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In early May 2025, Michaela experienced a sudden, stabbing ache shoot from her hip while she bent over to tend to her garden. She collapsed and was unable to rise.

Her husband called an ambulance and she spent the night in a hospital, where, in her late fifties, she found out she had a mass on her spine. It was metastatic breast cancer.

"There was no indication that that was going to happen, and I was heartbroken. Initially, I didn’t clearly understand that it was part of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, a location was a common place for it to go," she explained.

"Should I pass away early, I cannot bear the thought of leaving [my husband] here. We have any family. We don’t have children of our own."

When Trump won the 2024 presidential election, her spouse prepared to be forced to return to in-person work at the DOT in Washington DC. He had worked remotely since the beginning of the global pandemic, from their residence outside Baltimore.

On the inaugural day in office in January, he issued demanding all federal agencies terminate all telework arrangements. Federal personnel officials directed agencies to implement the policy irrespective of existing union agreements.

"My spouse is a long-time employee in government service, and he is highly skilled in his field. He’s been doing this for 20 years more now, so it is draining for him. We’re in our 50s. He was leaving the house at five o’clock in the morning and getting home at seven at night," Michaela said. Her identity is protected as her husband remains employed at the agency and is concerned about reprisal.

During the summer, she underwent an operation, a laminectomy. A few weeks after that, she had stereotactic radiation, and is now taking an oncology regimen called Kisqali and hormone therapy.

She had early-stage breast cancer a decade ago, but successfully treated it, as it was caught early, with a partial lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal medication. With consistent monitoring, she stayed on top of it, before her latest diagnosis of stage four metastatic breast cancer.

Navigating Job Cuts and Restructuring

Over the past year, Michaela’s husband survived reductions in force at the DOT. By May, thousands of employees had departed the department, due to those reductions as well as retirements and people quitting.

According to a internal document on its plan for staff reductions and restructuring, the agency estimated that by the end of next year, its workforce would be reduced by one-fifth from earlier levels.

This would correlate to over ten thousand fewer employees at the department. Government workforce reductions have exceeded goals, with hundreds of thousands of workers leaving the federal government and a small number of replacements.

"We were worried about RIFs. We understand based on the way things are operating, that this remains a constant threat because policies disregard established rules," she elaborated.

She noted that specialized positions at the agency are hard to come by and contractors often want to pay reduced wages.

Facing a Government Shutdown

As the Department of Transportation was shedding employees, on 1 October a shutdown of the federal 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 not being paid for multiple weeks.

She is relieved the federal closure ended as she was worried about healthcare costs, but rues the rising costs in insurance premiums she and her husband have experienced, and for those who rely on healthcare through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

"I felt hopeless. I felt impoverished. I was astonished, frightened, and I observed my husband and on several occasions where he sat at his desk and he gazed out the window. He was becoming despondent," she said.

A Personal Offense

"We are merely one example in a bucket of countless people who strive diligently to get where they are, who attempt to do the correct thing, and those who are making all the decisions are seemingly dismantling and managing the government and viewing federal workers like adversaries, that they are lesser citizens, and that they should be attacked. And I take personal offense to that," she said.

Future Uncertainty

She is now worried is another possible approaching government shutdown on 30 January 2026, with the vast majority of federal funds set to expire again absent a permanent agreement.

"The temporary funding measure is up for renewal again at the end of January and I fear this is going to happen once more. We’ve been through several shutdowns. This by far was the worst," she said. "I am already fighting a serious disease, and I don’t know what the future holds. I may survive for a couple more years. I could be here for 10 years."