A Government at Odds with Itself
Latisha Thompson, a clinical social worker with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Philadelphia, has had it. And she’s not alone. Over the weekend, an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) landed in inboxes across federal agencies, demanding that employees submit a list of tasks they performed over the past week.
“I find it insulting and disrespectful,” she says, her voice edged with frustration. More than that, she fears it could put veterans’ privacy at risk.
“I provide direct care to veterans, dealing with sensitive health conditions every day. We are bound by integrity, and this email threatens that,” she adds.
Musk’s Heavy-Handed Approach
Enter Elon Musk—the billionaire now playing bureaucratic overlord. Tasked by former President Donald Trump with streamlining the federal government, Musk preemptively declared that failure to respond to the email would be considered a resignation. (The email itself, interestingly, made no mention of that.)
Thompson, like many federal workers, isn’t buying it.
“We have no problem being transparent with the American public about our work,” she says. “But we do not answer to individual tech billionaires.”
She plans to follow the guidance of her agency and union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), on handling the email. And she’s not alone in her defiance.
The Resistance Grows
Major federal agencies, including the Pentagon, FBI, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Energy, have already instructed their staff to ignore the directive. Their reasoning? Existing agency systems already track employee performance.
But the broader issue looms—this isn’t just about an email. It’s about a growing effort to cut the federal workforce, and if those cuts happen, the fallout could be massive.
National Parks and Public Services on the Chopping Block
Take Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park. A hiring freeze has already stretched its resources thin, and fresh job cuts are making it worse. Deb Yandala, president and CEO of the park’s conservancy group, doesn’t mince words.
“Our national parks have been underfunded for years, and now, just as visitation is increasing, we’re losing key staff. It’s a crisis,” she warns.
Arizona isn’t faring much better. Matt Nelson, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association, has watched about 10% of U.S. Forest Service jobs disappear in recent months.
“Without these workers maintaining our public lands, we all lose,” he says.
And it’s not just a local problem. CNN recently reported that thousands of U.S. Forest Service jobs are being slashed nationwide.
The Justification?
A USDA spokesperson defended the cuts, framing them as an effort to eliminate wasteful spending.
“We have a responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” the agency stated, adding that the terminated positions were probationary roles.
Nelson disagrees. “Many of these workers were experienced professionals,” he counters.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t just about one email, one billionaire, or one set of layoffs. It’s about a government workforce under siege. It’s about public services being whittled down while billionaires dictate policy from their Twitter feeds.
The question now is: How far will this go? And more importantly, will the people push back before it’s too late?
