A week ago, Elizabeth Glidden was doing humanitarian work for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Now she’s hoping for a job at Trader Joe’s.
It’s a heartbreaking turn of events for the career public servant, who just got her notice of termination from the new administration.
“I think what drew me to USAID in particular, was, no matter what’s going on, I truly believe that USAID is the best of what the American people have to offer,” said Glidden, a resident of D.C. “It made me feel really proud.”
Glidden is just one of hundreds of area residents who have lost their jobs since the government froze funding across numerous agencies. In his first month in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order “reevaluating and realigning” U.S. federal aid distribution.
The aid agency was one of the first on the chopping block. The USAID provides global assistance ranging from education and humanitarian assistance to anti-corruption and conflict prevention work. As of fiscal year 2023, they employed more than 10,000 people across the globe and over 1,000 in the D.C. area, and the agency’s old website said it accounted for less than 1% of the federal budget.
The organization also partnered with public, private and non-profit organizations, ranging from faith-based organizations to universities to small businesses. As a result, many not-for-profit and private sector employees who worked with USAID in the D.C. and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs are also out of work.
These former federal employees worked for years to get what one described as a “dream job” serving the country under USAID. But now, they are left jobless and feeling betrayed – and grieving the jobs they found so meaningful.
Allison Eriksen, of Montgomery County, Maryland.
Allison Eriksen says she was BCC’d on an email terminating her position at USAID. The email did not address her by name and did not list her contract number, a practice that Eriksen said was “unusual” for agency correspondence.
But because of her contract, Eriksen required two weeks’ notice before any sort of job termination. She was one of the last of the USAID employees on her team, which initially housed 15 employees. Now, Eriksen said the team is cut by more than half.
“I had just started a new contract in December,” Eriksen said. “I was very excited.”
Eriksen had not only started a new contract, but a new role as a senior humanitarian officer for a team providing humanitarian support to Syria. She only worked two months in her new position, which she applied for in December of 2023.
Many of Eriksen’s co-workers had been laid off or furloughed while she finished out her time.
“The ones of us who were left were trying to keep things running,” Eriksen said.
But Eriksen did not work to the end of her contract. One week after receiving the termination letter, she was placed on administrative leave and instructed not to access her USAID email or any facilities.
“I thought, ‘Oh, they’re gonna let me and those couple other people work out the last of our contracts, because they’ve already fired us, so they don’t have to worry about us at this point,’” Eriksen said. “But I guess they decided even the little bit of work we were able to do was too much.”
Eriksen says she worked at USAID for eight years in various roles, including providing relief for conflict or natural disaster-stricken areas Ukraine, Syria and Pakistan.
But now, Eriksen has no job. She said her administrative leave ends on Mar. 6.
“I have a master’s degree in International Development. This is what I’ve been working in for about a decade,” Eriksen said. “The entire field is imploding because the government is not paying our partners for the work that they’ve been doing.”
Personally, Eriksen has been applying to whatever position she can find, including state, county, emergency response and administrative jobs.
“I don’t know what else to do where I’m at right now,” Eriksen said.
Ariella Bock, of Washington, D.C.
Before she was fired, Ariella Bock supported supply chain efforts in Nigeria providing HIV treatment and testing. But she said the supply chain is now in shock.
Bock was a former federal contractor for the agency working as a senior supply chain advisor. She had been trying to get this position at USAID for 10 years. A year and a half ago, Bock landed her “dream job” working on the HIV supply chain.
“When you have failed governments, failed economies abroad, it impacts America,” Bock said. “It was something that has been intellectually stimulating. It gave me the opportunity to travel, to interact with our countries, and also to feel like I was actually providing a service to the United States.”
But just last month, Bock’s position was terminated. Bock said she was given a stop-work notice on a Monday, and 12 hours later received a notice stating that her job and her benefits would end that night, aside from health insurance expiring that Friday.
Bock, like most USAID workers, didn’t expect her new reality.
“It was a shock,” Bock said. “I mean, this is within six days of President Trump or President Musk being crowned.”
The program Bock worked on had widespread bipartisan support, she said. And it wasn’t a job she took or loved out of greed, either.
“You don’t take the jobs because you want to make a million dollars,” Bock said. “We did it because we felt they were good, and they’re good for our country. We’re here to serve.”
Elizabeth Glidden, of Washington, D.C.
This is a sentiment Glidden knows well. When asked if she would take her former job back if given the chance, Glidden was quick to answer.
“If USAID comes back, I will be the first in line,” Glidden said.
But Glidden is not banking on getting her job back. And even though she thinks Trader Joe’s could be a good place to “clear her head,” she could not realistically work retail.
“Everyone always seems so happy there, right?” Glidden said. “The problem is I have a 15-month-old at home. I can’t work retail hours. Like yes, I have a husband, but I can’t just be gone all weekend working at Trader Joe’s.”
Glidden worked as a technical program officer in the bureau for humanitarian assistance. While she expected pauses on future funding and some cuts on current funding with the administration change, Glidden never expected things to turn out this way.
“I think I no longer have the vocabulary to describe what’s going on,” Glidden said. “‘Devastating’ is the closest word I have, but it doesn’t really describe anymore what’s going on.”
Just three years ago Glidden decided to join USAID. Before that, she was living in Mexico working with a different human rights organization as a 20-hour a week volunteer, a job that convinced her to turn to humanitarian work in the U.S.
From upholding national security to public health work and health programing worldwide, Glidden said the agency made her “proud to be an American.”
But Glidden doesn’t hold the same pride in being an American as she felt even one month ago. Now she’s jobless and feeling hurt as the fate of her agency and profession sits in the hands of the federal government’s purse strings.
“I am so angry,” Glidden said. “I don’t wish discomfort or harm on anybody, but I hope that a lot of Americans start to feel the burden of what it means to slash the federal government this way.”