It did not take long for Dr. Bridgette Williams to receive her first phone call after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began recommending firing thousands of federal employees back in January.
The Spotsylvania County therapist is an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider for a company that has a contract with the federal government, meaning she is often contacted to offer short-term counseling to workers with personal or job-related issues.
“The calls kept coming,” Williams said.
Williams found herself inundated with former federal employees — or in one case an employee’s spouse — seeking counseling related to losing their jobs.
While some worked directly for the federal government — including an ex-employee with the Federal Emergency Management Agency — Williams also received a call from a Hampton Roads-area man who was dismissed from a city government position due to shifting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Williams said she’s had 27 clients (“and still climbing”) related to federal and local government firings since January. She’s been so busy that she’s starting some sessions late into the evening.
“I have a whole lot of heart and compassion for these people, and I feel bad for them,” Williams said. “I’m going to provide the most appropriate service that I can give them. I can help them build up their resumes, try to coach them along, try to find another way for them to maybe reinvent themselves, because a job is oftentimes our sense of identity. It’s who we are.”
The Free Press interviewed three of Williams’ clients on the condition of anonymity for privacy reasons.
A Northern Virginia woman named “Susan” said her husband worked as a contractor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) but was dismissed as part of widespread funding cuts to the agency.
Susan said she sought counseling because she is now the sole source of income in her household and, as such, needs to keep her mental health intact. She also works for the federal government and experienced anxiety about her own job, especially before she crossed her probationary threshold recently. She said she’s also concerned because her job is the source of health insurance for the family.
“Every day, it’s listening to the news or checking your email to see the latest order,” she said, “or who’s up next on the chopping block.”
Susan said her family had to eliminate extracurricular activities for the children, including piano, taekwondo and other non-essential expenses. She also canceled an exercise class that was beneficial to her mental and physical health.
“We’ve essentially just tightened our belts,” she said … “I believe we’re in a better situation than many federal employees. I know a lot of folks who are living paycheck to paycheck. We were fortunate enough to have an emergency savings.”
Susan said her husband and his co-workers were given a 15-minute window to clear out their belongings from the USAID office, but he declined to go because he did not want to be in an environment where people were upset and crying. She said he was mentally impacted by the firing but is typically unemotional.
“He doesn’t get worked up about a lot of things, but it definitely affected him,” she said. “As a couple, we’re just trying to support each other. I told him I was going to reach out to someone to talk to about it. I think he’s thankful for that.”
Susan said Williams provides a much-needed emotional outlet. She said her job performance suffered a bit when DOGE initially began making cuts.
“It really affected my ability to go to work and be productive,” she said. “So, just having somebody to listen to me and my concerns and just kind of help provide guidance on what I can do to manage, it’s been a big help.”
Susan said one issue that’s caused her to be most concerned about her mental health is the lack of empathy she’s experienced from those who support the layoffs and cuts made by President Donald Trump and DOGE.
In some ways, she said, it feels as if the administration’s supporters are celebrating the demise of others.
“I’m glad that our stories are getting out there more and more,” Susan said. “I think it’s important for the public to know we’re not the villain. We’re not criminals. We’re not lazy … The majority of us did not enter public service to make a lot of money.”
Williams’ client from Hampton Roads is 60 years-old with two children in college. He had a job interview recently and is also planning to begin a consulting business of his own. He worked in local government for nine years but was dismissed after a citizen complaint regarding the advertisement of a DEI position.
He believes the angst about DEI trickled down from the federal government, as his dismissal took place less than two weeks after the presidential inauguration.
“It kind of uproots everything,” he said of losing his job. “My wife said, ‘You know this is basically like a death. So, you have to go through that grieving process … It’s still unbelievable that something like this has happened. So, the fact that I’m able to have a dialogue with a professional to go through it, [Williams has] been very supportive.”
Another one of Williams’ clients is a woman from the Fredericksburg area who said she was “separated” from her “quasi-federal” job after enduring a hostile work environment. She finds it unsettling that “guardrails” are being removed for minorities and women in the public and private sector.
She planned to help take care of her parents as they grow older but is now unable to do so.
“They are needing more care now, and I don’t feel like I’m going to be able to do that,” she said.
Williams said part of her role as a therapist is to give her clients confidence that they can adapt to their new reality and start a business, work in the private sector or land a job with the state. She also falls back on another one of her roles, as a chaplain, by offering spiritual guidance.
She said as a citizen, she is concerned about the mental health of all federal employees and how it could impact Northern Virginia and the Fredericksburg area, where a large percentage of them reside. She said those who mock fired federal employees may be experiencing “moral disengagement,” — the thought process that makes people rationalize unethical behavior, which in turn allows them to act against their moral standards without self-condemnation.
“The thing that bothered me the most, and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves, is we’re praising [President Trump and DOGE] and somebody else is losing a job,” Williams said. “Have we fallen this far as a society where you would laugh at someone’s misfortune? … You don’t just throw people off the ledge and say, ‘You need to survive on your own. So what if you hit the ground and die? That’s not our problem.’ That’s not how we should do things in the government.”
