Government Efficiency (6 Viewers)

[RobF]

I think this topic deserves its own thread, both to discuss generally the topic of government efficiency, and specifically the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and the incoming Trump administration's aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies".

The announcements have been covered in the The Trump Cabinet and key post thread, but to recap, Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will work together on a not-actually-an-official-government-Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," with the 'Department' to conclude its work "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk has previously said that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least $2 trillion", and Ramaswarmy, during his presidential campaign, said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and disband agencies including the Department of Education and the FBI.

 

[TampaJoe]

Any that involves conflicts of interest. Which clearly includes all of them. So there's your answer. But I don't expect you to care about that because it's always rules for thee with you guys.

I highly doubt his review of certain departments presents a conflict of interest. But I get your point. Even the appearance of a conflict presents a credibility problem. The administration should address that or find someone else to other review.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I guess that Musk and his 20 year old something’s or others at DOGE have seen out a mass email today wanting every federal employee to create a 5 point bullet point on “things that the employee has done in the last week”. This absurdity has got to stop. How far will the right let this go before more employees are wrongly canned!? The right acts like this is some funny game. Can we please stop this vindictive torture that Musk is playing with people’s real lives!?

Federal workers will have to document everything they did last week or face resignation.

These instructions come from a Saturday afternoon post on X by Elon Musk, the head of the White House's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

CBS News learned that federal workers received an email that read, "what did you do last week." They were instructed to reply with five bullet points of what they had accomplished in the last week, excluding any classified information……

DOGE's Elon Musk says federal employees must document their work or resign

Elon Musk's instructions came after President Trump praised the head of DOGE but would like to see him get more aggressive in reducing the federal government.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Sendai]

Using a private supplier like that carries a lot of risks. Musk is not holding back when someone does not do what he want. Just look at the times when he turned of starlink... If you don't think he would do that to the US if he was in danger of being procecuted for some of his actions - you are very naive. Musk cares only for Musk - He is basically a younger version of Trump

NASA’s whole history is private suppliers.

So now you think he has shut off Starlink multiple times.

 

[longtime lurker]

Federal workers will have to document everything they did last week or face resignation.

These instructions come from a Saturday afternoon post on X by Elon Musk, the head of the White House's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

CBS News learned that federal workers received an email that read, "what did you do last week." They were instructed to reply with five bullet points of what they had accomplished in the last week, excluding any classified information……

DOGE's Elon Musk says federal employees must document their work or resign

Elon Musk's instructions came after President Trump praised the head of DOGE but would like to see him get more aggressive in reducing the federal government.

www.cbsnews.com

I wish this enraged enough people. The gall for this guy to play god and jury over so many hard working Americans lives disgusts me.

 

[Dragon]

I guess that Musk and his 20 year old something’s or others at DOGE have seen out a mass email today wanting every federal employee to create a 5 point bullet point on “things that the employee has done in the last week”. This absurdity has got to stop. How far will the right let this go before more employees are wrongly canned!? The right acts like this is some funny game. Can we please stop this vindictive torture that Musk is playing with people’s real lives!?

Not only that, but how productive can employees be when they’re constantly forced to deal with Musk and Trump’s relentless harassment? How many work hours have been wasted responding to their endless messages—not to mention scrubbing emails, documents, and publications of any mention of diversity or LGBTQ issues?

Even scientific papers have been caught in this mess, simply because the word "diversity" appears in various scientific contexts. The idea of whitewashing research publications just to appease a right-wing conspiracy theory is beyond absurd. This political stunt by a far-right cult is costing the government millions—if not more—in wasted resources and lost productivity.

 

[coldseat]

I highly doubt his review of certain departments presents a conflict of interest. But I get your point. Even the appearance of a conflict presents a credibility problem. The administration should address that or find someone else to other review.

He is firing people that were directly investigating his companies. And he's ended numerous investigations into his companies as well. How can that possibly not be a conflict of interest?

 

[zztop]

I can't quite work out which of these two paths they'll take: destroying the electric car industry because 'climate change woke', or destroying part of the electric car industry and then saying, "actually, we do need electric cars and chargers, and Tesla will be our exclusive provider of them."

Why not both?

 

[Optimus Prime]

And we’ve been on vacation all week

What did my girlfriend do at work this week?

Absolutely nothing

 

[Optimus Prime]

…..The head of a top union representing federal workers lambasted Musk’s ultimatum, telling CNN in a statement that it reflects the Trump administration’s “utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”

“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Kelley said his union plans to take legal action to “challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees.”……..

Federal employees told to justify jobs in email or Musk says they face dismissal | CNN Politics

Federal workers began receiving emails Saturday asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Elon Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

www.cnn.com

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

…..The head of a top union representing federal workers lambasted Musk’s ultimatum, telling CNN in a statement that it reflects the Trump administration’s “utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”

“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Kelley said his union plans to take legal action to “challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees.”……..

Federal employees told to justify jobs in email or Musk says they face dismissal | CNN Politics

Federal workers began receiving emails Saturday asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Elon Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

www.cnn.com

This is, not at all, extreme and stupid. /s

Whose to judge their answers? Musk??? He has zero concept of how our government functions nor does he has any clue as to the definition of a constitutional republic. Trump??? He truly believes that the office of POTUS makes the occupant of the office a king. He doesn't know what Article II of our Constitution means and he has surrounded himself with radical extremist that welcome his ignorance.

 

[superchuck500]

Federal workers will have to document everything they did last week or face resignation.

These instructions come from a Saturday afternoon post on X by Elon Musk, the head of the White House's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

CBS News learned that federal workers received an email that read, "what did you do last week." They were instructed to reply with five bullet points of what they had accomplished in the last week, excluding any classified information……

DOGE's Elon Musk says federal employees must document their work or resign

Elon Musk's instructions came after President Trump praised the head of DOGE but would like to see him get more aggressive in reducing the federal government.

www.cbsnews.com

OPM doesn’t supervise the federal workforce. They manage federal HR - they’re not supervisors. I don’t see how they can even ask for this.

I suspect there’s quite a bit of WTF going on at the agencies.

 

[FullMonte]

This is, not at all, extreme and stupid. /s

Whose to judge their answers? Musk??? He has zero concept of how our government functions nor does he has any clue as to the definition of a constitutional republic. Trump??? He truly believes that the office of POTUS makes the occupant of the office a king. He doesn't know what Article II of our Constitution means and he has surrounded himself with radical extremist that welcome his ignorance.

Not only that...but there are 3 million federal employees. If Musk has a team of 20 reading emails 8 hours a day, and it takes 3 minutes to open, read, and catalog each email, that means that it will take them 125 hours each to complete the task. Assuming an hourly rate of $50/hour, that is $125,000 spent. And, again, that's assuming they don't take any breaks during their 8 hour days.

Then there is the bigger problem. I'm an electronic maintainer who works on RF receiving and transmitting systems. So, when I put a bullet point like, "--Replaced 4 ELP-629(a) transmitter modules," what are they going to do with that information? Is that good? Is it bad? Well, since I just made up EVERYTHING in there, clearly it's bad. But, they aren't going to know that, unless they hire specialists in each career field that exists...which means hiring hundreds (if not thousands) of people to go through these emails.

Sounds really "EFFICIENT" to me.

ETA: We also have a system that we are required to document all of our maintenance in (IMDS -- Integrated Maintenance Data System). The whole point of that is to track all maintenance, but it is also used to analyze the work that is done to see if current manning levels are appropriate. They could LITERALLY just ask for the last analysis report for us, and get a better answer than they will get with these emails...and that would only take one email, and one reply.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

ETA: We also have a system that we are required to document all of our maintenance in (IMDS -- Integrated Maintenance Data System). The whole point of that is to track all maintenance, but it is also used to analyze the work that is done to see if current manning levels are appropriate. They could LITERALLY just ask for the last analysis report for us, and get a better answer than they will get with these emails...and that would only take one email, and one reply.

Ha! We used the same thing in the Air Force! That was 15yrs ago for me, I have no idea if that is still used today.

 

[FullMonte]

Ha! We used the same thing in the Air Force! That was 15yrs ago for me, I have no idea if that is still used today.

Yeah, that's who I work for. I'm an Air Reserve Technician (full-time reservist).

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Yeah, that's who I work for. I'm an Air Reserve Technician (full-time reservist).

Cool to know that is still running. It is infinitely better than CAMS.

 

[superchuck500]

OPM doesn’t supervise the federal workforce. They manage federal HR - they’re not supervisors. I don’t see how they can even ask for this.

I suspect there’s quite a bit of WTF going on at the agencies.

I’m seeing some coms to this effect: OPM does not supervise the entire executive branch. Each agency would have to confirm and instruct their staff to follow it.

 

[MT15]

The stupidity being evidenced here is gobsmacking.

The ethics, morals, and ideology of Musk is entirely suspect.

What a complete mess.

And Musk fan boys are a “special” kind of person.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

The stupidity being evidenced here is gobsmacking.

The ethics, morals, and ideology of Musk is entirely suspect.

What a complete mess.

And Musk fan boys are a “special” kind of person.

F*** Musk, f*** Trump, and f*** every single American who voted for him.. if you are reading this and you voted for Trump and helped create this mess- then f*** you too .