Musk’s DOGE emails government employees: Here’s what experts have to say

Elon Musk and the Government Department of Effectiveness (DOGE) recently requested information from federal government employees concerning the work they have accomplished the previous week.

Productivity requests, which have come in the form of email from the staff management office (OPM), asked federal workers to detail what they did during last week using five chips. They had until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to provide their responses to the investigation.

Musk, who heads Doge, said on Saturday afternoon that “the failure of the response will be considered a resignation”.

“To be clear, the bar is very low here,” he said in a subsequent X post. “An e-mail with fleas that has a sense is acceptable! Should take less than 5 minutes to write.”

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Trump and Musk both said that Doge’s main objective was to considerably reduce spending and improve efficiency within the federal government.

Andres Lares, managing partner of the Shapiro Negotiations Institute, told Fox Business that “asking in a sudden and unexpected way for employees to list the achievements is rarely effective for the motivation of the workplace”.

“The steep requirements with serious consequences generally create fear rather than commitment,” he said. “Research shows that confidence -based responsibility systems generally give better results than those based on threat. It can work for some, and the responsibility and the deductible for these requests have elements that are precious, but it can Being too short -term – getting some Quick wins at the cost of certain important cultural setbacks. ”

Lares said that if the holding of workers responsible for their performance “has merit”, the way of the demand that Doge made generally provides “hastily compiled and low -quality information” which takes a lot of time and resources to follow. He also noted that the work of an employee “goes beyond the response to an email”, a balance which “will be difficult to do to manage”.

The federal government and private sector companies work very differently, told Lares and another expert told Fox Business.

A woman walks on a dog with the American Capitol in the background after a winter storm above the capital region on January 3, 2022 in Washington, DC. – After a week of deadly vacation of flight cancellations and record overvoltages in COVVI-19 cases, a powerful WINTE (Pablo Porciuncula / AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“What works in a rapid technological company may not be translated into government structures designed for stability and the provision of coherent services,” said Lares. “There are certainly advantages for the government acting more like a business, but in many cases, this may not be possible, at least not in the short term depending on structural constraints.”

Jonathan Alpert, psychotherapist and executive performance coach, also noted that the government and the Silicon Valley have fundamentally different cultures.

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“The private sector, especially the world of Musk, is built on speed, efficiency and sometimes the solving brute-fun problem,” he said. “The government operates in a check -up, counterweight and bureaucratic processes that can slow decision -making. The implementation of a high frequency progress update system could increase efficiency, but this could also create high anxiety and resistance in officials who are not used to such a rate (and C ‘ do we see playing now). “”

Workers’ productivity updates provide both value and risk, said Alpert, adding that the “key” was balanced “updates to generate progress without stifling flexibility and deep thought that complex government work often requires “.

President Donald Trump expressed support for Doge’s emails on Federal Government on Monday.

“What they are doing is trying to find out who works for the government, we pay for other people who do not work and where the money is going,” he said, alleging “if people Do not answer, it is very possible that there is no such person or does not work. ”

Several agencies have told their workers not to respond to the E-mail of the DOGE team, Fox Business reported on Monday. Trump said such instructions were not intended “in any way combatively with Elon”.

“ If you do not answer … You are fired ”: Trump stands behind the Doge productivity email from Musk

“It has been done in a friendly way. Only things like, maybe Marco [Rubio] In the State Department, where they have very confidential things, or the FBI where they work on confidential things, “said the president.” They just say that there are people you don’t really want to make them tell you what they work last week. But other than that, I think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea. “”

“We have to discover where these people are, who are they, and we said:” If you do not answer, we assume that you are not there and that you are no longer paid too. “”

West Palm Beach, Florida – November 06: Presidential Republican candidate, former American president Donald Trump arrives to speak during an electoral evening event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. American (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / Getty Images)

The American Federation of Government employees criticized DOGE email to federal workers, the appellant “inappropriate” and saying that it “was supposed to intimidate federal employees and cause massive confusion”.

Trump used a decree to form DOGE shortly after entering on January 20. He should finish his efforts to reduce costs in early July of next year.

Overall, Doge is looking to reduce $ 2,000 billion in public spending, with Musk saying to the CEO of Stagwell Inc. Mark Penn in early January that he had a “good blow to get” 1 dollars.

Jay Caruso and Eric Revell contributed to this report.