Ugh. My draft of this post has been sitting in an open tab for 6 hours!
Let's move on to a more recent article on the subject: "Government agencies give conflicting guidance on Musk email/An email sent to 2.3 million workers asking them to outline their work last week is leading to confusion and differing instructions across the government" (WaPo).
Raising the stakes, Musk warned in a post on X that any employee who failed to respond would be treated as having resigned. But the email sent to workers made no mention of this possible consequence, which lawyers said would be illegal....
The email hit inboxes Saturday, when federal law bars some employees from working outside of their assigned shifts. Some federal workers were on leave — such as sick leave, parental leave or paid administrative leave imposed by the Trump administration — and unable to access their emails. Others, in the Defense Department, were on duty tours in remote locations, like jungles, without access to computers....
Experts said the email may be asking some recipients to violate federal laws, noting that employees at some agencies cannot disclose information about their work to third parties without explicit authorization. The request proved especially concerning for those who work in intelligence roles....
In email Saturday from FBI Director Kash Patel, for instance, said, “the FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” according to a message obtained by The Post.
Other agencies soon followed suit. The State Department “will respond on behalf of the Department,” read a message from Ambassador Tibor P. Nagy obtained by The Post. “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.”...
“Elon Musk is traumatizing hardworking federal employees, their children and families,” [House Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries said. “He has no legal authority to make his latest demands.”
Musk needs to build trust. He can't go on instinct alone, and he can't treat the entire government as a trial-and-error experiment. No matter how much his fans enthuse about the method of moving fast and breaking things, he will fail if he doesn't inspire confidence. He's willing to throw ordinary workers into a panic. Does he enjoy the suffering of low-power employees? What kind of person are we dealing with here?
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158 comments:
Private sector employees are not under the umbrella of coddled spoiled and protected. Perhaps some or most got too soft and secure in their easy paychecks?
It’s time to cut the waste and bloat.
When any democratic (Clinton, Obama, crook joe) fire while swathes of people , the left cheer.
"Experts said..."
Well okay then.
While = whole
Identifying 5 points of employment is a first-order forcing of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change.
1. “he will fail if he doesn't inspire confidence.” One can’t satisfy everyone.
2. Ann Althouse can look at her blog and see what she accomplished last week. I can look at my time sheets. Why can’t a government employee do the same?
It should take any employee less than ten minutes to put the email together and it should be easy peasy to not include any restricted information. We had to do this every week when I was working at Microsoft, only they wanted a full accounting not just the top five bullet points. Just grow up and act like an adult for once your life.
Now do immigration reform, labor and environmental arbitrage, redistributive change schemes, green/naive Green Deals, and DEI (i.e. institutional, systemic Diversity including racism, sexism, political congruence, other class-disordered ideologies).
In fairness, that "offer me money" was quoting The Princess Bride (1987) and it was talking about the toll his personal opinion sharing on twitter might have on HIS business. Link to full video
"He's willing to throw ordinary workers into a panic."
You mean like making them attend seminars where they're told they are racist? Of forcing them to take an experimental medical treatment or be fired?
That sort of panic?
Ann said, "Musk needs to build trust. He can't go on instinct alone, and he can't treat the entire government as a trial-and-error experiment. No matter how much his fans enthuse about the method of moving fast and breaking things, he will fail if he doesn't inspire confidence. He's willing to throw ordinary workers into a panic...".
You are correct. What he's doing needs to be done. But not the way he's doing it. He clearly never took a Dale Carnegie course, nor had to win people over in sales. He won them over by his brilliance, ideas, and productivity. And now, by the sheer force of his wealth. But there's a better...and an easier way to get this done. WITH cooperation. WITH the approval of most all the people. He seems to not be cognizant of the fact that he's unnecessarily pissing off more people than he should.
Again- what he's doing is good and necessary. How he's doing it is almost childish, in-your-face. Not necessary. Better to explain it, sell it, and win over people.
After decades of government waste and bloat… musk is serious. I hope he succeeds.
Enough is enough.
"He's willing to throw ordinary workers into a panic."
What is an "ordinary" governemnt worker?
Well, based on the stats and the videos these cats have been launching, someone who doesn't come into the office at all, cannot rattle off a couple things or 5 that they had been working on last week, works a second job on government time and believes they cannot be fired.
Yeah, gee. We wouldn't want to upset them!
Meanwhile, just last week there were thousands of tech sector layoffs. Thousands. But who cares about them? They aren't a part of the deep state which can be weaponized against Trump and conservatives.
Sending millions of bullet points to Doge's 40 odd employees is going to yield useful results.
Private industry would never treat their employees this way, as decades of personal experience have shown me. There are best practices for HR, this ain't it.
We also will be getting to the 'you broke it then you own it' part of the Executive Branch. When FEMA or the FBI fail publicly, you guys will make Bush and Katrina look competent.
"Better to explain it, sell it, and win over people."
That was Trump's plan in 2016. It didn't work.
It's time for chainsaws and bulldozers.
Demanding employees to submit an (arbitrary) number of accomplishments achieved within a certain (abitrary) number of days is a pointless exercise. How are you going to police compliance? Not just, was it done? but also, was it done correctly? There has been no training, no explanations, no guidance, not just for the employees but also for their supervisors.
I get Musk is super rich and he doesn't report to anyone (apparently) and he thinks he can just get rid of people he thinks aren't up to snuff but maybe he needs to spend some time with a few labor lawyers and get himself some training on the various rules and procedures that govern the federal work force, a lot of which is unionized.
I think most people aren't particularly sympathetic to federal workers who are perceived, rightly or not, to have been living off the fat of the land for too long. Musk runs the risk of tipping that balance the other way.
Mark. FEMA and the FBI have failed miserably.
Won't someone think of the lawyers and paralegals! Both track their work in 6 minute increments and have to describe what they did in a billing narrative. The horror. The trauma.
Professor, as others have pointed out, having to document what you do on a weekly basis is a basic level task in corporate America. I would keep a spreadsheet open and use it to document what I was doing and how much time it took. Which was useful when I sent in my weekly "I am being useful" report to my boss. Who then would put together a "my team is being productive" report to his boss. And I also had to fill out a timesheet that had tasks and hours allocated to whatever projects I was working on which had to be completed weekly, though we were encouraged to fill it out daily. By the way, some government employees do have to meet performance goals. I was acquainted with an IRS agent whose job was to collect delinquent taxes from small businesses. His bosses were very concerned with how much money he "recovered" each month.
If Trump--The President-- says--"Elon Musk is the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. I am ordering the heads of all other departments and agencies to have their employees comply with DOGE's request that employees document their productivity"--does that take care of the "against the law" BS?
Scott Adams said it’s possible there are 2 motives behind the request.
1. To reframe how government workers think about their jobs. They need to think about what they’re accomplishing rather than completing tasks on autopilot.
2. To ferret out the employees who don’t even look at their emails and who might be getting paychecks but are actually absent from work.
My own view is - stop bitching and answer the email. It causes someone anxiety to say what they did last week? Really?
Argentina was a hot mess… until Javier Milei brought the chainsaws and bulldozers.
"It should take any employee less than ten minutes to put the email together..."
Sounds about right. The places I've worked have all used some sort of variation on this task. It's not a big deal. Unless, I suppose, you didn't do anything all week and have to make stuff up and you're worried somebody might actually check.
Peachypeachy, you realize Musk and Trump just took that failure and said 'hold my beer'. You aint seen nothing yet.
Toxic management.. ity is a staple of left-wing ideological isms not limited to 5 bullet points, which is why demos-cracy chose to abort their toxic transitions, privilege, and dark money fleecing, replacing, inseminating, murdering, jabbing regular Americans.
When I worked in a law firm, I had to track all of my time. Five bullet points a week would have been a delight! And when I worked in-house I often had to complete weekly dashboards that were much more detailed than five bullet points. People have fucking lost their minds over this. Zero fucks given for government workers. Welcome to the real world babies.
All of my bosses were massive progressives as well. They had no problem demanding to know what I did with my time to earn my keep. This is not a right vs left issue at all.
Mark, your hack democrat media supply lies and hysteria. The rest of us normals have ceased buying.
o...got my coffee and danish from the kitchen area
o...checked my personal emails
o...listen to Lisa tell me about her date last night, where they went, what she wore and had to eat
o...called my mother to get her shopping list
o...bot tickets to opera for next week
Listening to the outcries of the federal bureaucrats, I think of the famous picture from the French Revolution of the peasants standing upon the barricades ready to fight with the royalists. But this time the peasants are our entitled federal bureaucrats. Who is the bare-breasted woman holding the standard of the deep state? Hillary Clinton ? Kathy Hocul?
"They need to think about what they’re accomplishing rather than completing tasks on autopilot."
The very essence of a bureaucracy is that it values process over results.
Gosh and golly, the trauma!
I had to file a daily job report detailing not only what I did all day but also what every trade on the job site did all day.
Suck it up and fill out the form. You have until 11:59 on Monday. It shouldn't take that long to line out five things you did in a week.
"What kind of person are we dealing with here?"
It's screamingly self-evident. An imperious creep.
I understand there are a lot of employment opportunities opening up soon in the Hamptons.
"He's willing to throw ordinary workers into a panic."
They can always "learn to code" 🫨
From Daily Wire: With all the fuss surrounding the meme, the question became: Where did “learn to code” come from? The answer? From journalists themselves, during the Obama administration.
As conservatives decried President Barack Obama’s “war on coal” and coal-plant shutdowns, media outlets rushed to report that laid off coal workers could learn to code in order to get a new job.
NPR, Wired, The New York Times and many other outlets ran with these stories, which seemed to some as elite media outlets mocking blue-collar workers for losing their jobs."
link to know your meme "learn to code" origins
All government employees should be feeling fear and panic on a regular basis.
This us like asking the governor of Michigan why they chemical composition of the water was changed to leach lead from the pipes. Like asking the governor of California about his train to nowhere with a progressive price. Like asking the transgender mayor and fire chief in LA about mitigating recurring fire danger in their jurisdiction. Like asking the residents of Martha's Vineyard about the rising waters by the seashore and the dreamers deported. Listing 5 bullet points of employment is beyond the pale.
I assumed that "draining the swamp" was impossible and just rhetoric, but Trump is trying to do it. "Draining the swamp" is going to be messy or it's not going to be done at all.
This is something like the "shock therapy" urged on the East Bloc after the end of the Cold War. I hope it ends up better for us than it did for the Russians, but the alternative would be just letting things get worse.
Is Musk disposable/ dispensable? Maybe the idea is to use him to make big early decisions and then, if things don't go as planned, someone else will take over. I hope Trump has someone competent waiting in the wings if Musk becomes too much of a liability.
"When I worked in a law firm, I had to track all of my time."
What if when you were first told that this was required it was required with respect to the week that had already passed?
Defense contractors, and virtually any private sector company that is working on contract for the USGov, has to track their time - individually, and usually by the 15 minute increment. Not just the lawyers. And I believe the deadline is midnight Tuesday 00:00 - so people not checking their inbox until Monday morning office hours, still have plenty of time to comply.
I think this is just another phase of Shock & Awe. The onus has been put upon the supervisory level of management to communicate to their workers any department nuances to be addressed - security clearances and so forth. That is a very small population compared to the Federal herd though, most of who were snoring before the alarm went out, and who now are bleating.
"What is an "ordinary" governemnt worker?"
Someone who works to make a living and is reasonably earnest about accomplishing basic things like spelling correctly.
I couldn't have come up with 5 bullet points. It was more build this system and get back to us in a year. The system came from somewhere but nothing that could be pin-pointed.
Coding wasn't a significant part, but was the only identifiable activity.
What sort of person is Robert Cook?
It's screamingly self-evident. An imperious creep.
"What if when you were first told that this was required it was required with respect to the week that had already passed?"
That would likely be difficult to do (track all of your time) if you didn't know beforehand that you were going to be asked to do it.
Of course, government workers aren't being asked to do that.
"Someone who works to make a living and is reasonably earnest about accomplishing basic things like spelling correctly."
So, what, about 1/2 of 1% of government employees?
"Someone who works to make a living and is reasonably earnest about accomplishing basic things like spelling correctly."
An "ordinary worker" is "someone who works to make a living". Sounds a bit circular. And just think, sending an email in with a list of activities from the previous week provides a solid opportunity for typo avoidance.
"Reasonably earnest about accomplishing basic things" is the absolute lowest of bars that any non-nepotist private sector worker would love to be the standard applied to them.
Musk needs to build trust. He can't go on instinct alone, and he can't treat the entire government as a trial-and-error experiment.
…an excellent opportunity to stop taking the advice of ‘lawyers’…
"I couldn't have come up with 5 bullet points. It was more build this system and get back to us in a year."
This screenshot:
https://x.com/kristina_wong/status/1893477911388123556
posted on x doesn't say "5 bullet points", it says "approx. 5 bullets". Could you have done that? I bet you could have.
5 bullet points is analogous to a one minute elevator speech to describe affirmative actions taken in contemporary employment. This is hardly a scalpel, a pipette, a vacuum, a Green gauntlet, a cancel campaign wielded to put the fear of woke and broke in babies and adults, too.
Just to say what others are saying; weekly activity reports are no big deal. I actually still have mine that I had to file with the government decades ago. Still, Musk should be careful with his language, because the notion of not acting is an act of resignation is bullshit. While he could say trolling comments like that as a private citizen, he is now a special governmental employee. Therefore, his speech can be confused as speech representing the government.
As for the article and its bs:
The email hit inboxes Saturday
I saw some federal employees posting theirs on Friday in Facebook.
when federal law bars some employees from working outside of their assigned shifts.
Getting email is not "working outside of the assigned shift". The bar of working isn't about others sending employees assignments, it is about the employee than acting on the assignment outside of their scheduled time to conduct the work and asking for payment during that time. Statements like this I consider equally as bad as Musk's threat about resignations.
employees at some agencies cannot disclose information about their work
The posted emails I saw explicitly stated not to disclose classified information, so another bs statement.
Finally, if this is traumatizing, then those employees need to go. Anybody that has dealt with a loved one trying to obtain Medicare or Social Security benefits has seen worst requests for nonsense information needed to process benefits or face a denial of benefits. And don't forget to file your tax documentation by April 15th.
which lawyers said would be illegal
…reading that silently my mind preceded the word lawyers with crypto-nazi
I had to track my time (when i worked at an environmental consulting firm) not only so the right job chargeable would be charged, but the info was also used to keep track of what I was capable, if I was capable of adequately performing the tasks I was I was assigned, so that i could be included in marketing proposals, and helpful to the person assigned with doing my yearly evaluation.
Do they even do yearly evaluations of gov workers?
If the administration makes it a responsibility of their employment, a job they are required to complete as a condition of employment how is is not insubordination? Because government workers are special, exceptional!
Thank you for making our point for us…
After Chi Com Fauci democrat party covid … actual REAL trauma… the corrupt Whiney entitled left can pound sand.
What if when you were first told that this was required it was required with respect to the week that had already passed?
I think I understand what you mean by this, but it is a much harder task at times to demand people say what work they will be doing in the upcoming week. Sometimes you work is on demand and you don't know what assignment you will get that week. It is easier to say what you've done.
I think what you meant is more like ex post facto. Being told in advance of a requirement for employment instead of having the requirement applied retro actively. It would certainly help with those that unfortunately were on leave over the past week and on Monday.
Sigh......every single week/month/year I worked in the private sector I was asked over and over to provide the justification for my paycheck in the form of reports of progress and failure. Eventually, the answer wasn't sufficient to justify that paycheck in the eyes of my employer.
Somebody had to post a link to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I
I'm trying to imagine how it might go for a private sector worker if he expressed outrage at being asked by his employer to describe what he did for the company last week.
I doubt he'd get much sympathy from the media over the indignity of such a request.
"But there's a better...and an easier way to get this done. WITH cooperation. WITH the approval of most all the people."
The people getting canned are never going to cooperate, and the bureaucrats in the bureaucracies are never going to agree to cut budgets, to fire workers, to accept less. Democrat Party members are never going to relent in their assaults against Musk and Trump and anyone aligned with them trying to uncover their generations of theft and graft and corruption. We know now that the "popular consensus" for prog politics and culture is entirely a fabrication of the anti-American left and the propaganda Party press, but they still are pushing out there Mis and Dis information, and it still has an effect on many. A Party member in the comments above sincerely asks the rhetorical question what happens when FEMA and FBI fail, as if he did not consider those USA bureaucracies intentionally harming USA citizens innocent and in need as a failure. So we will never be truthfully told that "most all of the people" support something that the Party opposes, like banning men in women sports, or having a reasonable restriction on abortion, or reducing the size and power of government. Isn't there chatter about 80/20 issues and how libtards choose wrong every time? This is one of those 80/20 issues, despite the caterwauling of the press and Party members. The people want an accounting of their government now.
There isn't really any panic among federal workers, because this isn't really a big deal. I already have weekly, biweekly, monthly, and quarterly reporting requirements, and adding this one is nothing.
Musk is hyping this ordinary thing as a huge deal to cover for the fact that he doesn't understand the office culture and incentives of the federal workforce -- just as with the buyout.
Interesting that Rubio and Patel are talking this as the moment to assert rivalry with Musk, by exempting their workers from his oversight.
Lem Vibe Bandit said...
They can always "learn to code"
I learned to code over 30 years ago. I still work doing development. The company I currently work for requires us to report how much time was spent on each project/support incident on a daily basis. Telling them that will just make it worse.
"While he could say trolling comments like that as a private citizen, he is now a special governmental employee."
Uh, no, last I heard, he was an unpaid "Presidential Advisor". But Musk did not sign the e-mail it came from "HR".
Private industry would never treat their employees this way, as decades of personal experience have shown me.
Tell me you are a liar without saying the words "I lie".
Let's look at the the DNC as a private enterprise.
My $0.02; I would not respond to that e-mail. I would forward it to my supervisor. But I have had dozens of jobs, and don't worry much about getting another.
I’d say the percentage of people who support what the administration is doing but will turn because of this incident Ann is admonishing Musk for bungling is immaterial if it exists at all…
…so much bullshit about style and form from those who oppose…
The idea behind reducing government waste is fundamentally good. Whatever this turned into is the exact opposite.
I have no inside information, but it seems increasingly likely to me that Trump intends to take a tire iron to the federal government. Five bullet points is the least of their worries.
How about calling this a government based Covid response plan. For the overwhelmingly vast majority of people, government is a non-essential business.
Anyone else disappointed that they aren't also requiring government employees to wear at least 15 pieces of flair?
"Musk is hyping this ordinary thing as a huge deal to cover for the fact that he doesn't understand the office culture and incentives of the federal workforce -- just as with the buyout."
Right. Just like he didn't understand the wine fountains in the cafeterias at Twitter.
Look, if you fire everyone in an auto factory, you don't get any more autos. You'll go broke. But if you fire everyone in a disaster factory, you don't get any more disasters. And that is Not A Problem.
I do want to show some compassion for my former coworkers, so I'll provide them language for their first bullet point:
"1) Read and responded to emails in my inbox in a complete and timely manner."
20% of the work is already done.
If someone panics at having to make a list of 5 things they've accomplished in the last week, maybe it's not the request, but their lack of doing anything that has them panicking.
I could go into work Monday morning and come up with a bullet list in a fairly short time. I would be tempted, because I'm a smart-ass and the email says to not include anything that's confidential, to make a bullet list with all of the lines blacked out.
“Musk is hyping this ordinary thing as a huge deal to cover for the fact that he doesn't understand the office culture and incentives of the federal workforce -- just as with the buyout.”
⬆️ 💯
There's not going to be a rebate check. They aren't cutting taxes on tips. They aren't cutting taxes on social security. They aren't cutting taxes on overtime.
They are extending a huge tax cut for Trump’s very wealthy (elites) donors. Nothing else to see here.
The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!
In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1893657900851278115
It’s probably illegal to evaluate government workers.
which lawyers said would be illegal
Which lawyers said this? The same Obama and Biden lawyers what have a losing record worse than the Washington Generals?
Ordinary people are viewing the hysterical reactions, the NYT, WaPo framing, with mild amusement. Give your elevator speech and move on... forward... just do it... and be your best self, not selfie.
I will say, Musk certainly got people's attention. Althouse actually forgot to ask GrokGPT what it "thinks".
I suspect that identifying the department heads who refuse to go along with this without providing a meaningful justification (Patel's FBI, for example, appear to have solid grounds to not do this) is what is really in play here. This is a good, quick way to find out who is really on board with the Trump agenda. Even where a department has rules preventing the sharing of this information outside of the department, if those heads do not at least internally conduct a similar exercise, they should be shown the door.
LLR-democratical Rich: "The idea behind reducing government waste is fundamentally good. Whatever this turned into is the exact opposite."
LOL
Someone is very upset that people are looking into the vast New Soviet Democratical Graft and Money Laundering operations.
No mercy.
For me? Weekly status reports, plus daily project management updates at 0830.
For my father, an SES Chief at NASA:
- Pilot in Command for 3 missions in 3 different aircraft
- 2 currency flights
- Liaison meeting with SFO ATC
- published draft of Arctic ice dynamics flights logistics
I suspect that identifying the department heads who refuse to go along with this without providing a meaningful justification
Bingo. This motive is evident in his comprehensive evaluation of the federal workforce. The lack of compliance was a key point in sabotaging his first administration.
Loyal democratics out with the bs talking points.
Musk needs to build trust. He can't go on instinct alone, and he can't treat the entire government as a trial-and-error experiment. No matter how much his fans enthuse about the method of moving fast and breaking things, he will fail if he doesn't inspire confidence. He's willing to throw ordinary workers into a panic. Does he enjoy the suffering of low-power employees? What kind of person are we dealing with here?
I think we are beginning to see the first cracks in Althouse's unquestioning support of the Trump Administration's behavior over the last month.
Took you long enough. But I know you hate admitting (or others pointing out) that you might have been wrong.
"Does he enjoy the suffering of low-power employees?"
Althouse is usually more elevated than this.
I would be distressed if I had been drawing a nice check with benefits for years without the requirement to either create something concrete and tangible that is plainly evident to those above me and subject to their judgment, or to give an accounting of intangible progress towards an assigned goal, and then be required to do so. Yes, I would be suffering, and deservedly so.
In forty years working in the private sector, there was NEVER a time when I could not have answered that email in five minutes.
I have ZERO sympathy for anyone who cannot.
Lots of federal workers freaking out this weekend over having to justify their jobs. Something I had to do everyday when I worked for Pearson Publishing. And that didn’t stop Pearson from gutting our middle management one summer with just a 30 day notice.
I was also an “ordinary worker” in DoD for several years. This email would not have bothered me much. They should have fired my boss, a worthless retired O-6, who did nothing. Like many retired vets in the system he got his job because he knew somebody. I should know, that’s how I got my job.
I replied with one - "I operated boilers safely". My full reply is a little longer. But that's my sole task- operate the boilers safely. Can it be broken down? Sure- but there's no point. Everything done is done to operate the boilers safely. Do I report to anyone? No- I relieve someone who did the same, and am relieved by someone who then does the same.
Dull, boring, unexciting. We're paid to know what to do when it's suddenly exciting. And even then- what we do is make sure the boilers are being operated safely...
Can't be tasked with other jobs. Well, I suppose we could be. Every boiler explosion I can find studies on was because the operators were tasked with other jobs and not paying attention to the big tank of high pressure steam.
Report on one:
https://www.ipe.org/docs/default-source/ontario-pdfs/incidents/ftsm-boiler-accident-with-pictures.pdf?sfvrsn=16821ed1_2
Pictures of that one:
https://www.dli.mn.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/tenn_boiler_pictures.pdf
You know who else requires you to list 5 things you did last week to get paid?
The unemployment office.
What kind of pathetic "workers" are "thrown into a panic" by having to summarize what they did in the past week in 5 bullet points? Come on. "Traumatized."
For good workers the challenge would be to limit the list to only 5 things.
In forty years working in the private sector, there was NEVER a time when I could not have answered that email in five minutes.
…and if you’re one of Ann’s someones ‘who works to make a living and is reasonably earnest about accomplishing basic things’ why would you not want to communicate what you and your department do, proudly, to the authorities altering policy to try and identify you?
For my father, an SES Chief at NASA:
- Pilot in Command for 3 missions in 3 different aircraft
- 2 currency flights
- Liaison meeting with SFO ATC
- published draft of Arctic ice dynamics flights logistics
Considering Elon (and I would really like to see Elon wading through 2.3 million memos) probably wouldn't know what the hell the last three mean (and the last sounds like something to do with monitoring climate change), your dad might be in trouble for not listing 5 achievements.
As to the first--An SES piloting an aircraft three times in a week (or 5 since I am not sure what "currency flights")?! And WTF is an SES doing something that GS-12 or 13 should be doing. What a waste of tax dollars!
That said, the overwhelming problem with for-profit education is that invariably the teachers end up spending more time documenting, charting, and record-keeping than they do teaching. Turns out that this is not unambiguously better than the zero accountability in the public systems.
If things were limited to 5 bullet points per week, it would be fine and potentially even helpful, but dim-witted middle-managers are in love with "data" even if it is meaningless or misleading fake "data."
I wonder if will be okay to include as one of the 5 bullet points:
Read Althouse blog and offered thoughtful comments on several posts.
Not that I do that sort of thing during my own work day (which is not in any way connected to the federal government, except working to pay taxes to fund the lifestyle of others.)
Musk posted on X that his team suspects there are numerous nonexistent Federal employees receiving regular paychecks. It could be they found SS#'s associated with the checks do not correspond to any tax returns. He said that nonresponse to his email will go towards confirming that the employees are indeed fictitious.
I spent 30 years working hand in glove with government employees, and some many nothing but total wastes of oxygen but others were the sort of employee no intelligently-run enterprise should want to lose.
Suppose he only thing you worked on last week was painstakingly matching invoices with ICD codes with Medicare reimbursements and you’ve worked out how a novel fraud scheme works that steals $30 billion annually from CMS, though you have more work ahead to be able to initiate clawback of the funds and document the case adequately to turn over to DOJ for prosecution? Only one bullet item on your list — are you at risk of termination? I read Elon Musk to be answering in the affirmative.
What if you’re an FBI agent undercover with a Mexican cartel? How do you answer? Note that the site to which you respond is not secure.
The round of job cuts last weekend has already gotten people in an uproar. There’s a (hopefully!) apocryphal story circulating about a probationary employee fired for allegedly not measuring up was on maternity leave with twins at home. If I have to explain why you just don’t do that then I hope you are never a manager.
By the way, lady weekend’s terminations were terminations for cause — not terminations for convenience of the government. Lotsa luck getting a replacement job in midwinter when you have to admit that you were terminated for cause by your previous employer (i.e., the federal government). In some cases the employees terminated for cause had received positive reviews from their managers (and some even excellent reviews). Legally, they have a case if they choose to sue. Others were employees transitioning agencies who now lose severance. They have a case too, if it looks as though the termination was calculated to deny severance.
I applaud efforts to shrink government, but shrinking it by making the federal government into a bad place to work is, long term, unwise.
Hegseth has now also said no to Musk's email.
I think we are beginning to see the first cracks in Althouse's unquestioning support of the Trump Administration's behavior over the last month.
Freder doesn’t get it, does he? I mean the difference between Republicans, who correctly believe that we have a right to speak up and argue against what we perceive to be administration mistakes, and Democrats who feel compelled to March in lockstep, even to their own doom.
1. Woke up.
2. Fell out of bed.
3. Dragged a comb across my head.
4. Found my way downstairs.
5. Drank a cup.
And that was all before Noon, Mr. Musk!
"Only one bullet item on your list — are you at risk of termination? I read Elon Musk to be answering in the affirmative."
I'm curious where you read that, can you post a link? The email I read said "approx. 5 bullets" and would think in the example you offered, one would suffice.
"What if you’re an FBI agent undercover with a Mexican cartel? How do you answer?"
You don't. The email I referenced says not to include that sort of information.
Ignore all the panicked voices. Here is what actually is happening in the real world:
Every reasonably competent manager and administrator in the government already sent a note advising their staff to wait for additional guidance from their departments by Monday morning.
90% of the rest are doing what government employees do whenever a Republican is in office: ignore instructions and either maintain the status quo or slow walk everything through the process.
The remainder already have been or soon will be identified for termination.
The department heads that are saying "no to Musk's email" is being portrayed as some inner conflict. I think that's BS. It is a long standing conservative principle that the more local the governance, the better. The departments that now have a head that are willing and able to carry out the purge should do so. The broader Musk push will catch the fraudsters and no-show jobs that don't have a head willing or currently able to carry it out.
Typical work day for a Federal employee, or Freder.
"Suppose he only thing you worked on last week was painstakingly matching invoices with ICD codes with Medicare reimbursements and you’ve worked out how a novel fraud scheme works that steals $30 billion annually from CMS, though you have more work ahead to be able to initiate clawback of the funds and document the case adequately to turn over to DOJ for prosecution? Only one bullet item on your list — are you at risk of termination? I read Elon Musk to be answering in the affirmative."
I can turn that into multiple bullet points.
1) Matched invoices with ICD codes with Medicare reimbursements
2) Documented fraudulent activity
3) Enabled government to save $30 Billion annually from CMS
4) Beginning work on recovering funds already paid out ( I would include the amount being recovered here)
5) Beginning work on documenting case in order to engage DOJ in possible prosecutions
Apparently you have never had to fill out a timesheet.
And even if you hadn't found a $30 Billion a year fraud going on, its still multiple bullet points.
1) Matched invoices with ICD codes with Medicare reimbursements
2) Verified that no fraudulent activity was occurring
3) Documented that no fraudulent activity was occurring
Fred Drinkwater @1:38PM this was my experience, as well. Any employees having a problem with this request show their hand AND what they’re worth.
"Any employees having a problem with this request show their hand..."
This could easily be one of the goals of the exercise- get the "slow-walkers" to self-identify.
Huh?! Fred Drinkwater = Freder Frederson. I never would have guessed!
Freder, Mark, and the other idle-brains must read more carefully. (What suffering that must entail!) Musk is requiring those e-mail recipients to respond. He does not demand a specific reply, just a reply. President Trump suspects the federal payroll contains phantom employees, and Musk is executing a first order search for them. Many will be able to supply the requested outlines. A small percentage will refuse because their work is governed by statutes and regulations against such correspondence, however a refusal and explanation by e-mail is evidence of their non-phantom tangibility. Some will fail because their public educations have left them semi-literate and ignorant of what constitutes an outline. The taxpayers should not be footing their bills. Some will fail because they are dead or fictional. Again, the taxpayers should not be forced to forfeit their money and see it thrown into the Void. Lastly, there will be the rebellious tax parasites who will seek to die on the Chuck Schumer's Hill of Holy Corruption. Good luck to them; they'll need it.
For 25 years in fedgov, I submitted weekly timesheets allocating my hours to various budget codes. Of those years, 15 were as a supervisor reviewing my workers’ sheets. All of this was so we could prove to congress that we spent our manpower money the way we were told. And to use as evidence to ask for more manpower.
JSM
Imagine the chaos in the breakroom at lunchtime on Monday at bureaucracy.Gov.
I'm actually shocked at the insubordination by a workforce, of which, 80% said they would not comply with Trump's agenda. And that was before Trump was inaugurated.
Musk is right, we don't have a Democracy if the 2.3 million people who are tasked with carrying out the agenda of a duly elected Executive, go rogue. Who are the tyrants?
"For 25 years in fedgov, I submitted weekly timesheets allocating my hours to various budget codes. "
This is how white collar work happens in corporations as well. So many hours are budgeted for projects/tasks. The people performing the tasks report their hours so that management can see if people are going over the budgeted hours (which warrants investigation and resolution; are more hours needed? Should we shift hours from another task which doesn't need as many hours as initially budgeted? ) No project has unlimited time and money. Both have to be budgeted and time and money have to be tracked. The fact that the legacy media is screaming about this is making them look like idiots and people recognize this.
If you keep a calendar-based schedule, you can write 5 bullets. If you make phone calls, your call history will enable 5 bullets.
I applaud the Department Secretaries or leaders who say they’ll handle their own team, as long as they coordinate with Musk and understand what he’s after. No one should be exempt from some sort of “is there life there” drill though.
Aside, I agree these rock fetches and stresses can be unnerving, especially when you’re already at wits end with Trump in office. Could be these tactics encourage more people to resign, though, which would be good. Also, the time is of the essence because of the election cycles. Trump can’t be mamby-pamby when the Gov is in such sorry state as far as being able to serve us well. He’s got to find as much as he can as quickly as he can in order to have time to re-structure and nominally fix what’s broken before midterms.
Questor, you also fire new mothers, people on vacation, and the poor guy who scheduled his colonoscopy Monday and didnt check his email over the weekend.
Sure, fire those people. They likely have civil service protections and this will actually cost MORE.
There's no way via this method to tell the quality of the employee you are firing. You could end up eliminating more productive employees as there is not going to be informed vetting of thses bullet points by 40 people.
I work in small run custom manufacturing. We strive for a 3-4 week turn from when we receive an order to when it ships.
While any of us could easily generate a five point memo saying what we did last week, my boss would be more interested in a five point memo on what we are going to do this week.
Tomorrow he is going to ask each sales person how much they are going to book this week; last week's sales conversions are a side note.
Next Monday-the first work day of the month-he is going to ask the production supervisor how much product he will ship in March, despite the fact that many of these jobs aren't even booked yet.
The sales team's job is to continuously fill that pipeline; production's job is to continuously push it through.
My point is that if the treadmill can be fast enough that you are reporting what you are planning to do; looking back is a luxury.
Musk Says Federal Workers Must Detail ‘What They Got Done’—or Risk Losing Job ~ WSJ
Government workers need to be more productive on the job. They can start by writing weekly emails detailing their progress to a drug-addled DOGE Commissar who will receive them while playing Diablo 4 (pretending to play Diablo 4 after paying someone to play for him) with teenagers. 🤣
who's being paid, and who isn't, he stated his objective at that rally in Madison Square Garden,
"The fact that the legacy media is screaming about this is making them look like idiots and people recognize this."
Looks like yet another failure to read the room by a bunch of impeccably credentialed yet oh-so-insulated-from-real-life-self-important people.
Government workers need to be more productive on the job. They can start by writing weekly emails detailing their progress to a drug-addled DOGE Commissar who will receive them while playing Diablo 4 (pretending to play Diablo 4 after paying someone to play for him) with teenagers. 🤣
Still more accountability than under previous administrations...
To paraphrase the good book; It would be easier for legislation to pass through the eye of a needle than for a government worker to be laid off.
https://x.com/matt_vanswol/status/1893653103691346422
Justify in multiples of billions, trillions, ethnic Springs, democracy aborted at the Twilight Fringe, and mitigating progressive corruption? NYT has the audacity to maintain a pretense of an honest broker.
Musk himself hasn't had a single US citizen arrested for all the fraud he claims he has discovered.
I am singularly unimpressed with his performance.
I'd like him to name 5 people he's referred to the Justice Department for fraud that he's found.
I read where this was nothing more that a "pulse check." How many federal workers are actually in a "no show" job? I voted to make the rubble bounce!
I don't know why this is so objectionable. I used to (before I retired) work at an industry body and we had fortnightly team calls. Send in ahead of the call ( 1 hour long max) bullet points what you had done in the last fortnight and plans for the next fortnight. We'd share so we could make sure we weren't duplicating. We learnt a lot about what we were working on and could help each other. Lots of data points not otherwise available , eg technical calls with firms, progress on dealings with HMRC or HMT or FCA (UK equivs of IRS, Treasury and SEC). After an hour I had my board report of what the team were doing and the wider organisation had a much better idea of all we were doing.
“I think we are beginning to see the first cracks in Althouse's unquestioning support of the Trump Administration's behavior over the last month.”
This is the FAFO I’ve been seeing all over the internet. Even hard core MAGAs are now being affected and it’s a shock to them that they aren’t exempt from the actions of the Trump administration. I almost feel sorry for MAGAs putting out the crying videos and exclaiming “But I voted for Trump three times, how could he do this to me?!” It’s too bad the rest of us who didn’t voted for Trump will have to feel the pain too.
'I almost feel sorry for MAGAs putting out the crying videos and exclaiming “But I voted for Trump three times, how could he do this to me?!”'
Links or it didn't happen.
The Real Problem IS:
about half of all government employees don't check their email..
because they "work" from home, that is, they do NO work.
By asking them to do this simple step.. They are being asked to actually check their emails.. which, as i said; is MORE than Most of them EVER do..
The REASON the MSM is making such a fuss about this, is in an attempt to alert the 'workers' that they NEED to check their emails
For 25 years in fedgov, I submitted weekly timesheets allocating my hours to various budget codes.
I was told numerous times, “lying on your timesheet is a federal offense”. I seem to recall that being a box that I had to affirmatively check saying I understood what that meant, when submitting my timesheet electronically. How would anyone know? Well, by reading my weekly activity report (WAR was the acronym we used) for one. Sometimes, they would check badging records, but that was when they already expected you have lied and ready to terminate you. None of this should be exciting to any federal employee or contractor.
Musk’s e-mail is “leading to confusing and differing interactions across the government.”
Without doubt very studied and tactically implemented confusion in most cases. It’s the who me, officer? defense of the career burglar .
P-Inga: "This is the FAFO I’ve been seeing all over the internet. Even hard core MAGAs are now being affected and it’s a shock to them that they aren’t exempt from the actions of the Trump administration."
LOL
Another of your transparent lies in a long series of your lies covering the last 10 years.
There is zero reality to any and everything you post.
But it is amusing to read your postings to see what some of the dumbest New Soviet Democraticals are falling for.
Now tell us again how all those republican suburban women were going to turn out by the millions to vote in kamala due to abortion laws!
I looked around and found this on buzzfeed.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/trump-voters-are-regretting-their-ballot-choices
Its all unverifiable hearsay, on BuzzFeed. In other words, its TDS porn.
Mary Beth said...
If someone panics at having to make a list of 5 things they've accomplished in the last week, maybe it's not the request, but their lack of doing anything that has them panicking.
Exactly. This is how I felt reading panicked responses from former coworkers on ISS. They aren’t mad that Musk said something the NASA IG and Safety Panel have been saying for years. They are mad because they haven’t in 30 years managed to come up with a replacement for ISS, and the man who owns the only company keeping it operational has said he is ready to move on. If Boeing, Lockheed, USA, Axiom, Blue Origin, etc had a Space Station ready to fly, then they wouldn’t care about ISS. They had 30 years. Now they are being asked what they did last week and they can’t even…
Mark said:
"Private industry would never treat their employees this way, as decades of personal experience have shown me"
i take it Mark? that you've NEVER worked a day, in your life?
I have to admit.. *i* have not had to file an hourly report for over 7 years now.. You see, i retired Jan 5, 2018..
Before that; it was ONCE A WEEK, EVERY WEEK..
[including Vacation]
A judge just blocked enforcement of the Constitution and Civil Rights Act, demanding justification to abort DEI (i.e. institutional, systemic racism, sexism, political congruence, and other class-disordered ideologies).
“But I voted for Trump three times, how could he do this to me?!”'
Anyone traumatized by being asked what they did on the job last week is too stupid to keep on the payroll.
"It should take any employee less than ten minutes to put the email together..."
we Always allocated 0.25 hrs (15 min) to complete our
Weekly Activity Report..
Because 0.25 was the smallest increment.. really took about 8 min
Most people who work for the Federal Government are not managers. They have a boss who gives them work and makes sure its done. I'm sure its like the state Government I worked for in the 90s where I filled a timesheet that listed all the hours charged to all the projects i worked on.
I know people who work for DoD, and they are NOT sitting around playing video games. They're buying weapon systems, working at DoD logistics, or doing interacting with Large defense contractors.
Some of the "Softer" Agencies like USAID, HHS, and Dept of Ed probably aren't that way. Musk should have been more targeted in his emails. Patel had the correct response.
One problem with being a rightwinger is having to listen ignorant people rant about "The Gubmint" as if Federal, state, and local Governments are exactly the same. Or don't understand the DoD, NASA, Dept oF ed, the forest service, border patrol, FDA, etc. are doing vital functions and aren't "Sitting around pushing paper".
Again, a lot of this hatred of Federal workers is just envy. Some peeps had their chance, but decided to work in private industry because they wanted the big paycheck and were willing to take risks. And it didn't work out for them. Hence, the bitter view of Fed workers.
Ooops, meant the Dept of Energy is doing vital work. Dept of Ed, needs to be shut down.
What if when you were first told that this was required it was required with respect to the week that had already passed?
Right. That would be disconcerting—for a few minutes, if one really has been working.
As I posted on X: They feel threatened because they've been doing nothing for months and years, and now they have to suddenly account for what they've been doing starting last week. They resent Musk not giving them at least a week's warning so they could suddenly start working just in time to report about it.
Smart people would have begun working harder (than not at all) at least a month ago.
How are the responses going to be analyzed and checked for accuracy and authenticity?
They aren't. The exercise is total nonsense designed purely for political consumption.
If he wants to improve efficiency he needs to hire someone in each department that has the authority and incentive to actually manage it better. That means the hard graft of working out who to keep, who to fire and how to do things differently so that more can be done with fewer people.
Anyone who has managed anything will tell you that is difficult ball aching stuff.
What Musk is doing is pure political theatre.
"Musk should have been more targeted in his emails."
Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps it was considered to be more efficient to identify a general policy and for the various agency heads to handle specific disagreements as best suited their departments rather than having Musk research those options before taking action?
Just a thought...
Even a postal worker ought to easily be able to come up with approximately 5 bullet points:
1. Delivered mail on Monday
2. Delivered mail on Tuesday
3. Delivered mail on Wednesday
4. Delivered mail on Thursday
5. Delivered mail on Friday
"What Musk is doing is pure political theatre."
If that's so, this whole thing could be ignored. Based on the responses so far, it appears a lot of people working in the government and the media aren't as smart as you are.
LLR-democratical Rich: "What Musk is doing is pure political theatre."
Musk is running the country!
Musk is the REAL President.
Musk is incredibly dangerous!
Musk is destroying the government!
Musk is completely harmless and this is all theater!
Musk isnt really doing anything!
And the Lefty Little Brains argue all these contradictory and self-refuting points, and many others, simultaneously!
Lets see what happens next...
'Or don't understand the DoD, NASA, Dept oF ed, the forest service, border patrol, FDA, etc. are doing vital functions and aren't "Sitting around pushing paper"'
Since they are bureaucracies they certainly are pushing a lot of paper. Probably a lot more than is strictly necessary for them to perform vital functions.
If he wants to improve efficiency he needs to hire someone in each department that has the authority and incentive to actually manage it better.
You obviously failed to notice that there's to be a 4-person Doge team embedded in every agency and sub-agency; consisting of:
1. Lead
2. HR person
3. Engineer
4. Attorney
Anonymous Coward said: "That means the hard graft of working out who to keep, who to fire and how to do things differently so that more can be done with fewer people."
What an odd formulation. I looked up the word "graft" to see if there was any possible alternate meaning I didn't know about that would make its use in that sentence make sense, and I don't see it.
I mean, this IS all about graft, and finding the people who are practicing it. And one way to find those people will be those jobs where no one replies to the email at all, because it's a fake job under a fake name where the checks get sent to someone else entirely. That's what makes this not a "fake exercise".
And I agree with gilbar, btw, that the reason the media is screaming as loud as it is is to make sure the people that are profiting from those fake jobs find a way to get into those email accounts before they're discovered.
When Democrats shut down coal mines and petroleum jobs, lots of Lefties said, "Learn to Code."
Now that some government bureaucrats might become unemployed, in addition to coding, maybe these ideas should be considered.
Learn to landscape.
Learn to hang drywall.
Learn to nanny.
Learn to housekeep.
You obviously failed to notice that there's to be a 4-person Doge team embedded in every agency and sub-agency
They find it easier to complain from ignorance rather than educating themselves on the subject and then opining using rational and sensible arguments.
ron winkleheimer: "I looked around and found this on buzzfeed.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/trump-voters-are-regretting-their-ballot-choices
Its all unverifiable hearsay, on BuzzFeed. In other words, its TDS porn."
You will recall Buzzfeed was the first to publish the hoax dossier, the key component of the russia collusion hoax, paid for by the Hillary campaign (which Inga the Idiot denied for years), organized by Marc Elias of Perkins-Coie and Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS (which Inga the Idiot denied for years), and was generated using inputs from Nellie Ohr (wife of FBI-er Bruce Ohr) and Deripaska of Brookings and his drunken pals in a DC bar (all denied by Inga the Idiot for years).
All long before it was all laundered thru Steele in the UK.
Musk is simply looking for signs of life.
"And I agree with gilbar, btw, that the reason the media is screaming as loud as it is is to make sure the people that are profiting from those fake jobs find a way to get into those email accounts before they're discovered."
Does the government keep track of where/when workers log in to their email accounts?
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