NC State graduate Michelle Kirchner was working for the United States Department of Agriculture [USDA] in the applied sciences field.
Kirchner working out in the fields with alfalfa farmers on ways to improve their crop yields, which feed dairy cows. Cheaper food for them can help keep milk and cheese prices low.
"I have, like, this very real-world problem that affects real people every day, and I'm getting to work on a real life solution for them," Kirchner said.
Kirchner was fired on Valentine's Day, less than one year into her three-year, grant-funded job. It's part of the thousands of federal employees who have been fired in recent days.
The termination letter said it was based on her performance. Kirchner said that's not true.
"I had only received very positive reviews from my supervisors," Kirchner said. "I had received a performance award over the summer for how well I had been doing."
On Monday, a USDA spokesperson provided WRAL News with the following statement.
"Secretary [Brooke] Rollins fully supports the president's directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA's many services to the American people," the spokesperson's statement reads. "We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people's hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve the people, not the bureaucracy.
"As part of this effort, USDA has released individuals in their probationary period of employment. Secretary Rollins is committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted."
Kirchner was classified as probationary, but that doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. In the federal system, it can just mean you haven't been in your current position very long.
Probationary workers are easier to fire than regular federal employees because they have fewer legal protections.
Jeffrey Hirsch teaches employment law at UNC Law School. He said cutting all the probationary workers is a way to reduce the federal workforce quicky, but it's not fine-tuned, and it may backfire.
"These are people, newer hires that the agency has determined they need," Hirsch said. "A lot of agencies are already understaffed, and so firing this number of probationary employees are just exacerbating in a problem."
Kirchner gets upset when people talk about the cuts as trimming the fat.
"I think about all the people I know and all the people I work with in my unit and in other units that really care about what they do and work really, really hard for less money than they would ever make in the private sector because they care," Kirchner said.