As the Trump Administration continues its goal of shrinking the size of the government, thousands of federal workers nationwide have been told their services are no longer required.

Numerous agencies have been impacted by these cuts, from the Department of Education to the Internal Revenue Service, to the National Park Service.

Kate Severson is one Northlander effected by government downsizing. She had worked at Voyageurs National Park for just seven months, making her a probationary worker. A day after President Trump began his second term she says, a list of those probationary workers was requested by the government.

“I was actually on the call where they read off the names of probationary employees that were going to be cut,” Severson said in an interview with WDIO, “Hearing it on the call, I was like, ‘oh, well, that’s me.’”

With losses from these firings, as well as those who resigned their jobs after the “fork in the road” offer, she worries about the workload of those still employed at Voyageurs.

“They’re going to be working above their pay grade. They’re going to be taking on more work. They are oftentimes I think folks will kind of fudge their time sheets, say they only worked eight and they did something like nine or ten. And that’s just not fair.”

While President Trump has said job cuts like these will help eliminate waste, Severson isn’t sold. In her opinion, the waste comes from firing workers who the government already invested so many resources in, referencing training courses she’d been sent on for her job.

“There’s a bigger picture there too. There’s the VA. There’s the IRS. All of these things that are done to serve Americans are being taken away. And it’s being done in the name of you know being frugal and cutting costs. But in the end, it’s not going to help.”

Several lawsuits have been filed around the country on behalf of fired workers. Severson, however, says she’s not holding out hope for recourse in the near future.

“Legal remedies take time. I wouldn’t anticipate anything coming about in the next few months. I even spoke to some people, and they said it could be a few years. Folks in my position we don’t have time to wait. We need to find other jobs and probably move on.”

WDIO has reached out to the National Park Service to learn more about position eliminations at Voyageurs, but have not yet received a response to our inquiries.