TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — There’s been lots of talk of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being implemented in Tampa Bay.

An internal memo from the Department of Veterans Affairs detailed plans to fire thousands of employees and optimize the workforce. The move is being implemented under the premise of DOGE.

A VA employee working remotely in Tampa spoke to 8 On Your Side anonymously. He said he fears for his job.

“Honestly, every day is terrifying because you don’t know if you’re next,” the employee said. “DOGE did not need to be created, we already have those capabilities built in, and we’ve had them built in for years.”

He described DOGE as inefficient, chaotic, and disorganized.

DOGE conversations are happening locally as well.

A Hillsborough County Commissioner made a motion to voluntarily submit audits to the state detailing county spendings. The motion failed.

“While I deeply respect and constantly praise our leaders of our own budget office, the fact is, is that we’ve had multiple decades of never having one true forensic audit throughout our processes of budgetary solutions. That has resulted in many transitions to different technology platforms that have resulted in us quite literally finding bank accounts that we lost and or forgot about just in the past two years,” said Commissioner Joshua Wostal. “If we truly are acting so effectively then we should have nothing to hide.”

Two Tampa office buildings made a non-core property list of federal buildings designated for disposal. The U.S. General Service Administration said it’s working to eliminate costly maintenance and reinvest in high quality work environments. The list came down, but it’s “coming soon,” according to their website.

Federal workers said they are nervously waiting to see what DOGE does next.

“It feels like a betrayal because we’re being accused of being lazy parasites, unworthy of our paychecks,” he said. “It’s going to create a lot more problems than it helps to improve.”