DOGE Team Reportedly Conducting 15-Minute ‘Justification’ Interviews with Federal Employees
And draconian as these measures may sound, there is no easier, softer way.
A government worker who spoke at a town hall in Leesburg, Virginia, last Monday night revealed that members of the Department of Government Efficiency were conducting interviews with federal employees to “justify their existence.” This would allow DOGE to determine if they were necessary to the agency or if they should be fired.
This unidentified worker from an unidentified agency said he was “nervous and reticent to come up here and speak, just for retaliation purposes.” Here’s what he had to say:
I just wanted to share some things that are going on at my agency. In the last week, we had Elon Musk in our building, and after he visited the building, [he] called for a 50% cut to the entire agency.
My colleagues are getting 15-minute one-on-one check-ins with 19, 20, and 21-year-old college graduates asking to justify their existence.
Supervisors are being told not to tell their staff anything, withhold information, and today we got word that supervisors must fill out a justification form and that there’s going to be just a 30% rank and yank with all staff in my agency.
And to top it all off, one of Musk’s top lieutenants and his wife and young child have shacked up on the sixth floor of our agency and are living there.
The hallway’s been blocked off with a special access list for people who can’t get back there. Queer and trans folks of my agency are being doxed in public, their lives threatened.
NEW: Government worker says 19-year-old DOGE employees are having 15 minute interviews with federal employees to “justify their existence” before determining if they should be fired.
Lmao, good.
An unnamed federal worker spoke out at a town hall event in Virginia.
“I just… pic.twitter.com/ZcEwsxEzcn
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 8, 2025
Democrats will undoubtedly be incensed by this report, and I must admit, it would be difficult to have to justify my job’s existence to a 19-year-old. But as difficult as it may be, the federal government has ballooned to an unsustainable size and with it, the national debt. And draconian as these measures may sound, there is no easier, softer way.
Most of these people should not have been hired in the first place.
Friday’s jobs report, as noted by the Wall Street Journal revealed that in “government, social assistance and healthcare accounted for about two-thirds of last year’s job growth. Employment in most private industries was flat or declined.” Something is wrong when government sector growth is outpacing private industry.
As you might imagine, Republicans celebrated the report. The post has gone viral and the memes are practically writing themselves.
It’s happening 🤣 pic.twitter.com/wjQieFmgGB
— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) February 8, 2025
A more accurate version: pic.twitter.com/qZ9BdlKGhk
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 8, 2025
Office space 2.0 pic.twitter.com/0nDOcydytE
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) February 8, 2025
For those who may have missed it, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) presented the strongest case ever for DOGE’s efforts to cut the size of the federal government. He argued that instead of criticizing Elon, “We ought to be giving Mr. Musk a medal. We ought to be thanking him.”
Indeed.
Senator Kennedy's Defense Of Elon Musk's DOGE Left The Room Speechless.
"I wanna try to put in perspective what many of my Democratic friends have been talking about today. They're very, very, very upset at president Trump, and they're very, very, very upset at Elon Musk.… pic.twitter.com/jjk5yyaToK— Camus (@newstart_2024) February 6, 2025
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn
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Comments
I’ve had one of those Office Space interviews.
I think many of us have.
I really don’t have a problem with a 15 minute, “What-do-you-do-here?” interview. But I’m reluctant to accept his claims at face value. Where are all the others coming forward to verify his claims/allegations? This seems like something that would have caused quite a stir, yet this is the only reporting of it I’ve heard.
Has there been any verification at all of what this anonymous whiner claimed? Or have I just missed it?
His lips are moving and he is a Dem.
When I had my departing interview from my last job (I retired), the president of the company asked me many questions and I answered them both truthfully, and with as much tact as a brick through a stained glass window.
I named names, and asked, “What, exactly does [name here] DO, exactly, aside from drive people to spend five hours chasing down a 38 cent discrepancy on an expense report due to currency exchange rates?” “How does [name here] call himself an operations manager when we can’t get a decent cloud service, and are stuck – thanks to him – with AMEX cards, which are virtually useless on a local level when traveling internationally? Or how he can’t keep a server up for more than three days without it crashing?” “How does [Mr, Such’n’such] call himself a business development VP when in fact he hasn’t branched us out into other sectors that we are PERFECTLY capable of handling?”
Within about three months of my departure, the personnel roster was given a pull-through with a wet army blanket. Many “retired”, and others were offered “placement assistance”.
If you can’t explain what you do in 5 minutes, much less 15 minutes then you probably aren’t really contributing.
I have people skills damnit!
I never did have great people skills, fortunately my broad multi disciplinary engineering skills were in high demand.
Maybe six months ago I read a damning article about an increase in new hires with undeserved credentials. Among sever tales it told one of a recent graduate who had zero skills at all, and literally envisioned her job to be to act as the “group cheerleader.” “I keep the energy level up” I believe was her phrase. She would console people who were down and congratulate people who achieved stuff, meanwhile doing nothing else. And she wasn’t hired in a morale position. I went looking for it later and damned if I can find it again.
“What is wrong with you people”?
“Point to the Article I, section 8 power into which your job falls.”
Why waste time with this? Just study the organizational flow and streamline it, cutting jobs in the process.
I don’t think they’re actually doing this. Why? Because it sounds like something a government worker would come up with.
They are doing that but they also want to provide the fraud to the American people. By getting the people in that agency to resign instead of being fired they can avoid lawsuits. They can also show the fraud and then justify the firings.
Every bureaucracy and bureaucrat should have to periodically justify their existence. Not just to the wink and nod boss but to the tax payer.
Considering that whenever there is a federal government shutdown (the next one scheduled to start March 25 after the current CR runs out), government employees are divided into essential and non-essential for purposes of who needs to show up to work and who gets furloughed, it shouldn’t be surprising that people are being asked to justify the existence of their jobs.
That should be how we cull the herd.
If you don’t show up during a shut down or a snow storm, you are nonessential, thus should be nonexistent.
I might allow those who log in from home DUE TO NECESSITY OF THE MISSION if there is severe weather or a bridge is out or something. But those who produce nothing? Out.
The late Max Schulman (think “Dobie Gillis”) had a great phrase to describe the non-essential: feather merchants.
“government employees are divided into essential and non-essential for purposes of who needs to show up to work and who gets furloughed”
Never overlook the fact that people i both groups still get paid.
If not throughout their furlough, as back pay when they are re-activated.
During my entire career I was classified as an essential employee. Over the years I worked weeks during government shutdowns while the majority of government employees were off duty. What always irritated those of us who were “essential” was that we worked and we were paid for our work while those who didn’t work always received back pay. Never did the government consider not paying the non-essential employees or adding something in our paychecks or extra leave for having worked during the shutdown. In essence the “non-essential” employees received weeks of paid vacation leave. I guess the warm and fuzzy feelings due to the government considering us “essential” had to suffice.
I’d be very surprised if Elon had his team interviewing employees. That would be a complete waste of time and talent. I believe this unnamed federal employee is a progressive and therefore, a liar. He’s trying to get people angry and upset and he may not even be a federal worker on top of the other lies he’s told.
“I believe this unnamed federal employee is a progressive and therefore, a liar.”
“Queer and trans folks of my agency are being doxed in public, their lives threatened.”
My Magic Tinfoil 8-Ball says: You may depend on it.
Other than the claim by that one unknown person I can’t find any evidence the “15 Min interview” is actually happening. I think it is made up hysteria.
So, a government employee is nervous about justifying their job to people that entered college at 15? They should be nervous. I’m just surprised that Musk and his Merry Band of Misfits found anyone in the building.
Have none of these people ever had performance reviews?
What have you accomplished?
What are your goals?
Why do you think you’ve failed to achieve the goals you set in your last performance review?
What tools do you think you need to become more productive?
Some of these people are on Permanent Improvement Plans because they can’t be fired due to Civil Service or DEI protections. As long as they don’t stab each other, their reviews don’t matter.
“an unidentified worker from an unidentified agency”
This calls for an unidentified investigation by an unidentified investigator.
“My job is so secret I don’t know what I’m doing!”
Nice chuckle out that, Grizzly Bear.
I got a nice chuckle out of what you posted.
Also got a nice chuckle out of my edit button.
I pressed it and it chuckled.
Ender’s Game… or Bender’s Game?
The video is really, really clear. Just find someone who knows who this loser is, and I’m sure James O’Keefe can set him up with the Grindr guy of his dreams.
“Queer and trans folks of my agency are being doxed in public, their lives threatened.”
Really? What purpose would doing that possibility serve? You ALMOST had a chance at credibility right up until that sentence. The one before it doesn’t do much for the person’s credibility either.
Well, this certainly proves, if you had any doubt, that the mental illness that underlies LBTGX?+ also includes clinical paranoia.
Nobody except your mom cares about whether you want to dress like a girl Stanley. No one is threatening or doxing or giving a rat’s ass about you… except maybe that’s what you’re really upset about.
“No one is paying attention to meeeeee!!!!!”
If people in your agency are threatening others that sounds like somewhere to start the cutting.
Using Democrat rules (DOE/AFT), punish both the bullies and the victims.
I agree. That is such utter nonsense. I would demand that person cite an example, naming a name, or be fired for lying.
Hey!
I know if I were a billionaire, my goal in life would be to move my family from their comfortable mansion into an office suite on the sixth floor of a grimy federal building in Chocolate City.
Chicks dig that bad boy vibe.
Aargh. I misread. It’s not Musk, it’s a Muskworker.
I’d like a little evidence of anyone “doxxed” at a public agency. They are public employees so it would be hard to dox them and even if they were, who is threatening them with death? We keep hearing this crap out of the left but oddly it only seems to be the left threatening and murdering those on the right.
The gravy train is over. Enough of 10 people making over $100k doing what 1-2 people who actually work can do.
Good, I hope most of them fail. Most people that work for the federal government are unnecessary dead weight. The ones that do carry their own weight already know who they are
I know you and most of the rest of the LIers know this but it is worth stating: entire departments, bureaux, commissions, agencies, and other such things are dead weight.
Senator Kennedy commented on reforming (not his word) the USAID. I say chuck the entire thing.
I’m with you. Level the building, plow the rubble under and then salt the Earth so nothing can grow to replace it.
Chuck it and start over. A team of people, maybe a dozen or so, reviews all foreign aid which has to be reviewed by a Congressional Committee with a public vote as to whether it is a good idea. The aid must be printed in the Federal Review, online and transparently so that anyone can look it up with minimal effort.
Slash and burn.
It sounds manufactured, but as it well known, some will fall for anything, properly directed.
Spend decades calling for accountability and transparency in what the government is doing/spending, then scream bloody murder at the very first steps toward accountability. It would not surprise if it’s no less bad as elsewhere, where there is extra bias in the corruption.
“Queer and trans folks of my agency are being doxed in public, their lives threatened.”
Stuff the crybullying. Nobody is killing you except yourselves.
If Musk keeps you on, you’re going to look really stupid.
If he doesn’t, you’ve pretty much already justified him to the world.
If it true that employees are being interviewed by 19, 20, 21 year old college graduates, then these interviewers must be pretty bright and industrious people – particularly the 19 and 20 year old ones.
I suspect that the person making the claim is exaggerating a bit. But it does speak to their humiliation at having to justify their employment.
I made Chief Master Sergeant (E9) in my 30’s. It was not uncommon for me to receive orders from a 21 or 22 year old shave tail Lieutenant, or a 28 year old Captain.
I would have never considered questioning any of those orders.
So, elitism says that anyone under 30 is stupid. Yet as a young child of the 60s I was indoctrinated with “never trust anyone over 30.”
So, what is it leftists?
Are they there to justify their existence at work, or, their existence at all? My guess is the numbers for those options at 70% fail the first and 60% the second.
My wife ask me to justify my existence.
I came up blank.
I showed mine my “O” face. She never had a desire to ask me again.
I can see it now. The Bobs asking, “What is you say ya do here?”
You mean they’re doing the meme?! 😀