09/29/2025

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers

Recently, hundreds of the employees DOGE fired have reportedly been offered reinstatement

In August, months after Elon Musk left the federal government, the director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) offered the first hard estimate of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) impact on the civil service. The government would likely end 2025 with about 300,000 fewer employees than it had at the start of the year, he told reporters. Most resignations were attributable to the incentives DOGE had offered the federal workforce to resign their positions. The total figure amounted to one in eight workers.

Well, almost. In recent weeks, hundreds of the employees DOGE pushed out have reportedly been offered reinstatement.

The true scope of DOGE's attack on the federal government remains unknown. While there is no reason to think it achieved meaningful cost savings or operational efficiencies, the ramifications of building a master database to track and surveil immigrants are just beginning to be felt, and its cadre of Musk protégés and tech entrepreneurs remain embedded in agencies throughout the executive branch. The possibilities this opens up—of private takeovers of government operations, of the government embracing Silicon Valley's ethos of moving fast and breaking things—remain open.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.