Faces of the Forced Out

In January 2025 Dr. Denise Joseph, a Ph.D. at the Department of Education, experienced the beginning of the months-long process that culminated in losing the job she had held as a career civil servant for over 20 years. She was working at nearly 8:00PM when she received an email that she initially thought was spam, stating “effective immediately, you are not required to work.” After checking to make sure the email was real, Denise’s next thought was, “well, they must have something wrong.” In addition to her 20 years of work experienced holds degrees including a Denise’s experience included a bachelor’s, a master’s, a doctorate, and a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. 

Denise’s job loss, like that of many other Black women, did not result from a lack of work ethic, poor performance, or a lack of qualifications. “I know how hard I work,” and “I’ve had excellent — the top — performance,” and the letter Denise received even said “this has nothing to do with your performance.” Over the course of the next few days, weeks, and months of confusion surrounding the employment status of federal employees, Denise figured this would be resolved and she could carry on doing her job serving the American people and supporting the Department of Education. After a few months of back-and-forth and notices about deferred resignation programs, administrative leave, and reductions in force, Denise and 200 other people working in her office ultimately lost their jobs. Denise shared that she thinks these decisions were “purposely affecting women and Black and brown people.” 

Denise Joseph, PhD, PMP

Denise had worked hard and assumed that working for the federal government would “be the last job that I have, and I’m going to use all the skills and knowledge to help with initiatives and programs for . . . for American children, right? And so, you know, I built my career 20 plus years. And so for someone to arbitrarily send me an email that didn’t even look real to me to say I can’t work and I’m not expected to come in. It just, it just meant, like a loss of sense of self.” 

“I felt like I had a responsibility to America.” 

In describing the financial burden of this job loss, Denise recalls discussions with her loved ones about “how we were going to survive.” Denise told us “not only did it [her job] help to pay . . . our mortgage and our regular . . . electric bills and gas bills and water bills,” but she and her husband also “did a lot in the community.” She hosts an exchange student every year, covering some of the costs associated with their stay, and she had been saving to start a consultant business “as another way to help out the community.” 

After losing her job at the Department of Education, Denise wanted “to do something that is really impactful for people.” She began engaging in public advocacy on behalf of herself and other federal employees who lost their jobs and now works part-time in a school. Her new job is an hour commute for her, and she makes around half the hourly rate she was making in her career as a civil servant. She wondered if “I can ever get something comparable to my salary. And so it’s a hard pill to swallow, especially when I know I have like, 20 plus years of education, a bachelor’s, a master’s, a doctorate, a PMP [Project Management Professional certification].” In the wake of her layoff, Denise described feeling “undervalued.” 

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