During the spring of 2025, Michaela felt a sharp pain radiate from her hip as she leaned down to tend to her garden. She collapsed and couldn’t get back up.
Her husband summoned emergency services and she spent the night in a hospital, where, at 57, doctors discovered she had a tumor on her spine. It was metastatic breast cancer.
"There was no indication that that was going to happen, and I was devastated. At first, I didn’t clearly understand that it was part of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, which I learned is common for it to go," she explained.
"Should I pass away early, I could not imagine leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have any family. We don’t have any children."
When Trump won the 2024 election, Michaela’s husband braced to be mandated 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 the inaugural day in office on 20 January, an executive order was signed requiring all federal agencies end all telework arrangements. The office of personnel management directed agencies to enact the order irrespective of existing union agreements.
"My spouse is a long-time employee with the administration, and he is highly skilled in his field. He’s been doing this for 20 years now, so it is draining for him. We’re in our 50s. He departed the house at 5 a.m. in the morning and getting home at 7 p.m. at night," Michaela said. Her real name is withheld as her husband remains employed at the Department of Transportation and fears reprisal.
In July, Michaela had surgery, a laminectomy. Shortly following that, she had targeted radiation therapy, and is now taking an oncology regimen called Kisqali and hormone therapy.
She was previously diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in 2014, but was able to treat it, as it was caught early, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and tamoxifen. Through regular checkups, she stayed on top of it, prior to her latest diagnosis of stage four metastatic breast cancer.
Navigating Reductions in Force and Restructuring
Throughout this year, her spouse avoided layoffs at the Department of Transportation. By spring, nearly 2,800 employees had departed the department, due to the cuts as well as employees retiring and people quitting.
According to a internal document on its plan for reductions in force and reorganization, the agency estimated that by the end of next year, its workforce would be cut by one-fifth from levels at the start of the year.
This translates to more than 10,000 fewer employees at the Department of Transportation. Federal employee cuts have surpassed targets, with hundreds of thousands of workers exiting the government and only a fraction of replacements.
"We were worried about RIFs. We understand based on the way this administration functions, that this is always on the table because they ignore established rules," she elaborated.
She added that specialized positions at the agency are hard to come by and private firms often want to pay reduced wages.
Enduring a Federal Closure
While the DOT was losing staff, on October 1st a closure of the U.S. government began, lasting for over a month, the longest in US history.
The couple celebrated their 18th anniversary in the fall, while the shutdown continued, but remained home because finances prevented them to dine out due to her husband going without a paycheck for multiple weeks.
She is thankful the federal closure ended as she was worried about healthcare costs, but laments the increases in healthcare premiums she and her husband have experienced, and for those who rely on healthcare through the ACA exchanges.
"I felt desperate. I felt impoverished. I felt flabbergasted, scared, 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 recounted.
A Personal Offense
"We are merely one example in a ocean of millions people who work so hard to get where they are, who attempt to do the correct thing, and those who are setting policy are seemingly dismantling and leading the government and treating federal workers like they are enemies, that they are not citizens, and that they should be attacked. I find this personally offensive to that," she expressed.
A Looming Threat
Her current concern is a potential looming government shutdown on 30 January 2026, with the vast majority of government funding set to lapse again without a long-term deal.
"The temporary funding measure is up for renewal again on the 30th of January and I fear this is going to happen once more. We have endured multiple closures. This was decidedly the worst," she said. "I’m already battling a life-threatening illness, and I don’t know where it’s going to take me. I may survive for another year or two. I could be here for 10 years."
