Richard Midgette was fired on Valentine’s Day in the first wave of federal layoffs of probationary national parks employees. Prior to that, he worked in IT at Yellowstone National Park. A little over a month later, he was rehired and then let go again.
The first firing especially took a serious toll on Midgette’s mental health. It shaped his ideas for how he wants to move through the rest of his career.
Editor's Note: This story has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Richard Midgette: I wasn't in a very good spot. You can anticipate it as much as you want, but when it actually happens, I mean it's not like just being laid off. It's through being specifically fired, basically being told that I was a bad worker. There were no metrics for that. I hadn't even had a performance view. And all my work up to that point had been praised.
One of the biggest things they ask when you get a new job or you apply for a new job is, ‘Were you fired for any reason previously?’ And I was just immediately thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I'm gonna have to put that I was fired from the federal government for being a poor performer and what that would mean for even getting another job.’
Mentally that took a big toll on me. I felt disposable, not wanted, useless.
It’s about a 10 to 14 minute drive down from Mammoth to Gardiner. The whole time I'm thinking about that bridge that's in Gardiner, and for the first time, I think in my life, I thought about jumping off a bridge.
Thankfully, there's a great community in Gardiner, in Mammoth, in Yellowstone, where I worked for the past four years. I was able to call a good friend of mine who was a previous supervisor of mine in the park, and she came down to meet me at the gas station right next to the bridge in Gardiner and talked me through it.
Just talking about it, I mean, helped a lot. And at the very moment it kind of prevented me from ending my life.
It has been a struggle. I stay very strong despite that. It was my kind of biggest point of weakness, was that day. I'm glad I didn't let it get the best of me.
It's not just a job, right? It's a career. A lot of people, myself included, didn't go into work at [the National] Park Service or for the federal government in general for money. I wanted to contribute more deeply to the mission and the value that Americans get from the park.
Between February 14 and March 20, I was kind of just involved community-wise, activism, organizing rallies and protests, and joining rallies and protests, kind of getting my voice out there, spreading the story of what's going on with the federal government.
On the 20th of March, my boss calls me, and he informed me that the Department of the Interior was rescinding my termination effective the 25th of March.
So I start my job again, but they didn't have any of my credentials ready, like my access card to do my job in its full capacity.
I actually didn't get that until April 8, just two days before I was terminated for the second time.
The reasons are actually quite interesting. I can't say I would ever be fired for something like this again.
The following is an excerpt of the letter.
On March 31st, 2025, I assigned you the project of labeling bins and organizing OIT’s network cables and storage. On April 3rd, 2025, I noticed that it didn't appear anything had been done with the network cables yet. At approximately 2:30 p.m., I stopped by your temporary office to find you sitting in the dark watching something on your personal cell phone and eating Fritos. When confronted you admitted to watching YouTube.
On April 8th, 2025, I observed you sitting in your office with the lights off. I had previously explained to you on April 1st, 2025 that I was making coworkers in the branch uncomfortable when you sat in your office with the lights off and instructed you to leave the lights on.
Such misconduct has caused me to lose considerable confidence and trust in you and your ability to contribute effectively to this organization. Therefore, your termination during the probationary period of your career conditional appointment is effected to promote the efficiency of the service.
Editor’s Note: Midgette disputes some of these events. He said he had not turned the lights off after being instructed not to do so. He thinks the manager had walked by while he went to get his identity card. Midgette also said he took a late lunch the day he was found watching YouTube and eating Fritos.
I was terminated for a second time on April 10. I had gotten the offer for a private sector employer on the 28th of April and started that position the week of May 19.
I definitely would work for the federal government again, it just has to be the right opportunity and the right time.
I'd like to be more of a leader, which is something I hadn't really taken on previously.
I want to have an impact on people and not be the kind of leadership that I've seen displayed over the past seven months. I want to be somebody that people can look up to, talk to, reach out to and be inspired by.
