Kelli McGlothlin enjoyed working for the Internal Revenue Service in Kansas City. She enjoyed her coworkers. She didn’t mind waking up at 3 a.m. to commute from her home in St. Joseph.
“I really enjoyed serving for the federal government,” McGlothlin said. “And then I just get hit, wham, with hey, you’re not important anymore, let’s throw you away like a piece of trash.”
McGlothlin was fired in February, as were approximately 100 other employees at the IRS campus in Kansas City.
President Donald Trump’s push to slash the federal government, spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative, was expected to target thousands of IRS positions nationwide.
Federal employees in the Kansas City area, including those at the IRS and other agencies, are concerned that more job cuts are on the way. The federal Office of Management and Budget has requested that agency leaders submit plans for additional cuts this month.
The Social Security Administration, which employs thousands in the Kansas City area, announced last week that it will cut jobs and restructure the agency.
The Star spoke with McGlothlin and other Kansas City IRS employees who were fired. All of them stated that their jobs at the IRS were supposed to be a new beginning in their lives.
For example, Overland Park resident Jasper Hudgins-Bradley had only been with the agency for a month, but he had already been able to pay off his bills. Last week, The Star profiled him.
McGlothlin, 43, was three weeks away from finishing her probationary period as a tax-examining clerk after joining the IRS in March 2024. All of the fired employees were probationary, which means they had been with the IRS for one or two years, depending on the position.
If the firings had happened just a month later, she would most likely still be working.
“I just felt betrayed,” McGlothlin explained. “We did nothing wrong, and I have never done anything wrong. I did a lot of work for them!”
From McDonald’s to the IRS
The IRS made a significant difference in McGlothlin’s life.
She worked at McDonald’s for 24 years prior to joining the agency. She previously worked as a general manager, essentially overseeing a restaurant.
McGlothlin remembers some of her time at McDonald’s fondly. Her location was close to the Kansas City Chiefs training camp in St. Joseph, and she talked about the players and coaches she worked with over the years, such as Travis Kelce (four sausage McMuffins), Rashee Rice (Double McChicken), and Andy Reid (two cheeseburgers with a chocolate shake).
McGlothlin took a pay cut when she took the job at the IRS, which paid less than $40,000 per year. However, the position provided her with the job she was looking for.
At McDonald’s, she had to interact with customers; at the IRS, she did not. At McDonald’s, she was evaluated based on both the restaurant’s performance and her own. At the IRS, she was judged solely on her own abilities and performance.
She also had excellent colleagues.
McGlothlin was injured in a traffic accident in late August when a bus rear-ended her vehicle after she came to a sudden stop due to another accident on the road ahead of her. She fractured two bones in her back, an ankle, and a wrist.
She spent two weeks in the hospital, followed by 26 days of rehabilitation.
“The IRS, I hadn’t been there that long and they were really sweet about making sure I was OK,” McGlothlin told me. “They sent messages and called me. “These were the people I worked with.”
Her coworkers were the type of people who decorated desks for birthdays. Every month, they would bring back Jack Stack barbecue for lunch.
Managers were crying as employees were fired on February 20, according to McGlothlin.
McGlothlin had arrived at 6 a.m. as usual, but she and many of her coworkers were forced to sit for the entire shift, doing nothing while others worked.
Everyone knew what was coming. “Lots of tears,” she said.
McGlothlin was escorted off campus at the end of his shift without receiving a termination letter. That would come later in the mail.
The letter simply stated that the IRS determined that “your continued employment at the Agency is not in the public interest.”
McGlothlin finds that difficult to comprehend, given the nature of her job. As a tax examiner, she sorted cart after cart of mail. She estimated that the firings last month reduced her team by about half.
She and her coworkers frequently sorted mail containing levies and liens. In their own way, they contributed to ensuring that the United States government receives the tax revenue it is owed.
“So all these rich people are getting away with longer time for their income taxes because the mail hasn’t been processed,” she explained.
McGlothlin voted for Trump. She blames the current chaos on Musk, a South African and the world’s richest person.
“Trump isn’t the issue. “I believe Elon Musk is controlling a lot of it,” McGlothlin said. “If he’d stay out of the mess, I think we’d be fine. I mean, Trump was fine previously. I had no problems before, but now he’s acting like a puppet for this man who isn’t even from the United States.
Trump has supported Musk as his DOGE operation has taken over agency after agency, firing employees and slashing spending in a chaotic, haphazard manner that has left civil servants stunned. Some Republican lawmakers, including those from Kansas and Missouri, are facing backlash.
Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall faced a crowd of angry constituents at a raucous town hall meeting in Oakley, western Kansas, on Saturday. A video of him leaving the event early was widely shared on social media.
Nearly a week before, Missouri Republican Rep. Mark Alford hosted an uproarious town hall in Belton, on the outskirts of the Kansas City metro. For more than an hour, Alford was shouted at by dozens of attendees, including current and former federal employees.
McGlothlin claimed Musk has far more access to IRS systems than he should have.
“I don’t think that’s cool that he has all that information,” she said in response.
A new job?
McGlothlin grew up in St. Joseph, but the IRS job offered the opportunity to leave.
She wants to relocate her and her two dogs, Layla and Loki, to the Kansas City metro area, with her sights set on Liberty, where her family has spent a lot of time. She has family members in Parkville, but she considers the city too expensive. A friend also resides in Platte City.
McGlothlin may yet make her way south.
Less than two weeks after being fired, McGlothlin is on the verge of landing a new job. She’s waiting for a background check, which she says could take up to 90 days.
Ideally, McGlothlin would like to return to the IRS and work with her former colleagues. She still speaks and texts with some of them every day.
At the same time, she is preparing to move on.
“I’m going to have to do something,” McGlothlin explained. “I’m not just going to sit at home and do nothing.”
Working for an IRS contractor, her new position pays approximately $2,000 less than her previous one.
What is the job?
“Almost the exact same thing I was doing with the IRS,” McGlothlin explained.
