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During the spring of 2025, Michaela experienced a sudden, stabbing ache shoot from her hip while she bent over to tend to her garden. She collapsed and was unable to rise.

Her husband summoned emergency services and she was admitted in a hospital, where, in her late fifties, doctors discovered she had a tumor on her spine. It was metastatic breast cancer.

"I had no warning that that was going to happen, and I was heartbroken. At first, I wasn't fully aware that it was part of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, which I learned was a common place for it to go," she said.

"If I were to die prematurely, I could not imagine leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have any family. We don’t have children of our own."

Following the victory in the 2024 presidential election, her spouse prepared to be forced back into the office at the DOT in Washington DC. He had worked remotely since the onset of the global pandemic, from their residence outside Baltimore.

On Trump’s first day in office on 20 January, he issued demanding all federal agencies terminate all remote work arrangements. Federal personnel officials directed agencies to implement the policy irrespective of 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 two decades more now, so it is draining for him. We are in our fifties. He was leaving the house at five o’clock in the morning and returning at 7 p.m. at night," she stated. Her real name is withheld as her husband still works at the agency and fears retaliation.

In July, she underwent an operation, a laminectomy. A few weeks after that, she had stereotactic radiation, and is now taking an cancer treatment called Kisqali alongside hormone therapy.

She had early-stage breast cancer a decade ago, but successfully treated it, due to early detection, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and tamoxifen. With consistent monitoring, she stayed on top of it, before her recent diagnosis of stage four metastatic breast cancer.

Surviving Reductions in Force and Reorganization

Over the past year, Michaela’s husband avoided layoffs at the Department of Transportation. By May, thousands of employees had departed the department, due to the cuts as well as retirements and voluntary resignations.

According to a internal document on its plan for reductions in force and reorganization, the agency estimated that by December 31, 2025, its workforce would be cut by one-fifth from levels at the start of the year.

This would correlate to over ten thousand reduced staff at the department. Government workforce reductions have surpassed targets, with a significant number of workers leaving the government and only a fraction of new hires.

"We were worried about RIFs. It is clear given the way things are operating, that this is always on the table because policies disregard the law," she elaborated.

She noted that jobs for specializations at the agency are difficult to find and contractors often want to pay lower salaries.

Facing a Government Shutdown

While the DOT was losing staff, on 1 October a shutdown of the U.S. government began, continuing for over a month, the longest in US history.

Michaela and her husband marked their 18th wedding anniversary in the fall, during the ongoing closure, but remained home because they couldn’t afford to dine out due to her husband going without a paycheck for several weeks.

She is thankful the government shutdown concluded as she was worried about healthcare costs, but rues the increases in healthcare premiums she and her husband have experienced, as well as for those who rely on healthcare through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

"I felt desperate. I felt impoverished. I was astonished, frightened, and I watched my husband and on several occasions where he was sitting at his desk and he gazed out the window. He was becoming despondent," she said.

Feeling Targeted

"We’re just one drop in a ocean of millions people who strive diligently to achieve their positions, who try to do the right thing, and the people who are setting policy are just ransacking and managing the government and viewing federal workers like adversaries, that they are not citizens, and that they should be attacked. I find this personally offensive to that," she said.

A Looming Threat

She is now worried is a potential looming federal closure in late January, with the vast majority of federal funds set to lapse again without a long-term deal.

"The temporary funding measure comes up for a vote again at the end of January and I am thinking this is going to happen once more. We’ve been through multiple closures. This by far was the worst," she stated. "I’m already battling a serious disease, and I don’t know what the future holds. I could be here for a couple more years. I might live for a decade."