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During the spring of 2025, Michaela felt a sharp pain shoot from her hip as she leaned down to tend to her garden. She collapsed and couldn’t get back up.

Her spouse called an ambulance and she spent the night 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 didn’t clearly understand that it was part of my breast cancer that had metastasized to my spine, which I learned is common for it to go," she explained.

"If I were to die prematurely, I cannot bear the thought of leaving [my husband] here. We have any family. We are without children of our own."

When Trump won the 2024 presidential election, her spouse braced to be mandated back into the office at the Department of Transportation in Washington DC. He had worked remotely since the beginning of the global pandemic, from their home outside Baltimore.

On the inaugural day in office in January, an executive order was signed demanding all federal agencies end all telework arrangements. Federal personnel officials directed agencies to enact the order irrespective of collective bargaining contracts.

"My husband’s a veteran in government service, and he is highly skilled in his field. He’s been doing this for 20 years now, so it is draining for him. We are in our fifties. He was leaving the house at 5 a.m. in the morning and returning at seven at night," Michaela said. Her real name is withheld as her husband remains employed at the Department of Transportation and is concerned about reprisal.

During the summer, she underwent an operation, a laminectomy. Shortly following that, she had stereotactic radiation, and is currently on an cancer treatment called Kisqali alongside hormone therapy.

She had stage one breast cancer a decade ago, but successfully treated it, as it was caught early, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal medication. Through regular checkups, she managed her health, before her latest diagnosis of stage four metastatic breast cancer.

Navigating Job Cuts and Restructuring

Throughout this year, her spouse survived reductions in force at the Department of Transportation. By spring, nearly 2,800 employees had left the agency, due to those reductions as well as employees retiring and voluntary resignations.

According to a memo on its plan for reductions in force and reorganization, the agency estimated that by December 31, 2025, its staffing levels would be cut by approximately 20 percent from earlier levels.

This would correlate to more than 10,000 fewer employees at the Department of Transportation. Federal employee cuts have exceeded goals, with hundreds of thousands of workers leaving the federal government and only a fraction of replacements.

"We were concerned about layoffs. It is clear based on the way this administration functions, that this is always on the table because they ignore established rules," Michaela explained.

She added that jobs for specializations at the agency are hard to come by and contractors often want to pay lower salaries.

Enduring a Government Shutdown

While the DOT was losing staff, on 1 October a shutdown of the U.S. government began, continuing for 43 days, the most protracted in American history.

Michaela and her husband marked their 18th wedding anniversary in early November, during the ongoing closure, but stayed at home because finances prevented them to dine out due to her husband going without a paycheck for multiple weeks.

She is relieved the government shutdown ended as she was anxious over healthcare costs, but laments the increases in insurance premiums she and her husband have experienced, as well as for those who rely on healthcare through the ACA exchanges.

"I felt desperate. I felt destitute. I was astonished, scared, and I observed my husband and there were a few times where he sat at his desk and he was just staring out the window. He was becoming despondent," she said.

Feeling Targeted

"We’re just one drop in a bucket of countless people who work so hard to get where they are, who attempt to do the correct thing, and those who are making all the decisions are just ransacking and managing the government and viewing government employees like they are enemies, that they are lesser citizens, and that they should be attacked. And I take personal offense to that," she said.

A Looming Threat

Her current concern is another possible looming federal closure in late January, with the vast majority of federal funds set to lapse again absent a permanent agreement.

"The temporary funding measure comes up for a vote again at the end of January and I am thinking this will repeat all over again. We’ve been through several shutdowns. This by far was the most severe," she stated. "I’m already battling a serious disease, and I don’t know what the future holds. I may survive for a couple more years. I could be here for 10 years."