Elon Musk to federal workers : What did you do last week ?

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Musk gives all federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the last week, sparking confusion across key agencies as billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to slash the size of federal government…

““Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”..

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1893332118752706661

* Writing posts in block letters is considered to be rude

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NaNoNyMouse

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IRS cuts over 6,000 jobs in the middle of tax season

The Internal Revenue Service, better known as the IRS, is cutting more than 6,000 jobs in the middle of a busy tax season.

The cuts are part of a widespread downsizing throughout the federal government being led by Elon Musk’s deputies at the informal “Department of Government Efficiency.”..

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I have to call the IRS next week.  Wish me luck.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Pentagon to fire up to 61,000 workers, starting with 5,400 next week

About 5,400 Defense Department employees will lose their jobs next week, the first cuts in what will ultimately be a five-to-eight-percent reduction of the civilian workforce, a Pentagon official said Friday.

The cost-saving goal was announced in a statement released by Darin Selnick, who is temporarily serving as DOD’s personnel chief. The department employed 764,000 civilians as of June 2024, according to Office of Personnel Management data, which means more than 61,000 people could lose their jobs…

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BETTER CONSIDERED RUDE RATHER THAT NOT CONSIDERED AT ALL!

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Oh the horrors of reporting one’s work efforts. Incredible this wasn’t expected/standard practice (and that the boss didn’t already know)

Alas, I have met tech federal employees in decades past that readily admit they (and their colleagues & bosses) play games, read the paper, basically anything not work related during “business” hours.

That type of waste time/do-nothing environment would drive me nuts.

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WSbobby-p

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My sister worked for a time in city government and had to do this with one of her bosses.  Causes stress.  You feel like you are under harassment at all times. She ended up in the hospital with an ulcer.  So I’m personally not thrilled.

Yes there are bad workers everywhere but there also good ones that don’t deserve this one bit.

 

 

 

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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wavy, SueW, Charlie, opti1

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And Alex?  Yes I realize this is the Outside the box forum that allows rants and off topics as long as you don’t swear, but do be respectful that we are being BOMBARDED with this information EVERYWHERE else and perhaps we don’t need another link to it here.

I have personally not discussed certain topics to be respectful.  Please consider likewise.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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BATcher, satrow, Alex5723, opti1

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I’ve never worked in government, but in corporate America reporting progress daily, weekly, and on-demand is business-as-usual.

Did you get the memo about the new TPS coversheets?

 

 

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Mike wrote:

in corporate America reporting progress daily, weekly, and on-demand is business-as-usual.

With one workday’s notice and a threat of termination?

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satrow, SueW

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Mike wrote:

Oh the horrors of reporting one’s work efforts. Incredible this wasn’t expected/standard practice

And what makes you think it wasn’t?

I worked for the federal govt for 15 years, and fully 20% of our time was devoted to reporting. That’s no exaggeration. Monday through Thursday was devoted to serving the public, both in office and telephone traffic. All 8 hours of each and every Friday were spent tallying and reporting what we did the other four days of the week, right down to how long each task took.

We were reporting to our supervisors and office manager, though. POTUS had no idea what I or any of my coworkers did individually.

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wavy, satrow

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dg1261 wrote:

All 8 hours of each and every Friday were spent tallying and reporting…

Really? The office was closed to the public and no telephone calls were taken on Fridays?

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Gentlemen.  Again, respect. Not all offices are client facing and have phone interaction.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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SueW, satrow

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dg1261 wrote:

Monday through Thursday was devoted to serving the public, both in office and telephone traffic.

That’s what I responded to.  So in this case the office was client facing with phone interaction.

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EricB wrote:

Really? The office was closed to the public and no telephone calls were taken on Fridays?

Like the comment I was responding to, you’re jumping to conclusions.

If you really must know, all phone and in-office visits, if you needed to do more than just pick up or drop off a form, were by appt only. The office was open Mon-Fri to walk-in or phone-in and setup an appt. Those appts would be for a future Mon-Thu call-back or in-office visit for personalized help.

But you’re missing the point. The point is just because Elon isn’t aware what every single employee is doing doesn’t mean they aren’t working or that they aren’t being tracked or monitored or reporting to someone.

 

 

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wavy

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dg1261 wrote:

Like the comment I was responding to, you’re jumping to conclusions.

Not a conclusion.  Questions.

But thanks for clarifying what you actually meant to communicate.

 

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According to public records, as of Nov 2024 there were just over 3 million federal workers and, although Elon Mush has refused to disclosed exact numbers, there are currently only 47 known DOGE employees (I’ll give them the benefit of doubt and say 50.)

For the sake of argument lets say all 3 million Federal workers respond and each email can be read/evaluated in ~5 mins.

3,000,000 emails × 5 mins = 15,000,000 mins

15,000,000 mins = 250,000 hrs

250,000 hrs = 10,416.7 days

10,416.7 days ÷ 50 employees = 208.3 days

208.3 days = ~7 months to read/evaluated all those emails!

And even if we cut the read/evaluated time down to an very unrealistic 1 min/email, it’d still take 42 days for 50 employees to evaluated them all.

So, at least to me, this whole exercise makes absolutely no sense whatsoever!

BTW, after working thru the numbers, I understand why the normal process is: each employee reports to their supervisor, then their supervisor reports to their department head, etc., etc.

Doing it any other way would consume way too much time that employees could otherwise use doing their real jobs!

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In reply..
federal workers : What political experience, achievements, certification and credentials do you have? (Oh, a get out of jail free card from Mr Tantrum-p)

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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wavy

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