DOGE staff admits government was actually well run and not that inefficient

[Anonymous]

After years of right wing smears and attacks on federal government "the bloated bureaucracy" and "the administrative state" and demonization and slander of federal employees "lazy unelected bureaucrats collecting cushy paychecks" and all that - the Silicon Valley DOGE folks are getting a reality check.

“Upon arriving at the massive department that currently employs nearly 500,000 people, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."

"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."

Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley. "I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."

https://futurism.com/doge-operative-surprise

The majority of federal employees are there because they care about the mission and care about their country. A much larger percentage of federal employees are military veterans than you will find in the private sector. Is there the occasional instance of a federal employee who is lazy, abusing the system, wasteful? Yes. But they are rare and they are usually dealt with and gotten rid of, and meanwhile there are also plenty of lazy, wasteful employees also in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the private sector. But what is far rarer in the private sector is that genuine care about the agency mission. I'm glad this DOGE staffer admitted reality. This administration and the Republicans as a whole need to embrace a lot more honesty and integrity like that, rather than fabricating one divisive strawman after another, rather than attacking valuable and important institutions and agencies.

[Anonymous]

This guy’s professional career background is … Pinterest and a small e-commerce platform. It’s almost as if his paltry experience in a narrow area had nothing to do with a 500,000 employee large health and social services system like the VA! At least he is the teeny tiniest bit self-aware enough to sort of discern that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Liar.

? Are you talking about Mump?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Liar.

Liars, all of them. Trump, Vought, Musk, Bannon and all the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This guy’s professional career background is … Pinterest and a small e-commerce platform. It’s almost as if his paltry experience in a narrow area had nothing to do with a 500,000 employee large health and social services system like the VA! At least he is the teeny tiniest bit self-aware enough to sort of discern that.

Right?

What the people that cheer this on don't realize is the fact that fired government workers are going to come to take their jobs. They are overqualified, overeducated, understaffed, and overworked. Once they get a taste of that sweet private sector life there might not be any going back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This guy’s professional career background is … Pinterest and a small e-commerce platform. It’s almost as if his paltry experience in a narrow area had nothing to do with a 500,000 employee large health and social services system like the VA! At least he is the teeny tiniest bit self-aware enough to sort of discern that.

DOGE was touted as being recruited from top silicon valley tech firms, but now you say "meh"

That said, Pinterest does $2.6 billion in annual revenue in the tech sector and has a user base of 482 million. How about your company? Name your tech firm and how much better they are than Pinterest.

[Anonymous]

Now will he admit that the reason he had a false idea of government is that he was lied to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After years of right wing smears and attacks on federal government "the bloated bureaucracy" and "the administrative state" and demonization and slander of federal employees "lazy unelected bureaucrats collecting cushy paychecks" and all that - the Silicon Valley DOGE folks are getting a reality check.

“Upon arriving at the massive department that currently employs nearly 500,000 people, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."

"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."

Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley. "I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."

https://futurism.com/doge-operative-surprise

The majority of federal employees are there because they care about the mission and care about their country. A much larger percentage of federal employees are military veterans than you will find in the private sector. Is there the occasional instance of a federal employee who is lazy, abusing the system, wasteful? Yes. But they are rare and they are usually dealt with and gotten rid of, and meanwhile there are also plenty of lazy, wasteful employees also in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the private sector. But what is far rarer in the private sector is that genuine care about the agency mission. I'm glad this DOGE staffer admitted reality. This administration and the Republicans as a whole need to embrace a lot more honesty and integrity like that, rather than fabricating one divisive strawman after another, rather than attacking valuable and important institutions and agencies.

You are kind of playing into the stereotype. The quoted language you highlighted from the DOGE staffer does not match your thread title.

As an aside, I actually think it is a major problem that civilian government bureaucrats love their job and are mission driven. Civil servants should be dispassionate professionals. That’s why they are supposed to be insulated from the political process. They should exert their authority without passion or prejudice. Much harder to do when your self-actualization and/or moral meaning are tied up together with the job.

I think a really good reform to the civilian government workforce would be to put in time limits for service. Something like a maximum of twenty years of service or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After years of right wing smears and attacks on federal government "the bloated bureaucracy" and "the administrative state" and demonization and slander of federal employees "lazy unelected bureaucrats collecting cushy paychecks" and all that - the Silicon Valley DOGE folks are getting a reality check.

“Upon arriving at the massive department that currently employs nearly 500,000 people, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."

"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."

Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley. "I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."

https://futurism.com/doge-operative-surprise

The majority of federal employees are there because they care about the mission and care about their country. A much larger percentage of federal employees are military veterans than you will find in the private sector. Is there the occasional instance of a federal employee who is lazy, abusing the system, wasteful? Yes. But they are rare and they are usually dealt with and gotten rid of, and meanwhile there are also plenty of lazy, wasteful employees also in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the private sector. But what is far rarer in the private sector is that genuine care about the agency mission. I'm glad this DOGE staffer admitted reality. This administration and the Republicans as a whole need to embrace a lot more honesty and integrity like that, rather than fabricating one divisive strawman after another, rather than attacking valuable and important institutions and agencies.

You are kind of playing into the stereotype. The quoted language you highlighted from the DOGE staffer does not match your thread title.

As an aside, I actually think it is a major problem that civilian government bureaucrats love their job and are mission driven. Civil servants should be dispassionate professionals. That’s why they are supposed to be insulated from the political process. They should exert their authority without passion or prejudice. Much harder to do when your self-actualization and/or moral meaning are tied up together with the job.

I think a really good reform to the civilian government workforce would be to put in time limits for service. Something like a maximum of twenty years of service or something like that.

Obviously, if you put in a time limit, you’d have to increase salaries as the trade off for job security. Plus you would lose your top performers with the most knowledge and skills.

[Anonymous]

DOGE existed for only two reasons:

1) For Elon to seek revenge on every agency that ever told him no or tried to regulate him

and

2) For Elon to get as many contracts and as much government money as he could

It saved nothing and will cost a lot. Every republican is responsible because none of them had the courage to stand up to Trump. Losers. Traitors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After years of right wing smears and attacks on federal government "the bloated bureaucracy" and "the administrative state" and demonization and slander of federal employees "lazy unelected bureaucrats collecting cushy paychecks" and all that - the Silicon Valley DOGE folks are getting a reality check.

“Upon arriving at the massive department that currently employs nearly 500,000 people, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."

"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."

Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley. "I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."

https://futurism.com/doge-operative-surprise

The majority of federal employees are there because they care about the mission and care about their country. A much larger percentage of federal employees are military veterans than you will find in the private sector. Is there the occasional instance of a federal employee who is lazy, abusing the system, wasteful? Yes. But they are rare and they are usually dealt with and gotten rid of, and meanwhile there are also plenty of lazy, wasteful employees also in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the private sector. But what is far rarer in the private sector is that genuine care about the agency mission. I'm glad this DOGE staffer admitted reality. This administration and the Republicans as a whole need to embrace a lot more honesty and integrity like that, rather than fabricating one divisive strawman after another, rather than attacking valuable and important institutions and agencies.

You are kind of playing into the stereotype. The quoted language you highlighted from the DOGE staffer does not match your thread title.

As an aside, I actually think it is a major problem that civilian government bureaucrats love their job and are mission driven. Civil servants should be dispassionate professionals. That’s why they are supposed to be insulated from the political process. They should exert their authority without passion or prejudice. Much harder to do when your self-actualization and/or moral meaning are tied up together with the job.

I think a really good reform to the civilian government workforce would be to put in time limits for service. Something like a maximum of twenty years of service or something like that.

You’re saying it’s a problem if someone loves their job and wants to do it well? It’s a big leap to assume that means they’re seeking self actualisation or moral meaning through their job. Really??? I know people who love their jobs but they’re not going to lay their lives down for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After years of right wing smears and attacks on federal government "the bloated bureaucracy" and "the administrative state" and demonization and slander of federal employees "lazy unelected bureaucrats collecting cushy paychecks" and all that - the Silicon Valley DOGE folks are getting a reality check.

“Upon arriving at the massive department that currently employs nearly 500,000 people, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."

"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."

Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley. "I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."

https://futurism.com/doge-operative-surprise

The majority of federal employees are there because they care about the mission and care about their country. A much larger percentage of federal employees are military veterans than you will find in the private sector. Is there the occasional instance of a federal employee who is lazy, abusing the system, wasteful? Yes. But they are rare and they are usually dealt with and gotten rid of, and meanwhile there are also plenty of lazy, wasteful employees also in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the private sector. But what is far rarer in the private sector is that genuine care about the agency mission. I'm glad this DOGE staffer admitted reality. This administration and the Republicans as a whole need to embrace a lot more honesty and integrity like that, rather than fabricating one divisive strawman after another, rather than attacking valuable and important institutions and agencies.

You are kind of playing into the stereotype. The quoted language you highlighted from the DOGE staffer does not match your thread title.

As an aside, I actually think it is a major problem that civilian government bureaucrats love their job and are mission driven. Civil servants should be dispassionate professionals. That’s why they are supposed to be insulated from the political process. They should exert their authority without passion or prejudice. Much harder to do when your self-actualization and/or moral meaning are tied up together with the job.

I think a really good reform to the civilian government workforce would be to put in time limits for service. Something like a maximum of twenty years of service or something like that.

You’re saying it’s a problem if someone loves their job and wants to do it well? It’s a big leap to assume that means they’re seeking self actualisation or moral meaning through their job. Really??? I know people who love their jobs but they’re not going to lay their lives down for them.

This jackass (the PP you are quoting, not you) is accusing them of partisanship. He/she is too blinded by RWNJ propaganda to admit to him/herself that doing the job well in government means NOT being partisan but rather MISSION driven. Government workers are used to changes in administration and shifts that come with that while you still do the job you are given to serve the American people.

But RWNJ jerks are only motivated by irrational partisan hatred, so they cannot conceive of being a decent, hardworking, mission-driven person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After years of right wing smears and attacks on federal government "the bloated bureaucracy" and "the administrative state" and demonization and slander of federal employees "lazy unelected bureaucrats collecting cushy paychecks" and all that - the Silicon Valley DOGE folks are getting a reality check.

“Upon arriving at the massive department that currently employs nearly 500,000 people, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."

"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."

Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley. "I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."

https://futurism.com/doge-operative-surprise

The majority of federal employees are there because they care about the mission and care about their country. A much larger percentage of federal employees are military veterans than you will find in the private sector. Is there the occasional instance of a federal employee who is lazy, abusing the system, wasteful? Yes. But they are rare and they are usually dealt with and gotten rid of, and meanwhile there are also plenty of lazy, wasteful employees also in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the private sector. But what is far rarer in the private sector is that genuine care about the agency mission. I'm glad this DOGE staffer admitted reality. This administration and the Republicans as a whole need to embrace a lot more honesty and integrity like that, rather than fabricating one divisive strawman after another, rather than attacking valuable and important institutions and agencies.

You are kind of playing into the stereotype. The quoted language you highlighted from the DOGE staffer does not match your thread title.

As an aside, I actually think it is a major problem that civilian government bureaucrats love their job and are mission driven. Civil servants should be dispassionate professionals. That’s why they are supposed to be insulated from the political process. They should exert their authority without passion or prejudice. Much harder to do when your self-actualization and/or moral meaning are tied up together with the job.

I think a really good reform to the civilian government workforce would be to put in time limits for service. Something like a maximum of twenty years of service or something like that.

You’re saying it’s a problem if someone loves their job and wants to do it well? It’s a big leap to assume that means they’re seeking self actualisation or moral meaning through their job. Really??? I know people who love their jobs but they’re not going to lay their lives down for them.

This jackass (the PP you are quoting, not you) is accusing them of partisanship. He/she is too blinded by RWNJ propaganda to admit to him/herself that doing the job well in government means NOT being partisan but rather MISSION driven. Government workers are used to changes in administration and shifts that come with that while you still do the job you are given to serve the American people.

But RWNJ jerks are only motivated by irrational partisan hatred, so they cannot conceive of being a decent, hardworking, mission-driven person.

Agree, the agencies, and the missions they serve, are ultimately bipartisan because they originated with laws passed with a majority in Congress. When someone comes in and starts trying to cut and slash without bipartisan agreement, THAT is the partisan work. RWNJs as usual have an upside-down view of everything.

[Anonymous]

He personally met half a million people? And they're all happy and productive?

Who takes this seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He personally met half a million people? And they're all happy and productive?

Who takes this seriously?

But you have and can say with assurance that they all suck?