Thoughts on the Trump + Elon takeover
March 31, 2025
Since things keep going from bad to worse in the Federal Government workforce, I thought I’d start writing my thoughts as we go. (ADDENDUM: I just couldn’t bring myself to keep doing it, too depressing…)
Today, Elon (via OPM, but it was Elon; he X’d it) sent email to all Fed Employees requiring them to write up at least 5 things they accomplished in the past week, and send it to OPM and their supervisor. On X at least, he said resonse was mandatory, and non-response would indicate resignation. An OPM spokesperson said any action would be up to the agencies.
Incentivization
Now, I don’t necessrily think requiring people to reflect on what they accomplished for the week, in such a cursory way, is a bad thing; it could be a legitimate angle on increasing performance. What I object to, is having OPM in that chain of communication – under the current state of things, it seems very likely that the responses will be data-mined for anything the administration doesn’t like, with potential consequences for the employees (even if they are executing on just what they are supposed to.)
I asked a friend who is a current Fed Gov supervisor if the form of response was stated – e.g. if not, perhaps one could “comply” by US Mail? Send a registered letter, then compliance is documented, but (a) delayed, (b) in a form that requires extra steps to ingest the data? Of course, that might make someone an immediate target, but if you’re considering this kind of resistance, you’re likely to be a target anyway, sooner or later.
Per another Fed friend, Jared (Isaacman, the incoming NASA Administrator) arm-wrestled with Elon and came away with agreement not to terminate the NASA probationary employees, at least for now. But, with even beloved DoD taking an 8% per year haircut, and terminating 5,000 civil servants, I can’t imagine that NASA will get away free; it’s just a question of when and how much.
Meanwhile, the uncertainty and angst has got to be crippling any productivity, and the long-term consequences to being able to hire and retain federal S&T employees will, I predict, be very significant.
Breaking the social contract
I think Trump and Elon fundamentally don’t understand (and, probably, they don’t care to) that the Science and Technology (S&T) part of the federal workforce is quite different from the more typical cadre of bureaucrats. These are people who could, for the most part, be making more (often a lot more) in the private sector. They chose Federal service because they wanted to do something meaningful for the American people; it’s not too much of a stretch to call them patriots. They swore to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States, not fealty to Trump’s whims. They’re a highly educated, trained, experienced and knowledgeable bunch, who don’t tend to blindly follow orders, especially those perceived as likely to be unlawful. Breaking the social contract (the country will pay you significantly below market, but you’ll have exceptional job stability and get to work on things that really make a difference) is something you only get to do once. After it’s done, there will forever more be a question as to the stability, and whether the compensation is sufficient to make up for that. For many, arguably the most talented, the answer will be “no” – a private company will pay them 3x or more, perhaps to do the same kind of work that otherwise would have gone into the public good, but will now be locked up behind trade secrets and in the service of profits for shareholders. That’s a cat that can’t be put back in the bag.