done successfully through automated algorithms,” a fired plan manager told Wired. “With fewer program officials than managed assessment processes, the overwhelming concern is that it is advancing scientific advances in the United States,” said Wired. , identifying and supporting such transformative but unconventional projects will become increasingly difficult.”
All sources who spoke with the link asked for anonymity because they were worried about retribution.
Sources said they received an email at 9:02 a.m. ET this morning at 9:02 a.m. ET asking them to call for “meeting with NSF trial staff” at 10 a.m. Zoom. However, many workers did not receive the zoom link and thus missed the start of the call. During the meeting, they were told that their network access would be closed at 1pm and that they would have to clean the tables until 5pm, although workers were told to stay for things they couldn’t clean until 5pm.
The termination action this morning also includes all permanent employees designated as “willed” workers. A termination worker told Wade that they are permanent federal employees who work part-time and their annual contract will be renewed in September.
During the meeting, NSF management told workers that the decision to terminate employees came only from the NSF and not by the government. When asked if employees were terminated only for fairness to probation workers, NSF management replied that the decision was “partially due to fairness, but that’s not all.”
