In a federal workforce racked by stress and fear, one family shares a story of death
By Sean Lyngaas, CNN
(CNN) — Stress and anxiety had been building for weeks in Monique Lockett, a 25-year veteran of the Social Security Administration, about the fate of her colleagues and the sensitive agency data she had vowed to protect, her sister Ksha told CNN.
In February, amid sweeping changes to the federal workforce, Monique was five years from retirement but was facing one of the most uncertain periods of her career, according to Ksha. She was growing increasingly concerned about what Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency might do to the agency.
“My sister had a lot of anxiety around the changes that were happening in other agencies and, inevitably, what would happen to Social Security,” Ksha told CNN. “She was concerned about the overall well-being of everybody that she worked with because it was stressful for a lot of people.”
The Trump administration’s demolition of federal programs and jobs has sent waves of anxiety and depression through a government workforce that is experiencing anger, hopelessness and worries about people harming themselves, according to interviews with federal workers, their family members and mental health professionals who spoke to CNN. Since the beginning of the DOGE-led program cuts, falsehoods have proliferated online about alleged fraud and wasteful programs, fueling a caricature in some Americans’ minds of an inept or corrupt federal worker.
Monique’s final days were spent in that climate of fear and stress while feeling devalued in the workplace, before dying on the job two months ago, according to her sister.
“It was very upsetting to her to hear that what they did wasn’t valued, what they did wasn’t important and certainly that what they did was wasteful,” Ksha said.
Monique died of hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease — a buildup of plaque in the arteries — according to Stephanie Moore, a spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland.
It is impossible to know exactly what factors triggered Monique’s health emergency that day. Chronic stress can increase the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to medical experts.
Ksha believes that stress may have been a factor in her sister’s death.
Monique usually called Ksha when she got to the Social Security Administration’s vast campus outside of Baltimore, but Ksha’s phone didn’t ring the morning of February 18. Monique came in and went to her desk, where she fell asleep, according to a Baltimore County Police report that the agency shared with CNN. Paramedics spent about 40 minutes trying to revive her, the report says, but the 53-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
Complications from Monique’s disease can include a heart attack or stroke. According to the report, Ksha told police that Monique had obesity and high blood pressure, which she was taking medication for. Co-workers told the responding police officer that Monique was “not in a [sic] visible signs of distress” prior to falling asleep, the report said.
When a cause of death is related to atherosclerosis, “stress can certainly play a role by increasing blood pressure and cortisol levels” — a “stress hormone,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University. “Chronic stress can also lead to increase in inflammation, which plays a role in both formation of new atherosclerosis and acute events.”
A spokesperson for the Social Security Administration, or SSA, confirmed to CNN that an employee died at the agency’s headquarters on February 18 but did not respond to further questions.
The DOGE team at SSA has grown to at least 10 people in the administration’s three months in power, according to court documents. The Trump administration has tasked DOGE representatives, some of whom are detailed from other agencies, with finding fraud in the Social Security payment system — while granting them access to sensitive data on millions of Americans.
A federal judge on March 20 blocked DOGE’s access to the SSA data that contains personal identifiable information and accused DOGE of being “essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA … without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”
The multiple emails, sometimes on weekends, that the Trump administration has sent to SSA employees asking them about their productivity has had a “whiplash effect,” according to a former SSA employee familiar with projects that Monique worked on. “It’s creating a level of anxiety that’s making it hard to do their jobs. These are good people who are being traumatized.”
Monique “was an integral part of … making sure that people’s information was kept safe,” Ksha said, and that “the right people had access to the right information.”
Monique worked as an information technology specialist within the Office of Systems Architecture, which is responsible for creating databases for sensitive data held by SSA, said the former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve their existing relationships with SSA employees. Monique was “one of our best” and “very familiar with the existing data repositories that we have at the agency,” the former colleague said.
A spokesperson for DOGE did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment.
“What happened to Monique was truly sad and tragic, literally shook me to the core,” an SSA employee told CNN.
‘Total fear and demoralization’
Other current and former federal employees told CNN they have felt depressed or were concerned about colleagues harming themselves amid the layoffs and reorganizations. Alex Berman, an Internal Revenue Service employee who is a union leader in the Philadelphia area, said he has heard directly from colleagues who have experienced panic attacks and anxiety attacks in recent weeks.
In nearly 20 years as a union official, Berman said, he has talked with “a lot of people at the ends of their ropes.”
“A lot of times, I’m happy to say that I was able to stand between them and the end of the cliff,” Berman, whose agency is facing a potential 20% reduction in the workforce by DOGE, told CNN. “The few who could not step back from the cliff’s edge will forever haunt me. And I can’t help foreseeing more to come.”
Berman said he has seen an increasing number of people around him grappling with these “existential threats” since President Donald Trump took office again. He said he has urged his co-workers to take advantage of an in-house counseling hotline.
Mental health professionals who treat federal employees describe clients facing a climate of wrenching fear.
“For the people that are still in the federal government, what I see is mostly just total fear and demoralization,” said Lisa Kays, a licensed clinical social worker who sees many federal workers.
“There’s a sense of, ‘I’m constantly being watched, and I know that there’s a lot I can do wrong, but I don’t know what those things are,’” Kays told CNN.
Kays urged those who know federal workers to “check on them. Take them to dinner. Offer to listen. Show up and babysit their kids so they can take a minute and breathe.”
Some therapists have started holding support groups specifically for federal workers. One clinical counselor who practices in the Washington, DC, area said that a number of participants are joining “to find community, feeling that there’s such a sense of isolation.”
People “are suffering in ways that I haven’t seen before,” said the counselor, who requested anonymity to protect clients’ privacy. “People who’ve been through struggles already in their fields are feeling absolutely hopeless and helpless.”
Federal workers with years, or even decades, of government experience told CNN they were having painful conversations with colleagues and family members about where to draw the line about quitting their jobs.
“Everyone is walking on eggshells. No one feels secure,” one employee at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN. “I have a lot of meetings where it’s just one person reporting out and when there’s time for Q&A, it’s just crickets, and then the call just awkwardly wraps up.”
The employee, among the more than 180 fired in February and then rehired at the CDC two weeks later, said the environment “has just killed our spirit.”
On April 1, an additional 2,500 CDC employees were dismissed as part of a massive “reduction in force” at the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Those who haven’t been rehired are looking for ways to cope.
“I’m finally starting to get a little sleep at night, but only in short stretches,” a recently fired federal employee told CNN. “I’ve cycled through all the stages of grief — sometimes over and over in a single day. One moment I’m angry, the next I’m sad, then in disbelief. It’s all hitting me.”
The former federal worker is encouraging others in government to take advantage of the Employment Assistance Program, which offers counseling and other benefits.
“I’ve told colleagues that they need to look at EAP because some of them are really struggling, you can see it on their faces,” the person said. “Honestly, I’m using it to help me process everything.”
At Monique Lockett’s funeral in Randallstown, Maryland, on March 14, mourners filed out of the reception hall, stopping to embrace Ksha before stepping out into the overcast day. During the service, a pastor shouted “new life” while celebrating Monique’s with song and prayer. Mourners paid tribute to a humble woman of faith who, her sister said, planned to become a chaplain after retiring from government.
Asked by CNN what the public should know about Monique’s work as a federal employee, Ksha said: “People who work for the government care about the people … and people certainly who work for the government 20, 25 years certainly have a vested interest in making sure the American people are protected.”
CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Em Steck, Meg Tirrell and Nick Valencia contributed to this report.
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