The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): A Government in Crisis

In August 2025, over six months after Elon Musk exited federal oversight, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director delivered the first concrete assessment of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)’s impact on the civil service. By year-end, the federal workforce was projected to shrink by approximately 300,000 employees—one in eight workers—from its 2025 baseline. Most attrition stemmed from voluntary resignations prompted by DOGE’s incentives, though hundreds of displaced employees later received reinstatement offers. Yet the true scope of DOGE’s disruption remains opaque: while its claimed “efficiency” yielded no measurable cost savings, its far-reaching surveillance of immigrants and cadre of Musk-aligned technologists embedded in executive agencies left enduring institutional scars.

To explore this unprecedented upheaval, WIRED interviewed over 200 federal workers across dozens of agencies. Sources spoke anonymously due to retaliation fears, offering intimate accounts of the chaos triggered when “the world’s most powerful man unleashed the world’s richest one” on the federal government (per a CDC employee’s description).

DOGE’s Inception and Early Infiltration

DOGE was established within hours of Donald Trump’s January 20, 2025, inauguration, tasked with “modernizing federal technology to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Musk’s allies—including young technologists Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, Kyle Schutt, and Ethan Shaotran—rapidly gained access to agencies like the General Services Administration (GSA) and OPM, securing unprecedented entry to government systems and personnel files.

A GSA employee recalled their initial interaction: “I met Kyle and Ethan on January 23, and I very briefly bumped into Coristine. They seemed giddy, excited, curious… Then the next week, they were frantically running around, doing impossible things with no context, no flexibility, no pushback.”

Colin O’Brien, former head of security at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), described a January 2025 virtual meeting with DOGE operatives: “They never turned on cameras, told us who they were, or confirmed attendance—no transparency at all.”

Hostile Office Culture and Surveillance

DOGE’s tactics escalated into systemic harassment. A “Fork in the Road” email, echoing Musk’s Twitter playbook, pressured workers to “be loyal or quit” (mirroring a now-infamous directive to Twitter staff). A follow-up email, labeled “fucking idiotic” by a CDC employee, read like “a disturbed child’s writing.”

Workplace Hostility:

• Forced In-Person Work: Many agencies mandated in-person attendance, triggering childcare crises. An IRS employee recounted a colleague “wailing, inconsolable” over childcare barriers, while an acting IRS commissioner’s email reminded staff to “practice gratitude” and “breathe” during “Mental Health Awareness Month”—prompting the woman’s immediate departure.

• Security Overreach: FEMA workers described a “tactical helmet-wearing, rifle-bearing guard” in all-black gear, patrolling offices to “desensitize” staff: “He’d pause behind you for 5–20 seconds, watching. No name tag, no context—just ‘patrol you.’”

• Sanitation Neglect: FEMA employees endured five months of $1 credit card limits, leaving the women’s restroom “out of toilet paper for weeks.” Staff were instructed to “bring your own TP to the office.”

Workforce Decimation and Legal Challenges

DOGE’s core mandate—to downsize the federal workforce—culminated in mass layoffs (RIFs). The Supreme Court ruled in March 2025 that the Trump administration could proceed with RIF plans, despite legal challenges.

• Valentine’s Day Massacre: On February 14, 2025, tens of thousands of workers received pink slips. An FAA aeronautical specialist recalled: “I was fired at 11:30 PM, just before dinner with my fiancée. She saw my face change.” A CDC employee added: “I ate my Valentine’s dinner in tears, in sweatpants.”

• Hostile Retaliation: A respected Labor deputy was escorted out for “challenging DOGE’s reckless RIF plans.” A GSA employee described: “No warnings, just a quiet escort out of the building while stunned colleagues watched. Years of service reduced to a public humiliation.”

• Legal Gaps: A CFPB employee, fired and barred from retrieving a single blazer, later applied for jobs in “no blazer, no interview.”

Agency Takeovers and Institutional Collapse

DOGE’s incursion extended to nonpartisan agencies:

• USIP and GSA: DOGE operatives, alongside FBI agents, forced entry to USIP headquarters in March 2025, firing staff and seizing access. A GSA employee noted: “They even tried to gift the building to us, but a federal judge blocked it.”

• Museums and Libraries: The Institute of Museum and Library Services terminated grants via unrecorded emails, devastating “lifetime dreams” for artists and educators. A National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) employee lamented: “These grantees worked their whole lives—now it’s gone in a button press.”

• AmeriCorps and CFPB: AmeriCorps members were “shipped home” without notice, with RIF notices misaddressed. CFPB staff, barred from work, submitted “timesheet-only accomplishments.”

Musk’s Exit and Lingering Trauma

By June 2025, Musk’s exit from DOGE—amid his public feud with Trump on X (formerly Twitter)—left agencies in “purgatory.” Yet the damage persisted:

• GSA employees: “No resources, no vision—leadership by neglect.”

• Clinical psychologists: “I never sought therapy until DOGE. Trauma from the job, from lies—they wanted this, and they delivered.”

• FEMA staff: “I’m pushing back, not letting them win. They destroyed my culture, so I’ll make it hard for them to finish.”

As DOGE’s formal role dissolved, its ethos endured, reshaping governance in ways still unfolding. The 2025 civil service crisis, as one GSA employee put it, “is not over. The damage is eternal.”

WIRED invites readers to share their experiences at [email protected].