Over this past weekend, Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has followed a bold move, sending controversy throughout the federal workforce. The billionaire entrepreneur and President Donald Trump's adviser, has triggered a battle over his recent directive that federal employees must report their weekly accomplishments or they will be at risk for possible termination. The demand was sent in an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) this past Saturday, leading to the continuous raise of significant concerns and widespread resistance towards the government.
The email sent from the OPM - an agency responsible for the management of human resources - requested for employees to include up to 5 detailed accomplishments from the previous week to be sent in by Monday. Musk initiated this to move closer to his goal of downsizing the federal workforce, coinciding with his efforts to assist Trump in reshaping the federal government. Musk claims that employees who fail to comply with his demand, should consider resigning from their positions.
He further goes to spread this message through a post on X, previously known as Twitter, describing "those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere." This demand has left many federal employees in a state of shock, confusion, and anxiety, unknowing how to respond further to Musk's directive.
Some government agencies chose to follow Musk's directive, while others refused. Important key agencies including the FBI, the State Department - and others previously mentioned - told their employees to ignore the request, urging a pause on any response to Musk. Other departments like the Department of Health and Human Services, told employees to comply and submit their reports per Musk's instructions.
In a statement to CBS, Sen. John Curtis of Utah continues to support the criticism of this ultimatum, expressing concerns that surround Musk's approach, hoping that he will show more compassion to federal workers. Curtis reports to CBS "These are real people. These are real lives,"
Despite the growing resistance, Musk continues to defend his actions, claiming that they are working towards the increase of efficiency throughout the government. While the exact number of employees that have been affected is still unclear, reports show that there are thousands of workers facing the consequences of Musk's demand.
As Musk's DOGE and the Trump Administration are attempting to reshape the federal workforce, it is clear that the controversy over this demanding email is just the beginning of a long fight for those in the federal workforce. Many might be thinking of the question, what is the future impact of these decisions on federal employment and those who rely on it?
Sources:
https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/elon-musk-doubles-down-fed-workers-explanation/
https://www.newsweek.com/doge-news-elon-musk-fed-deadline-2035260
5 comments:
I think that is completely wrong what Musk is doing, as he is basically threatening thousands of people, potentially taking away their livelihood if they don't do exactly what he wants. Not only is this new demand violating some of the norms around what is considered a fireable offense, but Musk's entire justification for doing this is to help improve government efficiency, which won't happen if employees have to take time out of their day to report everything they do. Additionally, it makes a lot of sense that agencies like the FBI and Pentagon are not going to comply with this demand as a lot of the material and "accomplishments" that they would be forced to report may be classified or related to things that Musk and DOGE don't need access to. Overall, his demand isn't right and I think it may lead to a lot of people unnecessarily losing or leaving their jobs.
It’s crazy that Musk, an unelected official, and DOGE, an unofficial organization, wield so much influence. These agencies are established and funded by Congress, and only Congress should be able to make changes to them. Yet, we’re watching the U.S. government becoming increasingly sold out to wealthy people, bypassing democratic processes. After his most recent email asking employees to list what they’ve done, Musk, who has faced pushback from agency heads telling employees to ignore the emails, has backtracked and said that it was a “ruse.” It seems like Musk is testing the waters and trying to see what he can get away with, but the fact that government officials are even listening to him in the first place reinforces his authority and breeds legitimacy. Ultimately, the lawsuits against him will be key in determining the extent and legality of his influence.
This is bad. Obviously, this is bad. But I feel like I'm sort of missing a bigger part of the picture here. In your post, you stated that the agencies bringing forth the lawsuit were "describing there has never been a previous rule requiring these reports beforehand." That seems like a weak and, quite frankly, silly argument to me. Of course there's never been a rule requiring these reports beforehand. That's why the rule is new. There's a large part of me that finds it very hard to believe that this is all the federal employees that are anxious over Musk's new policies can come up with. But I hope that this policy falls through in the end. I have family in the federal workforce, whose livelihoods depend on that work. I'd hate to see the people close to me suffer because of some fool that doesn't know what to do with all the money he has.
So Musk seems to be taking his position very literally. While in theory, knowing if employees are working efficiently by directly forcing them to report what they are doing is beneficial to making the government more efficient, firing them is not. Elon is in a position where he feels comfortable playing with people’s livelihoods. It’s concerning that he sees government employees as less than and can’t recognize their humanity, because if he can’t even see that in the government how is he ever going to see a working class citizen in the same metric. Thankfully, this is questionable whether it is legal or not and most federal workers have protections from being fired with no just cause. But the idea that we should fire anyone who isn’t efficient enough and replace them is not a proper solution to make our government more efficient, nor is it intimidating to federal employees to make them work harder. Just like Trump’s plan to make everyone work in an office, it may make workers work harder while they are at work, but outside of work, traffic increases, federal workers live less fulfilling lives away from their families making them less productive overall. I keep reading that Elon is just out of touch with reality and he really is. He has the money to do whatever he wants and therefore the power to get permission to do whatever he wants, so he will continue to play with people’s lives.
The actions done by the DOGE, and primarily Elon Musk, are frankly hollow, illegal, and outright bad for the health of the country. This department run by groups of 20 year old with social media presences such as "Big Balls," and other Elon Musk fanboys is already bad. But why is this department, created without a vote from the people or congress, above all other agencies able to decide how they should run their teams and report their work. Furthermore, this agency put up a website with such little security it was hacked within the first 24 hours. Then these so called "government officials" uploaded classified documents to the site and turned around and blamed the hackers for their own stupidity. If the Trump administration and DOGE's goal is to hire only those of necessity and merit, why is DOGE run so poorly and filled with a bunch of unqualified people? The whole situation is backwards and quite frankly hypocritical. Overall, I hope that these lawsuits and investigations drive some form of backlash for our 2nd president Elon Musk and his agency.
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