The Elon Musk DOGE legacy that just won't die
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Call it zombie management: Each week, federal workers inside a few agencies still dutifully email a report, detailing the five things they did in the previous seven days.
Why it matters: The emails, born from an out-of-nowhere Elon Musk X post, show how hard it can be undo even the smallest of changes once unleashed on the largest workforce in the U.S.
Catch up quick: One Saturday in February, Musk posted that all federal employees would get an email asking them to explain what they'd accomplished over the last week. Failure to respond more than once, he said, would get you fired.
- The Office of Personnel Management quickly followed up with a email to millions of federal workers, giving them until Monday night to respond (minus the firing threat).
The big picture: The request blindsided the White House, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, two senior administration officials tell Axios.
- It was the first documented time that White House officials, publicly and privately, resisted Musk and chafed at his style of personnel management.
- "To use a phrase Susie might use, she was fit to be tied at Musk," one of the officials said of Wiles' level of annoyance.
- Some officials promptly told their staffs to ignore it, starting with FBI director Kash Patel. Other appointees soon followed suit. The Office of Personnel Management pretty quickly said it was discretionary.
Zoom in: Like a zombie in a workplace horror movie, these emails live on, a sort of vestigial Muskian management tool.
- Employees at OPM are encouraged to do it. The folks at NOAA must send it as well, said one agency employee.
- "We're told to send it every Monday before midnight," says a Social Security employee.
- "It takes a while," they said. "I have never gotten a response from anyone."
- An employee at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been largely gutted by the White House and had most of its work halted, said they hadn't been told to stop sending them, but stopped anyway.
- "Got tired of saying I hadn't accomplished anything because we haven't been given any work," they said.
For the record: "Commissioner Bisignano is streamlining the Social Security Administration to deliver more efficient service for American taxpayers," Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement responding to questions about why the agency is still doing this.
- At least for SSA, the emails are a temporary practice until they get a better system in place, an agency official tells Axios.
- OPM stands by them too. "This practice is vital to maintain accountability and transparency in employee contributions," says spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover, who says she submits these weekly. "It's an easy way to share my work with leadership."
- "The mission of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse is a part of the DNA of the federal government and will continue under the direction of the President, his cabinet, and agency heads to enhance government efficiency and prioritize responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars," says White House spokesman Harrison Fields.
The bottom line: DOGE was supposed to cut down on waste; instead, it's left behind a legacy that federal employees say is a waste of time.
