In a federal workforce racked by stress and fear, one family shares a story of death

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.

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.