Federal Employee Says They Had to 'Justify Their Existence' to DOGE 'College Freshers' in '15-Minute' Interviews'
By: Taylor Odisho (Latin Times)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A federal employee said he and his colleagues had to "justify their existence" in "15-minute interviews" with "college freshers" at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The unnamed federal employees said he was "nervous of retaliation" before relaying his agency's experience with Musk and DOGE employees during a town hall event in Virginia.
"In the last week, we had Elon Musk in our building and after he visited the building, he called for a 50% cut to the entire agency," the man stated. "My colleagues are getting 15-minute one-on-one check ins with 19-, 20- and 21-year-old college graduates, asking to justify their existence."
He continued by saying supervisors, all of whom were ordered to withhold information from employees, must now fill out justification forms for staff members. The bottom 30% of performers will be laid off.
Additionally, the speaker then shockingly shared Musk, his "wife," and a young child have "shacked up" and are living on the sixth floor of the agency.
"The hallway has been blocked off with a special access list for people who can't get back there," the man said to the audience's shock.
The clip concluded with the employee adding that his queer and transgender colleagues "are being doxed in public; their lives threatened." Trump has signed a series of executive orders aiming to "reaffirm that God created two genders, male and female," a promise he made during his re-election campaign.
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Most 19 -21 year olds have no concept of what the real world is like.
Do you think federal employees do?
Let’s see…People who had to meet minimum standards of education, complete job training, were subject to supervision and review by people who had experience in their field, were required to conform to rules and regulations, and all of this subject to congressional oversight. Those people?
Yeah, I think they know a shit-ton more about real life and their jobs than some random kid with no training or experience. Absofuckinlutely.
Thank-you. A good many of them are retired military. I believe they may have life experience that a 19-21 year old only wishes they had
While I doubt that fresh college graduates have the ability to determine who should be laid off and that they should NOT be the ones making this call (should be the direct, local management), at least in principle Musk is doing the right thing and trying to rid the government of the worst talent while trying to preserve the best.
The principle is correct, the execution is bizarre (and I think is ill-conceived).
According to the article they have been conducting interviews. It is insanity in my opinion.
The idea that all this is going to lead to a better country is more insanity. We have to stop giving power to insanity.
Elon Musk is not a patriotic American. Not even close.
The people making the decisions should be local management based upon guidelines provided by their management. Basically Musk should establish the criteria (e.g. 30% staff reduction), the management levels should then prepare their guidelines, procedures, etc. to accommodate this or provide feedback saying why this would be inadvisable for their departments.
College students making these calls is idiotic. But sensibly trying to separate the desirable employees from the deadbeats is an important step (done properly).
I think the whole thing is bat shit crazy. The principle (make government more efficient) can be achieved by looking at the systems in place, determining the relative effectiveness for the task that they are supposed to accomplish and if that task is appropriate. Musk is not doing that. He is going in at the bottom and terrorizing the employees without a clear view of any of what they do or how they fit in to the greater scheme of things. The government does not necessarily tell you what your place in the larger organization is and how it affects the operations of other agencies. So musk is basically going in, saying justify your existence to my protégé, and if one does not communicate the proper response, whatever that is, then poof, give them the boot. This is ludicrous on so many levels and has the almost certain effect of virtually paralyzing the functions, I mean basic functions, of the federal government.
How fucking stupid of a genius is he???
I totally agree. This should be a process reengineering initiative, not a brute force layoff. My comment is based on just the layoff portion.
Done properly, there would be a process analysis which would model the cross-departmental processes that are the lifeblood of government operations. These would then be untangled and analyzed to identify processes that are pointless, obsolete, lead to dead-ends, redundant, and those that can be done more effectively (given modern technology, given current conditions, etc.).
When processes are then re implemented (incrementally, over time) this will guide staffing requirements and would enable a sensible redeployment / layoff / etc.
I have no hope that Musk would do this properly because it would not deliver immediate / shocking results. Musk has no patience for doing this properly and the big benefits would come after years. Musk wants results now so he will hack and let the blood flow and then spin this (with Trump) into some grand success.
Musk is certainly not stupid, the problem is that he is a perfect example of a ruthless capitalist.
If he cared at all about the actual function of the government, what it does on a day to day basis to accomplish the myriad of tasks that it does, the things that people do not necessarily see but are nonetheless crucial, he would not be following this course. I don't think he cares about the functioning of government or the people.
I'm not at all certain this isn't what Musk's expected outcome. While the wheels of government grind to a halt what's stopping the rest of them from pushing through whatever they want?
It all sounds very arbitrary and thoughtless.
It is quick and dirty. Not having the managers involved in determining the top from bottom performers and instead use recent graduates is stupid.
This, totally. You could have people with genuine expertise review departments and programs across government in a thoughtful and methodical way, make recommendations to the president, and have Congress make actual law based on those recommendations. Done responsibly, reform like this would likely generate bipartisan support instead of chaos and anxiety.
This is Trump and Musk we are talking about. Trump wants to eliminate all opposition. Do you really think that they are obeying any of the laws around personnel matters?
No, but I still hope that if we express support for government efficiency and the rule of law, we could maybe get some people on the Right to get back to respecting both of those things. What we are seeing is not actually about efficiency, nor does it reflect a respect for the law.
I oppose what we are seeing on those grounds and not simply because I don't like Trump or Musk, but all you will hear from the Right is that we don't care about bloated government, and we're just suffering from TDS or something.
Wonder why Musk or Trump didn't turn over running any of their own companies to 18 to 24 year olds?