Today’s American Managers Have Evolved Way Past the Musk-DOGE “Management by Tyranny” Style

by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.

Most CEOs and human resource directors are probably watching the DOGE firing’s “shock and awe” spectacle with “shock and horror.” There may be a few frustrated managers who view this nostalgically and look fondly upon a possible return to the labor practices of the early 20^th century, but I bet even they see the incomprehensibility and inhumanity behind the approach and foresee the most likely unproductive, lingering chaos to continue beyond this action.

Apolitically and regardless of what one thinks of Musk as a person, his management practices and actions toward government are antithetical to making improvements and creating efficiencies, though under the guise of doing so. It seems more like an antiquated attempt to demonstrate one’s power and the fragility of the worker. His disdain for the worker is well documented and reflected by his private sector business practices and response to criticism.

But the federal government isn’t a business, should never be thought of as a business and if it was, we all would suffer for it. It doesn’t seek a profit nor is constantly seeking higher returns on shareholder equity. It takes in taxes and provides common services and, in most cases, does so very efficiently and effectively. Can it be run even more efficiently and effectively? Sure, but we would have to demand lobbyists carving out loopholes be barred from accessing members of Congress (who created the agencies by statute and rules that guide them) and insist on campaign finance reform to push out the destructive influence of money on our lawmakers and agency enforcers, which keeps workers from doing their job to the best of their ability.

If they thought about it, citizens do not want to “privatize” common services. They can’t afford what they have already experienced (e.g. the healthcare system, the slow-motion privatization of the US Post Office, Medicare Advantage). The powerful influence of Wall Street to privatize parts of government so they have more speculative instruments to sell creates more multi-millionaires and billionaires, but the public welfare is clearly left behind or fighting over the crumbs left behind. The role of federal government in a democracy is to be the arbiter of rules and fairness for all citizens in all states. It ensures businesses operate within guardrails to ensure they can be profitable but not at the disproportional expense to the consumer. We are all real-time witnesses to what happens when those guardrails are opened too much and oversight diminished.

The federal government’s role is under attack by those who have and would profit from its impotence, and no one could say with the number of the multi-millionaires and billionaires now in this country that the private sector has suffered anywhere near what citizens have through Wall Street gyrations and disruptions. The Savings and Loan Crash of 1987,  the 1980, 81-82, Early 1990s, Early 2000s and the other 40 Recessions, the DOT.com Crash of 2000, the Economic Collapse of 2008 and so on. Allowing billionaires to “fix” what they repeatedly break, hurting the many and forcing them to constantly rebuild any wealth they once had, seems dangerously deceptive.

To embrace an unelected, uninvited and unaccountable billionaire whose businesses are dependent on government contracts, and who has conflicts of interest galore, to ransack the government agencies, ignoring laws created by Congress and singling out, chastising and demonizing those who are only tasked with carrying out what others in government created appears to be more blatantly political theater than therapeutic. Firing by bulk email, with no notice and in violation of Office of Personnel Management rules and union contracts, and giving employees a deadline to email him 5 things they accomplished the week before when they probably weren’t allowed into their office or to access to their computer or work, is (there is no other word for it) asinine. Making a public spectacle bragging about it makes one question his motives, good sense, humanity and wisdom. Judging by the number of lawsuits, with new ones being field nearly every day, seem to record the countless breaches in employment law, contract law, separation of powers and we haven’t even seen the suits over mishandling of classified, private citizen, federal agency data. By the way, did anyone think about the risk to national security of federal workers – many working with classified and sensitive information – being abruptly terminated and thrown into financial uncertainty from Chinese and Russian spies looking for new recruits?

It doesn’t take much of a CEO to gut an organization with non-targeted large cuts in staff and/or in budget. It doesn’t work well in the private sector (except to make the balance sheet look artificially healthier for investors in the short-term).The only reason one would try this is that they know they won’t be around to have to manage what is left. Maybe it is not to create efficiencies after all, but to leave the department dysfunctional and inefficient, so the demonization can continue until an unaware public demands privatization rather than holding elected officials accountable. Judging by the way for-profit companies have made living difficult for the citizen workers, having the government their raise prices and limit basic services and support, could be a death knell of the consumer so vital to a capitalist system and a stable and thriving society and democracy.

Musk claims to be rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” – a noble cause. But the evidence he has offered so far has been miniscule and mostly incorrect on his part. His actions seem to be more of a brutal showman weeding out programs he doesn’t like and calling it “waste,” (not touching the true fraud and abuse that could effect his businesses and those of his friends) than a brilliant public sector manager. These are citizens. These are lives, they have families, they live in communities and support the businesses in these communities that support the entire country.

DOGE, Musk and his band of twenty-something college drop-outs and hackers – including 19-year-old Edward Coristine nicknamed “Big Balls” with his checkered past and who is the grandson of a former KGB agent assigned to Washington D.C. – all unvetted and having no legitimate security clearance, are scooping up the decades of data from all of the agencies which includes extremely and extensive personal information on each citizen and businesses including Musk’s business rivals. He claims he is being transparent, but no one but him knows what data is kept, where it is stored, what he will use it for and how is the data secured. He has set back government cybersecurity efforts – still trying to catch up after years of neglect. All will feel the destructive effects of misguided, authoritarian private sector management applied to public sector government. Shamefully, all this to give Congress the apparent justification to offset cuts to the taxes for those who do not need it.

And by the way, Musk did promise Americans that the initiative would maintain “maximum transparency” and ensure “all actions are fully public.” However, DOGE’s inconsistent accounting is giving us reason to query the reliability of its financial reporting.” DOGE seems to have misplaced reported savings. As of 2-20-25, “According to its website, DOGE claims to have saved $55 billion in federal spending, but only $16.6 billion of that amount is accounted for, leaving $38.4 billion in question. Even original DOGE staff are resisting the Musk DOGE tactics by resigning. According to the Associated Press, 21 federal employees, who were absorbed into the new Musk DOGE agency, said in their joint resignation letter, “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations, However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

Musk used this same tactic when he acquired the social media company Twitter in 2022, now known as “X.” He first tried to trim 80% of the workforce through a series of abrupt firings and voluntary resignation packages. The results are a mixed bagged. Shares of “X” dropped dramatically and many of those terminated were called back. Litigation, on many levels, for how the terminations were handled and claims that severance packages were “light” are still making their way through the courts.

As was the case with Twitter, many of those terminated with the current efforts with DOGE – employees with previous excellent performance reviews – were quickly called back when they were discovered to be “mission critical.” What was wrong with doing a little research before taking such a drastic step? Think of the trauma to the workers let go, the workers let go and brought back and all the remaining workers and their families that are watching this and wondering where they stand. Try motivating them to be more efficient now.

And it must be said that the loss of 2-300,000 federal blue and white collar jobs with their cumulative value in expertise, proprietary and classified knowledge, with the 2-3 non-federal workers per each federal impacted, the small, medium and large businesses affected, the state and local economies impacted by the drop in consumption and tax-paying power and the damage to the moral and capacity the remaining employees are left with, and the predictable loss in the scope and quality of government services to American citizens, this approach to “cost-cutting and efficiency” is clearly neither.

Elon Musk has brought in some incredible advances in technology with the help of the many engineers, scientists and production workers that surround him. He didn’t do it on his own, but his access to capital allowed him to chase his visions and a dedicated team made it happen. My guess is he would not have made those advances if he treated his staff with such utter disregard as federal employees.

What businesses and citizens need right now is clarity, certainty and a vision for the future that includes us all. It would be helpful to move past this time when others are causing us to fight among ourselves, when economic pressures pit small businesses against big businesses, farmers against consumers.  A time that has created an economy that makes no sense to anyone but we are told by bank economists, the few wealthy beneficiaries and the media to cherish it.

We all need to watch these developments closely and without a political lens. What are these cuts meant to really do? Who will ultimately benefit and who will be the losers? Where is the accountability? Is this a smart answer to a perceived problem or cover for a bigger, more destructive agenda?

In this ideologically and politically polluted environment, we have to each do our homework. Move from relying on one or two media sources that echo the same ideological view to challenge ourselves to seek out alternative sources with other points of view. Rely on facts we can verify, not strong, well-paid opinions even when they seem to be incomprehensible but handy to tune into to. Then use the mind we have been given to decide what is right and form our own opinion.

If is far easier and less costly to quickly demand an end to the implementation of an awful solution than the costly rebuilding after it is verified as such.

As for Mr. Musk, DOGE and their approach to “waste, fraud and abuse,” there doesn’t seem to be anything managers could learn from it that is good.