DOGE probably understands, and uses, the same playbook as McKinsey: never recommend eliminating the CEO’s golfing buddies. Always take cost cuts out of the Proles. Example, VW has several redundant divisions, each supporting it’s own bureaucracy of “JCs”. VW needs to cut costs. So, did they eliminate the redundant divisions, with their redundant “JCs”? Nope. They laid off 35,000 Proles. Straight out of the McKinsey playbook. I expect the same from DOGE.
Steve
Oh, no doubt about that at all. But hold their feet to the fire.
The DOGE fanboy needs to explain how the President is a profligate waster of taxpayer dollars, but DOGE doesn’t go after that very low hanging fruit. Show some leadership to the American people, some shared sacrifice. Until then, DOGE is a fraud.
I’m open to change my mind, as soon as I see some leadership from the top. DOGE sending the proles austerity, lets see some austerity suffering at the Top. Until then, DOGE is a fraud.
Now they are saying it is “Illegal” and President Musk can not offer a buyout. Looks like Don the Con is up to it again. Anyone taking it could be stiffed.
I heard what the pump seal company did, to deal with the duff economy in 83: salaried people got a 5% pay cut. Hourly took a 10% pay cut. How’s that for “shared sacrifice”, and “leadership”? iirc, the CEO was asked why the discrepancy. He said something along the lines of “we need to keep our salaried people”. I bet none of the hourly people spent their Thursday afternoons playing golf with the honchos, instead of working.
Steve
I worked for a large Telecom, during their periods of austerity, low and middle management got taken to the proverbial woodshed. CEO had a colossal blunder, in which the Company had to swallow a $4 Billion ( yes that’s a B ) poison pill when a deal with Duetsche Telecom fell thru. The CEO had his Annual bonus cut by $2 Million, but still made over $18 Million that year, in salary and stock options. Imagine that, you screw up so bad in your wheeling and dealing, that you cost your company $4 Billion, but not only do you not get fired, but you still get 75% of the bonus you were slated to receive. Now that is suffering some real hardship, lol #sarcasm.
So DOGE and Musk want Americans to tolerate " a few years of hardship". Ok, I’m game, no doubt that there is waste occurring. But it has to start at the very Top.
Until the hardship suffering starts at the Top, until there is some shared sacrifice, then it’s all blathering, it’s all Do As I Say, Not As I Do. I’m not down with that, at all.
The corrupt coming out of the wood work in protest of DOGE upvoting will be crushed !
My wife was offered 8 months’ severance when her firm was getting of California. They realized their mistake within a few days of her and colleagues end date and offered them all another 3 months ‘bonus’ to help the transition for a few weeks. It worked out great for us, she was about to quit anyway.
Which is one of the real problems with designing a program like DOGE did here. They’re letting the employees choose whether they leave or not, rather than the government picking which employees they want to get rid of. But every year, about 5-7% of federal employees leave anyway - which is pretty much the take rate they expect to have with this new program.
So they’ll end up paying many billions of dollars to employees that were going to leave anyway, with not much more reduction in the work force than would have happened through ordinary attrition.
Paying extra to delete what would have been deleted anyway for free? Not exactly a path to greater efficiency…
Agreed. It’s possible this is a preemptive measure just in case they can’t reclassify as many employees through Schedule F. Get them to leave, in case you can’t fire them later.
Oh, I think it’s definitely an effort to get employees to leave without having to try to fire them - because unlike at-will employees in the private sector, there are protections against firing federal workers.
You’ll absolutely see a non-trivial number of workers take the deal - because there’s always a non-trivial number of workers that are going to leave in the next eight months anyway. DOGE (and Dividend20) will claim that’s an accomplishment, but it’s just paying money they didn’t have to in order to get something that would have happened for free.
So the real question is whether you’ll have a lot of uptake among workers that wouldn’t have left anyway and that won’t have to be replaced. It’s always important to remember that more than 70% of all federal civilian workers are employed by the defense agencies - Veteran’s Affairs, civilian workers in the Army and Navy, etc. Musk may think of the typical federal employee as a useless bureaucrat writing regulations, but the more typical one is a health care provider in a VA hospital or a civilian worker on an Army base or a prison guard in a federal penitentiary. The Administration doesn’t actually want to reduce headcount in those roles.
Dividends, how is that savings figure calculated?
Isn’t that the way of all buyout offers? I was planning to leave and they paid me 2 years and my medical also. Then when they start forcing people out they can’t tell who voted for President Musk or not. Many of the faithful are going out the door.
I have mentioned before, when Lucent cut the retiree medical benefit. Former CEO, or Chairman, I forget which, went around to cities with concentrations of Lucent retirees, warning them not to contest the cut, because then the company would declare bankruptcy, and they would get nothing. The cut was supposed to save the company $20M. Meanwhile, the Board of this “bankrupt” company, gave CEO Pat Russo a $20M bonus.
When the department I worked in at OD was closed, I was given severance: one week of pay for every year with the company, and paid for some of the weeks of vacation I had not been allowed to use.
When Workplace Integrators went toes up, the owner sold all the customer accounts to another Steelcase dealer. I didn’t get a nickle of severance or paid for the weeks of vacation time I had not been allowed to use. The honcho kept every nickle for himself.
Steve
I can’t wait till they start firing Transportation workers. You want to see people’s commutes and travel come to a crawl? That is one thing that some people will definitely claim to be malicious obedience when in reality it is because they are over whelmed. Then the morale will fail and then the malicious obedience or as some would call it, civil disobedience will start.
Ooooh, I have an idea!
Blind faith (or skewed data and misrepresentation).
Pete
Fake data. Whoever believes this “clock” is easily fooled.
Every day more cuts coming.
Shorten top management by at least 20%. Problem DOGE’d.
Delete. Delete. Delete.
