WASHINGTON — Jessica LaPointe has been with the Social Security Administration for 16 years. She’s one of 18,000 federal workers in Wisconsin.
“We're definitely feeling pressured to leave federal service and wondering if we don't, what our fate is going to be,” she said.
LaPointe is a bilingual client specialist in Madison, and President of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents 27,000 workers in social security field offices and teleservice centers across the country. LaPointe said the tactics President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk are using to reduce the workforce have created “chaos” and “terror” for workers at her agency. She said that “appears to be the point right now.”
“We're being villainized somehow,” LaPointe said. “Anti-poverty workers in this country who are really dedicated to the mission of serving people with empathy and compassion are now the villains.”
Federal workers have been given conflicting advice about whether they would lose their jobs if they did not respond to emails demanding they list five accomplishments in the last week. LaPointe said the amount of time workers spent inquiring about this email, going to meetings about it, and crafting responses took them away from serving the public and wasted taxpayer dollars.
“It caused a lot of stress and anxiety,” LaPointe said. “If they sought to accomplish terrorizing the workforce over the weekend, congratulations.”
LaPointe said the president’s order ending all remote work by federal employees also appears designed to cut the workforce.
“That has signaled to cause about 50 percent attrition, based on our surveys within the Social Security Administration,” she said. “It definitely feels like we're being forced out of our jobs.”
The administration said ending remote work will make federal employees more efficient, and that reducing the workforce is necessary to help lower the federal deficit.
The Social Security Administration’s Green Bay office is one of four federal offices in Wisconsin targeted for closure by Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, known as DOGE. It estimates the closures would save more than $1.3 million in lease payments over five years.
“So, if we're being recalled into the office with no office to go to, we're worried that that's going to result in the reduction in force,” LaPointe said.
LaPointe said social security offices are staffed at their lowest levels in 50 years but are serving a record number of beneficiaries. She said the agency needs more employees to prevent overpayments and service delays on claims.
LaPointe’s union held a protest in Washington, where Congressman Mark Pocan, D-Madison, was vocal about the budget-cutting efforts by President Trump and Musk.
“Elon Musk has been bulldozing through the federal workforce, demanding the firing of hundreds of thousands of employees, and your only fireable offense is trying to serve the American people,” Pocan said.
Dr. Thomas Kemp, chair of UW-Eau Claire’s economics department, said there will be a ripple effect to the federal worker layoffs and resignations.
“Now you have unemployment,” he said. “Now you have people who can't afford to volunteer for local organizations. You have people who aren't buying new cars or used cars, for that matter. They aren't shopping as much at the grocery store. They aren't able to contribute, broadly speaking, in the same way that they were before.”
LaPointe echoed similar concerns, especially for people who may have their social security benefits delayed or improperly paid due to low staffing.
“What social security does to a community is very profound,” she said. “First of all, it gives seniors purchasing power, and over half the seniors in this country only have social security to rely on for their income. So, it's going to pay for housing. It's going to pay for food. Without it, without social security, you're going to see social services being overwhelmed in communities.”
