In yet another round of audits from the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk sent an email to government employees on Saturday asking them to list their accomplishments for the past week.
The implication is that those who do not respond or have not met the sufficient criteria for accomplishments will be fired.
Musk’s email reportedly asks for five bullet points on what an employee did for the last week.
In the event of a nonanswer, Musk issued a warning.
“If you don’t answer, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired,” he said.
Asking for five achievements per week may be a bit much, as everyone has good and bad weeks. The sentiment, however, is correct in that it is time for government workers to be held accountable.
It is also unlikely that Musk would recommend cutting someone because they only had three accomplishments instead of five. The likely intent of the policy is to root out those who have not done any work while being paid with taxpayer money.
If asking for five achievements per week seems harsh, a reasonable alternative would be for Musk to ask for a general list of accomplishments from the past month or two. With a larger sample size, it will become clear which employees are contributing on a regular basis and which are expendable.
Officials at the Defense Department and the FBI have already told their employees to disregard the email, both stating that the agencies themselves, not DOGE, are responsible for their employees. Musk’s action, however, should serve as a reminder for the departments to take action in looking at their employees work history. Even if the DOD and FBI disregard Musk’s notice, they should take action of their own.
While some have raised concerns that Musk’s email may pose a national security risk, not all government employees work with classified information. It is possible, however, to list accomplishments without revealing classified secrets.
Those afraid of Musk’s actions must remember that he works in an advisory role and can’t decide who stays and who goes all on his own.
That being said, Trump and Musk must ensure that they can trust those working with DOGE, as they will be working with possibly sensitive information. If Musk revealed the vetting process for his team of young tech geniuses, it would likely help to calm the fears of those concerned about a national security risk. It is likely that Musk can show his process without compromising the privacy of the DOGE employees.
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Under normal employment circumstances, it is perfectly reasonable for a supervisor to want to know what his employees are doing during a work week. It should not be different for federal employees.
Musk has largely done good work with DOGE exposing government wastefulness. Citizens have a right to see where their tax money goes. If taxes are being used to pay government employees that don’t do any real work, people should know about it.