32 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The financial effects were significant and immediate. USAID FSOs reported relying on multiple coping strategies at once: 80 percent used more savings than planned, 73 percent made significant spending cuts, 67 percent stopped retirement contributions, 57 percent applied for unemployment insurance, and 36 percent delayed medical care. A substantial number of respondents reported more severe measures, including selling assets such as homes, taking on debt, or applying for government assistance programs such as SNAP or Medicaid. Taken together, these responses point to a workforce facing not just temporary income disruption, but cascading financial stress across savings, health care, housing, retirement security, and family stability. Even in normal circumstances, the Foreign Service places unusual demands on families, including repeated relocations, long separations, disrupted spousal employment, school transitions, and the strain of building and rebuilding support systems overseas. USAID’s dismantling added a different kind of pressure: sudden career loss, financial uncertainty, identity disruption, and a change in household status after years of service. While the majority of FSOs reported their relationships remained intact, a meaningful minority described real strain: 27 percent reported their marriage or relationship became weaker due to stress and status change associated with USAID’s dismantling. In addition, 10.6 percent reported their relationship status changed in 2025 (e.g., separation, divorce), and nearly half attributed it directly to USAID’s closure. These findings do not suggest that USAID’s closure was the sole cause of family disruption in every case. They do, however, indicate that it acted as a significant stressor for a workforce already operating under family conditions more complex than those faced by most professionals. For some households, it appears to have intensified existing pressures; for others, it may have created new ones around income, identity, relocation, and uncertainty about the future. Physical health was also affected. Chronic, severe, and prolonged stress affects every system in the body, contributing to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, as well as anxiety and depression. In the survey, 85 percent of FSOs reported an increase in stress-related physical symptoms since the stop-work order was issued—including headaches, chest pain, digestive issues, and worsening of existing conditions. Of USAID FSOs, 78 percent reported negative mental health impacts, with 22.7 percent receiving a formal mental health diagnosis in the 12 months since the RIF. The top diagnoses were depression (58 percent), anxiety (57 percent), and PTSD (32.4 percent). Of those without a formal diagnosis, 79.4 percent still experienced significant psychological distress: 83 percent reported depression, 81 percent sleep problems, 71 percent increased anger or irritability, and 64 percent anxiety or panic attacks. More than a year after receiving RIF letters, nearly half (46 percent) of respondents reported still not feeling a sense of agency—defined as having control over major life decisions. Some 57 percent reported feeling less confident since losing their USAID position, and 89 percent reported difficulty functioning, including completing tasks needed to move forward, with 43 percent experiencing extreme difficulty. Children were not spared. Ninety-five percent of FSO parents reported their children were struggling. Nearly half of FS children (49 percent) had to change schools—double the rate of U.S.-based families. Fifteen percent of parents reported their children were still struggling significantly one year later. Spouses and partners also I was the provider for my family, and that was suddenly taken away in a cruel and vindictive way. … The destruction took away our credibility, broke our promises, tore down our partnerships, made us weaker in the world, hurt our fellow humans who we had committed to supporting. It’s impossible to put into words all that has been lost. —Former USAID FSO
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