- Elon Musk’s Doge had e -mail sent to federal workers looking for a list of what they did last week.
- The decision irritated federal workers, many of whom risk losing their work.
- A career coach told Bi that Doge’s approach is “fear -based management”.
Elon Musk’s management style has once again aroused a strong debate, this time to ask federal employees to respond to an email with what they did last week – or risk losing their jobs.
Musk, a special government employee who is the face of the White House office, is known for his divisive leadership style in Tesla, Spacex and X.
Now he is applying the same tactics for federal operations – with mixed feedback from business executives and government officials.
“This method is not only ineffective, it is harmful,” George Carrillo, a former government -executive Oregon, told George Carrilo, for Business Insider.
Carrillo, the Director General of the Hispanic Council of Construction, previously worked as an executive of the program at the Oregon Human Services Department.
“Overloading employees with unrealistic demands creates instability and causes talented workers to leave, which risks disrupting the continuity and expertise on which the government depends,” he said. “I have seen in the forefront how these kinds of actions can damage the team’s dynamics and reduce the public’s trust.”
On Saturday, federal employees received an email asking them to respond with a summary of their five jobs last week and to copy their manager.
“Failure to reply will be taken as resignation,” Musk said in a post on X before emails came out.
Emails seemed to be in response to President Donald Trump, who previously told the truth that Musk should be “more aggressive”.
The email resembled a Muscian sent when he took over twitter – now re -adhered as X – in 2022. After purchasing, Musk instructed engineers to print their last software code for review as a way to evaluate their skills .
Some business executives said DOGE’s access could yield results, despite the negative response.
Neal K. Shah, CEO of Careyaya Health Technologies, told BI that the approach indicates a “commitment to rapid organizational improvement” and has “unique advantages over traditional reduction”.
Shah said the Doge method “Sliced through typical government delays caused by bureaucracy” and “directly strengthens employees to control their value documentation”.
He also said he gives leadership of real -time productivity, which can lead to long -term benefits as the best documentation of work -related tasks, efficiency and enhancing public confidence through “demonstrated effectiveness”.
However, other management experts said the email demonstrated a lack of empathy and could damage morality, eventually reducing efficiency. Federal employees told Bi that the email of Doge left them frustrated and scared of the loss of their work. One said the action was felt like “harassment”.
Lisa Rigoli, a human resource strategist and leadership coach who established elements of change, a group focused on consulting HR and drilling leadership, said the email lacked emotional intelligence and gave priority to the efficiency of focused leadership in people. “
“This is a clear example of how leaders are increasingly being detached from the emotional impact of their decisions,” Rigoli said. “Business schools and leadership programs do a great job by preparing leaders intellectually, but very little equip them for the emotional requirements of leadership.”
Tamanna Ramesh, founder of the Spark’s professional training career, said such tactics could damage the morale of the staff.
“Asking for employees to justify their work through a weekly-in-ending report-is fear-based management. It does not foster innovation or efficiency. It fuels dissatisfaction, detachment and quiet removal,” Ramesh told BI. “Responsibility matters, but when employees feel like they are in court than trusted contributors, performance suffers.”
Ramesh said the performance pursuit is common, but “the level of public control and punitive framing is rare.”
“This approach ignores psychological security, a major impetus for high -performance teams,” Ramesh said.
Rigoli told BI that the Doge email is part of a “growing trend where leaders treat holidays from cold efficiency than intentional leadership.
“We ask employees to be loyal, transparent and dedicated, but when organizations make cuts, they often predict massive impersonal communication,” Rigoli said.
“Efficiency is not about arbitrary cuts or applying pressure for his sake,” Carrillo Bi told. “Successful organizations build confidence, cooperate and create thoughtful strategies to fulfill their goals while maintaining the morale of staff.”
He suggested making “informed” and “governed” decisions.
“Before taking into account the dismissal, Doge must perform a comprehensive workforce analysis to determine the advantages and address staff gaps,” Carrillo said.