Federal workers on DOGE impact during Trump's first 100 days: 'We want to come back to work'

NEW YORK -- During President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office, Elon Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has canceled government contracts, ended leases and eliminated thousands of positions.

The department sought to root out waste, fraud and abuse -- but along the way, there were plenty of controversies.

DOGE all but demolished agencies like USAID and decimated others through buyouts and layoffs.

"It has been pure chaos," said Osama Shahbaz.

The 31-year-old, who lives just north of New York City, is a trained engineer. He's used to predictability and precision.

"I feel like my hands are tied behind my back," said Shahbaz.

For years, he worked in the private sector. He helped engineer additions to Grand Central Station and the new LaGuardia Airport. That is until last July, when he moved into the public sector and started engineering the taxes of large corporations and millionaires for the IRS.

He said the work is more rewarding. At least it was. But seven months into the job, he received a termination letter along with 7,000 other probationary IRS workers.

"I felt terrible, like a slap in the face," he said.

Then, a few weeks later, he received another letter after his union filed a lawsuit. It said he's being brought back to work, but being put on paid administrative leave.

That meant no office and no official work to do.

"I want to come back to work," said Shahbaz. "I still feel like the work we do is important and I want to do anything, even if it's a little bit, to try to make things fair for the American people."

He's not alone. Workers at many different agencies have been protesting the cuts made by DOGE across the country.

"We do important work for the public, we want to keep working, let us work," said Eileen Chen, who works for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Judge Glock of the policy thinktank Manhattan Institute said former President Joe Biden added jobs and increased the deficit with executive orders.

"There is a lot of excess employment that doesn't need to be there indefinitely," said Glock, who added President Trump has similar executive powers to reduce the force. It's something that has been done before.

"President Clinton cut hundreds of thousands of workers by executive order to a large extent in his term in office," said Glock. "So it's not surprising that President Trump can also do similar sort of actions as long as they're within the broad guardrails established by Congress."

Glock acknowledged mistakes have been made and have been corrected.

"I think to some extent, the Trump administration has admitted that they've made some mistakes," said Glock. "On the whole though, I think you've also seen some courts uphold many of their actions."

For workers like Shahbaz, he said if it's money the government's looking for, that was - or still might be - his job.

"Taxes are potentially not being collected and we're talking hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars per return per examinations, this is a lot of money," said Shahbaz.

Meanwhile, he said, the careers are on hold for thousands of workers like him who want to work in the public sector but don't know if they'll have jobs in the near future.