The FBI, Labor, and the DOGE Task Force: Musk’s Campaign to Reinvent the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
Multiple agency sources told WIRED last week that several of Musk’s lieutenants had been granted access to key computer systems controlled by the GSA, an independent agency tasked by Congress with overseeing federal buildings and providing equipment, supplies, and IT support across the government.
An earlier email from the Office of Personnel Management that encouraged federal employees to resign from their jobs received widespread anger and resistance from labor unions, and follow-up emails purporting to answer questions have been cold comfort. OPM sent an email to the workforce this weekend that addresses some questions, but federal employees have not been reassured by it.
WIRED reported last week that Musk’s outfit had effectively taken over the Office of Personnel Management, the US government’s human resources department. Many of the inexperienced young engineers it employs are either former interns or associated with Musk-aligned companies.
The Trump administration began a radical campaign last week aimed at inducing members of the federal workforce to leave their jobs ahead of threatened reductions. The effort is spearheaded by Elon Musk, leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force that has effectively seized control of several federal agencies and sensitive government systems with apparent clearance from the White House.
The image of a wall being painted over at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Quantico, Virginia academy has surfaced due to it listing “diversity” among the bureau’s core values. The bureau no longer counts diversity among its core values, according to an email obtained by Mother Jones.
Communicating with State and Local Government Employees on the Implications of the First Day of Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Pronouns
The ability to list pronouns was stopped last week because of executive orders that determined genders on President Trump’s first day in office. A GSA staffer says pronouns were wiped from employees’ email signatures after hours on Friday and were also no longer visible in Slack, the workplace messaging app.
Are you a current or former employee with a government agency impacted by this? We’d like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact Dell Cameron securely at dell.3030 on Signal.
Multiple agency directors sent emails over the weekend telling staff that, due to President Donald Trump’s executive order, their offices would be removing the pronoun capability from Office 365. Employees were told they’d also need to remove pronouns from their email signatures in order to comply with the directive.
WIRED confirmed various automated efforts with employees at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the US Department of Agriculture.
Federal workers use alternative channels to share information due to a lack of clarity inside. The subreddit r/fednews has become a central space for federal workers to share goings on in their agencies, compare notes with one another, and boost morale. Other grassroots accounts like the Alt National Parks Service account serve as an updates feed for federal employees and concerns members of the public.
The Coast Guard is in turmoil: Why the Coast Guard shouldn’t have any fires in their bellies, when Trump and Musk failed to meet the moment
“I personally am pretty disgusted at the lack of any fire in their bellies,” a person who works with the Coast Guard told The Verge. A federal worker questioned why Democrats weren’t speaking in stronger terms against the demolition of government agencies and norms when they were failing to meet the moment. “If not now, when?”
On Monday, a group of Democratic lawmakers held a press conference outside the USAID headquarters, condemning the attempts by Trump and Musk to shut down the organization.
Jamie said that there wasn’t a fourth branch of government called “Elun Musk”. The group was blocked from entering the building by law enforcement.
The EPA is in turmoil, after employees received a notice last week that said the agency had the right to immediately fire them. The email was sent to employees on a trial period who were hired within the past year. The warning was given to 1,100 people, including EPA employees, according to the legislative and political coordination for Council 238 of the AF GE.
New hires that are still in a probationary period have fewer protections than other employees, says Cantello. “That’s why I think the Trump administration is preying on them because they know it’s easier to get rid of them.”
The email says that there is a process for removal from employment, but doesn’t say when that process will begin.
The agency is at risk of losing 10 percent of its workforce when taking into account probationary employees and those who choose to take the deferred resignation, according to Cantello.
Losing this amount of staff would hurt the EPA in its efforts to protect human health and the environment after the devastating Los Angeles fires. The agency employs about 15,000 people and has spent the last four years trying to build back its ranks after an exodus of scientists from federal agencies during the first Trump administration.
The EPA’s intranet service was down for most of the workday on Monday, making employees unable to access their personnel records. Those types of documents are important to keep in order to protect yourself if you ever decide to take legal action against the agency. The intranet service is also vital to the agency’s enforcement of environmental regulation. It’s where employees record complaints, for example. TheEPA didn’t reply immediately to the request for comment from THE IVE.
As nonpartisan staffers used to the changing whims of different administrations, federal civil servants are often not the quintessential activists. A show of peaceful protest is taking place every morning this week at 7:30 AM in front of the Office of Personnel Management. A third rally will be held in front of the Senate on Wednesday.
In conversations with half a dozen federal workers, all but one of whom were granted anonymity, it was clear that the takeover of federal agencies is putting employees and contractors on edge, uncertain if they will have a job.
The crackdown on things like work from home or acknowledging gender has created an atmosphere of paranoia and hyper vigilance. Many federal employees have moved work-related conversations to encrypted messaging app Signal. A federal contractor says that the tech industry has created a distrust in people as a result of their support for right wing politics and politicians.
Federal employees know that if they choose not to comply or leave their jobs, someone else will do it, and things may get even worse. Managers are asking themselves if losing their job and endangering their team is worth it. “Or if this doesn’t completely go against my principles, should I accept it, tell my team to accept it, and live to fight another day?”
“People are angry at being accused of cheating the government by working from home,” one person who received the email said. “We’re feeling not valued by the administration.”
Department of Labor employees who work on grants were instructed to email grantees saying their funding would be cut off if it was in support of DEI initiatives. One employee working on grants said that it felt like if they didn’t send it, their boss would. Their grantees who received the message were “freaking out,” since many nonprofits that rely on such funds can’t afford to fight back in a protracted battle. The employee said it made his heart hurt to send it.
One example is how agencies were forced to respond to Trump’s executive order on “defending women,” which mandated official documents not include the term “gender” to refer to “sex-based distinctions.” But because of how quickly agencies needed to get into compliance, at least one opted to remove references to many gender resources altogether because there wasn’t enough time to change the wording in every instance.
A person working for a US government agency told The Verge they are scared and betrayed. “When [people] get hired, they take an oath to protect the constitution.” And with Musk actively dismantling the humanitarian agency, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday he now runs, workers at other agencies are wondering if the same could happen to their workplaces. A Department of Labor employee says that they are scared about what happened because they did not think it was possible.