Concern: That’s what Daryl Zimmerman, president of the South Dakota Federation of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, has heard over the last year from federal workers.

Concern about federal duties not being carried out effectively, concern for colleagues’ wellbeing, concern about how the reduction in the federal workforce will affect the economy, and concern about jobs being cut at any moment.

From insiders to ousted

This is the final story in a series about federal government employees or contractors in South Dakota affected by the Trump administration’s reduction of the federal workforce.

About 154,000 federal employees took buyouts — officially described as deferred resignations — early this year, providing them with pay through the end of the fiscal year in exchange for leaving their position. The Trump administration made the offers as a way to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said recently that he expects the total decrease in the federal workforce to reach more than 300,000 eventually.

During the recent federal government shutdown, an estimated 670,000 federal employees were furloughed, and another 730,000 were required to work without pay.

Excluding contractors and postal workers, there are 8,123 federal civilian employees living in South Dakota. When retirees are added, South Dakota’s “federal family” is just shy of 22,000, Zimmerman said. Just under 800 belong to his organization, which advocates for members, their pay and their benefits.

“The federal employee is there to serve the American public. We are here to help you,” Zimmerman said. “We’re not the enemy. We’re not the root of the problem. We’re just trying to do our job to take care of you.”

‘We’ve lost institutional knowledge’

Zimmerman worked for decades for the U.S. State Department as a security engineer. He was paid lower than what he would have received in the private sector, but he felt his role was noble. He felt called to serve his country even into retirement.

The 68-year-old participated in the State Department’s re-employed annuitant program after he retired in 2010, which allows retired foreign service or civil service workers to temporarily fill staffing gaps or work on special projects. Zimmerman, who lives in Sturgis, would often live in a country overseas for a few months to fill critical roles.

Zimmerman retired completely in October 2024, and has since heard from former colleagues about Department of Government Efficiency cuts. A Trump executive order in February directed agency heads to “separate from Federal service temporary employees and reemployed annuitants working in areas that will likely be subject” to reductions in force.

A drastic reduction in the workforce means there aren’t enough people to do necessary work, which requires cutting back programs, Zimmerman said. He thinks cutting back the State Department’s re-employed annuitant program makes the problem worse and will jeopardize national security.

“I’ve seen programs cut that I don’t think they’ve thought through the impact of those cuts,” Zimmerman said.

It’ll take years and significant costs to build back the federal government, even to verify and reanalyze the need of programs, let alone hire people back, Zimmerman said. Many federal jobs require a specialized skillset.

“We’ve lost institutional knowledge,” Zimmerman said, “and that costs a lot of money and time to rebuild it back to where we need it to be.”