Senior leaders at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been told to rank thousands of probationary employees based on how essential they are to operations as fears of mass layoffs ripple through the federal government.

About 2,800 probationary and full-time equivalent employees are potentially at risk, according to a person familiar who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.

CDC leaders have been told that only 10% of those employees can be considered “critical,” the person said, while another 50% can be deemed as supporting important agency priorities. The remaining 40% must be left undesignated. Many of the people under review are junior staff, but the group also includes long-time CDC employees who were shifted into probationary status because they recently took on new positions.

Officials at the CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the developments, which were reported earlier by the Washington Post.

There’s little clarity as to what the classifications mean or if they’ll result in layoffs, though many leaders have been preparing for that possibility. Hard conversations were happening across the agency today as many division leaders opted to let people know their standings, the person said.

The Trump administration has been working swiftly to shrink the federal workforce, offering buyouts to millions of employees across government agencies. The offer has already been accepted by more than 50,000 people, Bloomberg reported, though a judge has since temporarily delayed the Feb. 6 deadline.

On Thursday, the Office of Personnel Management asked federal agencies to draw up lists of their poorest-performing employees by March 7.

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