By Michelle Watson

(CNN) — Brian Gibbs put on his gray and green park ranger uniform Friday for his dream job teaching people about Iowa’s Effigy Mounds National Monument.

The education technician walked in ready to prepare lesson plans for classroom visits to two schools. He knew of the trouble facing the federal workforce, but he had no idea that Friday would be his last day.

Gibbs is now one of the thousands of federal probationary workers who were terminated Friday, a move by the Trump administration aimed at decreasing the overall federal workforce.

The father and civil servant took to Facebook in a post that’s been shared more than 200,000 times to describe what happened, saying he was “absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated.”

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have upended the federal workforce, firing top officials and watchdogs, dismantling a key humanitarian agency and persuading 77,000 workers to voluntarily leave their jobs through a deferred resignation offer.

Officials set their sights on probationary workers – typically those who have been employed for less than a year, or in some cases, two years – because they have fewer job protections and lack the right to appeal.

Gibbs, who’s expecting his second child this summer, has become one of many trying to figure out what to do next.

He was locked out of his account before receiving a termination letter, he says

Gibbs reported to work on Friday – Valentine’s Day – for what he thought would be a typical shift.

His supervisor had been providing updates almost daily about rumored workforce layoffs and Friday was no different.

“On Friday, we had our staff meeting, and there had been no previous mention about anybody necessarily getting cut or let go,” Gibbs told CNN in an interview. “The meeting took place, and she had shared that there was some information that the Park Service was, you know – they’re looking to eliminate probationary employees, possibly.” But nothing was definitive.

Gibbs said he was hired at the National Park Service in June 2024 under a career conditional, competitive service status – meaning he was placed on a one-year probationary period. The Treasury Department describes the status as someone, even a permanent employee, “in the competitive service who have not completed three years of substantially continuous service to become a full career employee.”

Effigy Mounds National Monument has more than a dozen American Indian tribes associated with it, and Gibbs said he would help educate visitors about those tribes.

“My job was to teach people about the sacredness of this site, and people … who built the mounds and tribes and still continue to come to the park,” he told CNN. He also helped arrange field trips for students from kindergarten to high school.

Around mid-morning Friday, Gibbs’ supervisor had to leave the office but told Gibbs to keep her in the loop if he heard anything, and to keep checking his email.

“I checked my email again and found that I had been locked out of my email in the afternoon … before my shift was over,” Gibbs said.

He was also locked out of an electronic file that contained secure professional records such as his employee performance evaluation.

“I’m like, paralyzed in this moment,” Gibbs told CNN Sunday about what he was feeling Friday afternoon. “I’m sitting on the edge of my seat wondering if I’m going to lose my job.”

“I just started organizing my stuff. I’m a wreck,” he recalled. Shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, his supervisor told him she received his termination letter, he said. But because Gibbs was now locked out of his account, he couldn’t access it, he recalled to CNN.

His supervisor sent his termination letter to his personal email, he said. CNN has obtained a copy of the letter.

“The department determined that you have failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the department’s current needs, and it is necessary and appropriate to terminate, during the probationary period, your appointment,” the letter reads.

The letter did not elaborate on how the department believes Gibbs fell short.

Last fall, Gibbs told CNN, an employee performance appraisal rated him “as ‘exceeds expectations,’ with no critical element on this evaluation being rated as unacceptable.”

“This performance evaluation stated that I was an exceptional employee,” he said. CNN does not have a copy of the evaluation. CNN has sought comment from the National Park Service.

Gibbs called Friday’s dismissal a “merciless termination, effective immediately.”

And while he’s worked for the NPS in other capacities in the past, Gibbs said, this job at Effigy Mounds National Monument was different. He’d always had his sights set on working there.

“This region of Iowa is the place that developed my love, my love of nature,” Gibbs said. “My dad took me camping up here as a little kid. Effigy Mounds National Monument is the first place I told my spouse that I loved her.”

Gibbs also helped with the park’s visitor center.

“We were already short-staffed and having to restrict our visitor center hours at times because of that short staffing, and so this cut really accentuated that deeply for Effigy Mounds National Monument,” he said.

The nature lover listed many reasons why he’s upset about his termination, but said mostly, he is tired.

“I am tired of wiping away my wife’s tears and reassuring her that things will be ok for us and our growing little family that she’s carrying,” his Facebook post reads. “Things are not ok. I am not ok.”

The-CNN-Wire
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