SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge in San Francisco ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary workers who were recently laid off across several federal agencies.
For all of six months, Shaylie Bybee worked for the IRS in their collections department - specifically with small businesses and those who were self-employed.
“I worked on the far end of that, so people that had owed the IRS for a very long time,” said Bybee. “So, a lot of times people called in very afraid, very stressed, anxious.”
Bybee now feels those same emotions as Thursday marked three weeks since she had been fired.
“The job market right now is saturated,” Bybee said. “Just my department alone had almost 100 people laid off in that moment.”
So Thursday’s ruling left her feeling cautiously optimistic.
“It’s a complicated emotion, because I feel good knowing that a judge agrees - the way they did this was unlawful,” said Bybee.
She wonders if some of these employees will even want their jobs back, given the way that DOGE is treating the federal workforce.
“It’s not a celebration, because how safe is our job if we do go back?” asked Bybee.
Salt Lake area veteran Greg House worked for the local VA up until last month, he feels vindicated by the ruling.
“Blindly chopping at jobs is not the efficient way to go about it,” said House. “That’s something we could’ve told you from the beginning.”
Under the ruling, the probationary workers must be offered reinstatement within seven days.
House and Bybee haven’t yet heard if they would among those reinstated and they’re also prepared for a legal fight to ensue.
“None of us have our hopes up to go back next week,” Bybee said. “We do expect them to appeal it and to try and fight it at the Supreme Court level”
But these workers are now hopeful they can go back to the positions they loved.
“I want to keep serving our veterans, and I want to keep helping the VA in every way possible,” House said.
