On Saturday, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to millions of employees telling them to reply with “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week” and to copy their managers. “Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is this Monday at 11:59 pm EST,” the email said.
Good grief – this is a weekly task in the private sector.
Those of you that don’t support these cuts must enjoy having your hard-earned dollars wasted.
Ponderous…
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2025 3:07 pm
by Mikey
Sven Golly wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2025 2:56 pm
– this is a weekly task in the private sector.
OK, I guess I need to clarify. This is a weekly job in the private sector for private sector jobs that matter.
No, it’s not.
I can see maybe in your experience it would be, but for companies that don’t normally hire miscreants and habitual fuck ups, no
So whether you had to do this or not, what exactly offends you that government employees, who are paid on our dime, are asked to do this simple task?
Or is this just feigned indignation?
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2025 9:56 pm
by Sudden Sam
Sven Golly wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2025 9:21 pm
So whether you had to do this or not, what exactly offends you that government employees, who are paid on our dime, are asked to do this simple task?
Sven Golly wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2025 9:21 pm
So whether you had to do this or not, what exactly offends you that government employees, who are paid on our dime, are asked to do this simple task?
Or is this just feigned indignation?
It’s one thing only…
It’s due to it being a Musk/Trump implementation.
And who the fuck is Musk to demand that all federal employees prove their worth to HIM?! It's preposterous to think that Muskrat has enough knowledge to pass judgement as to whether even a fraction of federal employees are doing their job when he can't keep his own brand of vehicles from becoming mobile barbeques....
He's basically an army grunt and does what he's told.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 3:44 am
by The Seer
mvscal wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 3:00 am
Are you playing stupid or actually stupid?
Another rhetorical question.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:03 am
by Mikey
mvscal wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 3:00 am
Are you playing stupid or actually stupid?
Right now I’m interacting with stupid. So try to enlighten me. What doesn’t happen weekly? And how often does this weekly task, that doesn’t happen weekly, actually happen…”normally?”
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:55 am
by Innocent Bystander
Diego in Seattle wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2025 10:08 pm
And who the fuck is Musk to demand that all federal employees prove their worth to HIM?!
Whether or not one believes he has the skills or breadth of knowledge for the project, the fact remains that this is the only question which needs to be asked and answered.
There was a better way to handle this. This was not that better way, especially with the lack of buy-in from those who do traditionally have the authority to make such demands of their subordinates.
Diego in Seattle wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2025 10:08 pm
And who the fuck is Musk to demand that all federal employees prove their worth to HIM?!
Whether or not one believes he has the skills or breadth of knowledge for the project, the fact remains that this is the only question which needs to be asked and answered.
There was a better way to handle this. This was not that better way, especially with the lack of buy-in from those who do traditionally have the authority to make such demands of their subordinates.
You don’t think that they have performance reviews in government agencies? How is Musk in any way qualified to conduct any kind of review on any employee who he doesn’t know, has never interacted with and has no idea of what their job entails?
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:01 am
by L45B
Mikey wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:02 am
You don’t think that they have performance reviews in government agencies?
They definitely do. I know for a fact that the Postal Service is extremely regimented in quarterly performance appraisals and endure quite the rigorous goal-setting process at the beginning of the fiscal year. Postal employees have frequent interactions with their supervisors and core team to assess areas for efficiency improvement and customer satisfaction. They simply can’t do their job from home but they are also held to extremely high standards, both by upper management and their investors.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 7:37 am
by Innocent Bystander
Mikey wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:02 am
You don’t think that they have performance reviews in government agencies? How is Musk in any way qualified to conduct any kind of review on any employee who he doesn’t know, has never interacted with and has no idea of what their job entails?
Yes, they have performance reviews. But what is being reviewed? Everyone 'fired' so far has been folks it's easy to fire because of the lack of protection the status of 'probationary' gives employees.
"qualified to conduct any kind of review on any employee who he doesn’t know, has never interacted with and has no idea of what their job entails?"
There's so much packed into this fragment, I'm laughing and crying at the same time. It happens all of the time, public, private, academic, doesn't matter. It's all the same.
So how do you put your best foot forward to someone who needs to make a quick decision about you? who doesn't care about what your job entails, only about how your job can make their job easier/more efficient/look better?
I believe it's that you figure out what they think they want, and show them how you can help them achieve it.
There were going to be people who could write essays about what they accomplished, but it would fall on deaf ears because their accomplishments don't translate into easily plotted milestones to whatever goal DOGE has as its true mission.
Besides Elon going over the heads of everyone's departments and current processes, that's the second big failure in this: the lack of an overarching public goal for DOGE besides slashing budgets.
Elon should have spent less time fucking his subordinates, and more time getting to know the many moving parts of the government that have nothing to do with getting in the way of shooting death traps towards the firmament.
Again, I'm disappointed in the execution and lack of forethought put into The Letter and its consequences.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:27 pm
by Mikey
Let’s talk about efficiency and government spending. The average hourly rate in the federal Civil Service is $40.00. There are 2.3 million employees not including active military and Postal Service. Assume each of them spends an hour each week putting together their bullet points.
$40 x 2.3 million x 52 weeks = almost $5 billion per year. So we could save $20 billion over the next four years by firing Elon Musk.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 2:48 pm
by HighPlainsGrifter
My guys turn in a jobs sheet at the end of every week. They are required to account for every minute of their day. This is fairly standard up here. I rarely need to teach a new hire how to fill out a jobs sheet unless it's some empty head from The San Francisco Bay Area.
If it takes a government employee an hour to figure out what they did that week, they need to be fired. DOGE's request takes five minutes, at most.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 3:22 pm
by Diego in Seattle
HighPlainsGrifter wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 2:48 pm
My guys turn in a jobs sheet at the end of every week. They are required to account for every minute of their day. This is fairly standard up here. I rarely need to teach a new hire how to fill out a jobs sheet unless it's some empty head from The San Francisco Bay Area.
If it takes a government employee an hour to figure out what they did that week, they need to be fired. DOGE's request takes five minutes, at most.
I'm sure that any job that any simpleton can perform only takes 5 minutes to tell what they did. Those jobs that require degrees & are quite scientific/technical would take an hour.
Even more if it has to be dumbed down for the guy with the phallic-looking rockets.
HighPlainsGrifter wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 2:48 pm
My guys turn in a jobs sheet at the end of every week. They are required to account for every minute of their day. This is fairly standard up here. I rarely need to teach a new hire how to fill out a jobs sheet unless it's some empty head from The San Francisco Bay Area.
If it takes a government employee an hour to figure out what they did that week, they need to be fired. DOGE's request takes five minutes, at most.
I'm sure that any job that any simpleton can perform only takes 5 minutes to tell what they did. Those jobs that require degrees & are quite scientific/technical would take an hour.
Even more if it has to be dumbed down for the guy with the phallic-looking rockets.
lol, no. Unless you're employing nonverbal autists like Screwy. I can see that retard struggling to type out five sentences using a dowel held between his fucked up teeth.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 3:55 pm
by Mikey
HighPlainsGrifter wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 2:48 pm
My guys turn in a jobs sheet at the end of every week. They are required to account for every minute of their day. This is fairly standard up here. I rarely need to teach a new hire how to fill out a jobs sheet unless it's some empty head from The San Francisco Bay Area.
If it takes a government employee an hour to figure out what they did that week, they need to be fired. DOGE's request takes five minutes, at most.
A lot of jobs require a time sheet. Especially hourly workers or those where a client or customer is being billed by the hour. It’s not likely that many civil service employees are keeping timesheets but, if they were, it would be easy enough for management to provide them. But accounting for hours on individual tasks or contracts is not the same as “bullet points of what you accomplished.” If that’s going be required, then put it in the job description. Don’t demand it out of the blue, after the fact, as a condition of keeping your job next week. I’m sure it sounds perfectly reasonable to HPG, but he’s not particularly known for his knowledge anything outside of bumfuck FOC, or his critical thinking skills. And Elon is obviously intent on throwing his weight around and generally being an asshole in public. Because he can.
HighPlainsGrifter wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 2:48 pm
My guys turn in a jobs sheet at the end of every week. They are required to account for every minute of their day. This is fairly standard up here. I rarely need to teach a new hire how to fill out a jobs sheet unless it's some empty head from The San Francisco Bay Area.
If it takes a government employee an hour to figure out what they did that week, they need to be fired. DOGE's request takes five minutes, at most.
A lot of jobs require a time sheet. Especially hourly workers or those where a client or customer is being billed by the hour. It’s not likely that many civil service employees are keeping timesheets but, if they were, it would be easy enough for management to provide them. But accounting for hours on individual tasks or contracts is not the same as “bullet points of what you accomplished.” If that’s going be required, then put it in the job description. Don’t demand it out of the blue, after the fact, as a condition of keeping your job next week. I’m sure it sounds perfectly reasonable to HPG, but he’s not particularly known for his knowledge anything outside of bumfuck FOC, or his critical thinking skills. And Elon is obviously intent on throwing his weight around and generally being an asshole in public. Because he can.
Mmkay. Just to recap, it seems you're backpedaling on this statement, yes?
Sven Golly wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2025 2:56 pm
– this is a weekly task in the private sector.
No, it’s not.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 3:59 pm
by Mikey
If you actually read my post it would be obvious that I’m not.
Thanks for the QED on my critical thinking statement.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:35 pm
by Sudden Sam
Any moron should be able to type 5-6 bullet points indicating projects or whatever you’re working on in 5-10 minutes.
Unless, as HPG said, the employee is from the San Fran area.
But even those guys should be able to knock out a report in the time it takes them to freshen their lipstick.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:40 pm
by Smackie Chan
Mikey wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 3:55 pmIt’s not likely that many civil service employees are keeping timesheets
I would venture to say they all do, even salaried employees, which I was. Had to account for all my time. Had to submit weekly “highlights,” which was basically a report of subjectively important accomplishments. As a division head, also had to attend daily standup meetings to report out what my people had done and were planning to do, which I found to be a colossal waste of time, as I did most meetings, of which there were too many.
Not defending Musk, though. Imo, his undertaking should involve only directorate chiefs or similar high-level managers to submit their recommendations for who the expendables are rather than requesting input from every individual employee. That’s kinda the purpose of managers.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:35 pm
by HighPlainsGrifter
Smackie Chan wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:40 pm
Imo, his undertaking should involve only directorate chiefs or similar high-level managers to submit their recommendations for who the expendables are rather than requesting input from every individual employee. That’s kinda the purpose of managers.
I can rally behind this.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:01 pm
by Mikey
I stand corrected. Though this is not something I had to do when I was a mechanical engineer at the EPA for six years in the 90s. I wasn’t management but GS12/13.
Later on in the “real world” as a manager, I and my team had to account for our time in 15 minutes increments when we were working under a contract with Southern California Edison. But that was timekeeping and not a weekly summary of our accomplishments to justify keeping our jobs. That would obvious to anyone paying attention.
Smackie Chan wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:40 pm
Imo, his undertaking should involve only directorate chiefs or similar high-level managers to submit their recommendations for who the expendables are rather than requesting input from every individual employee. That’s kinda the purpose of managers.
Smackie Chan wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:40 pm
Imo, his undertaking should involve only directorate chiefs or similar high-level managers to submit their recommendations for who the expendables are rather than requesting input from every individual employee. That’s kinda the purpose of managers.
I can rally behind this.
To add on to what Mikey said, here's an idea of what my email would be:
-reviewed 100 purchase orders
-reviewed 60 project plans
-created 23 reports on issues
-reviewed 50 government documents
-attended every morning meeting
Now that could be a very busy week or a very lazy week. Without knowing the details you (or more importantly Muskrat) wouldn't have a clue as to whether I was working hard or not. As Mikey wrote, that's what managers are for. Muskrat needs to fuck off.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:34 pm
by FiatLux
Sudden Sam wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 4:35 pm
Any moron should be able to type 5-6 bullet points indicating projects or whatever you’re working on in 5-10 minutes.
Unless, as HPG said, the employee is from the San Fran area.
But even those guys should be able to knock out a report in the time it takes them to freshen their lipstick.
I don't need a weekly report on what my employees are doing. If things aren't going well, I'll know about it. I find I get better results when I'm not micro-managing the people working for me. Of course, I hire people I trust and if the do well they can become managers and take some of the day to day bullshit off of me. I won't have to fly out to Colorado, Kansas City, Texas, etc., to babysit and fix shit.
There are times I may need to go out and take care of some shipments from suppliers that may be running late due to lead times which are normally 3 to 4 months out, but can run 5 to 6 months and need to be re-directed to a different city. For example, I get my aluminum from a Scandinavian company which has plants in the US and things can get funky when the sales reps don't have their shit together.
Mikey wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:02 am
You don’t think that they have performance reviews in government agencies?
They definitely do. I know for a fact that the Postal Service is extremely regimented in quarterly performance appraisals and endure quite the rigorous goal-setting process at the beginning of the fiscal year. Postal employees have frequent interactions with their supervisors and core team to assess areas for efficiency improvement and customer satisfaction. They simply can’t do their job from home but they are also held to extremely high standards, both by upper management and their investors.
He's right.
Signed,
Cliff Claven & Newman
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:47 pm
by Sven Golly
Do any of you that seem to have such an issue with this task venture to think that maybe...just maybe...this could at least serve to dispel any pre-conceived notions that Americans have that government employees sit around and twiddle their thumbs all day?
Mikey wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 5:02 am
You don’t think that they have performance reviews in government agencies?
They definitely do. I know for a fact that the Postal Service is extremely regimented in quarterly performance appraisals and endure quite the rigorous goal-setting process at the beginning of the fiscal year. Postal employees have frequent interactions with their supervisors and core team to assess areas for efficiency improvement and customer satisfaction. They simply can’t do their job from home but they are also held to extremely high standards, both by upper management and their investors.
He's right.
Signed,
Cliff Claven & Newman
Deep pull. Well played.
Re: the horrah...
Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 7:40 pm
by The Seer
FiatLux wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 6:34 pm
I don't need a weekly report on what my employees are doing. If things aren't going well, I'll know about it. I find I get better results when I'm not micro-managing the people working for me. Of course, I hire people I trust and if the do well they can become managers and take some of the day to day bullshit off of me. I won't have to fly out to Colorado, Kansas City, Texas, etc., to babysit and fix shit.
There are times I may need to go out and take care of some shipments from suppliers that may be running late due to lead times which are normally 3 to 4 months out, but can run 5 to 6 months and need to be re-directed to a different city. For example, I get my aluminum from a Scandinavian company which has plants in the US and things can get funky when the sales reps don't have their shit together.
