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During the spring of 2025, Michaela experienced a sudden, stabbing ache shoot from her hip while she bent over to water some plants. She collapsed and couldn’t get back up.

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. The diagnosis was metastatic breast cancer.

"There was no indication this would occur, and I was heartbroken. At first, I wasn't fully aware that it was a recurrence of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, a location is common for it to go," she said.

"If I were to die prematurely, I cannot bear the thought of leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have any family. We are without children of our own."

Following the victory in the 2024 election, her spouse prepared to be forced back into the office at the Department of Transportation in Washington DC. He had been teleworking since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, from their home outside Baltimore.

On the inaugural day in office on 20 January, he issued demanding all federal agencies end all remote work arrangements. Federal personnel officials instructed agencies to implement the policy irrespective of collective bargaining contracts.

"My husband’s a veteran with the administration, and he is highly skilled in his field. He’s been doing this for two decades more now, so it is draining for him. We are in our fifties. He departed the house at five o’clock in the morning and returning at 7 p.m. at night," Michaela said. Her identity is protected as her husband still works at the agency and is concerned about reprisal.

During the summer, she underwent an operation, a laminectomy. Shortly following that, she had targeted radiation therapy, and is now taking an oncology regimen called Kisqali and hormone therapy.

She had stage one breast cancer in 2014, but successfully treated it, due to early detection, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal medication. Through regular checkups, she stayed on top of it, prior to her recent diagnosis of stage four metastatic breast cancer.

Surviving Reductions in Force and Restructuring

Over the past year, Michaela’s husband survived layoffs at the Department of Transportation. By May, thousands of employees had left the agency, due to those reductions as well as employees retiring and people quitting.

According to a memo on its plan for reductions in force and reorganization, the agency estimated that by December 31, 2025, its staffing levels would be cut by approximately 20 percent from levels at the start of the year.

This would correlate to over ten thousand reduced staff at the Department of Transportation. Government workforce reductions have exceeded goals, with hundreds of thousands of workers leaving the federal government and only a fraction of replacements.

"We were worried about layoffs. It is clear based on the way things are operating, that this is always on the table because policies disregard established rules," Michaela explained.

She noted that jobs for specializations at the agency are difficult to find and contractors often want to pay lower salaries.

Enduring a Federal Closure

While the DOT was losing staff, on 1 October a shutdown of the federal government began, lasting for 43 days, the most protracted in US history.

The couple marked their 18th wedding anniversary in early November, while the shutdown continued, but remained home because finances prevented them to dine out due to her husband not being paid for several weeks.

She is relieved the federal closure concluded as she was anxious over medical bills, but rues the increases in insurance premiums she and her husband have experienced, as well as for those who rely on healthcare through the ACA exchanges.

"I felt desperate. I felt impoverished. I was astonished, scared, and I watched my husband and there were a few times where he sat at his desk and he was just staring out the window. He was becoming despondent," she said.

A Personal Offense

"We’re just one drop in a ocean of countless people who work so hard to get where they are, who attempt to do the right thing, and those who are setting policy are seemingly dismantling and leading the government and viewing government employees like they are enemies, that they are lesser citizens, and that they deserve targeting. And I take personal offense to that," she said.

A Looming Threat

She is now worried is another possible approaching government shutdown on 30 January 2026, with the bulk of government funding set to expire again absent a long-term deal.

"The continuing resolution is up for renewal again on the 30th of January and I am thinking this is going to happen once more. We have endured multiple closures. This by far was the most severe," she stated. "I’m already battling a serious disease, and I don’t know what the future holds. I could be here for a couple more years. I might live for a decade."