The Associated Press called it an “extraordinary request,” but it’s certainly not extraordinary. In fact, it’s incredibly ordinary for employees to report what they are working on.
And, from an HR perspective, I love it. Mostly. Here’s why:
1. Knowing what your employees do is necessary for success
How many misunderstandings have you faced in your time in business? Probably more than you can count.
You tell an employee to do A and the employee does B. It’s not (always) because your employees are bad employees or you are a bad boss. It’s because things aren’t always clear.
Additionally, your best employees often take initiative and just get stuff done. You don’t hear about it, because there is no need to loop you in. It just happens. But, your worst employees get constant contact and communication. So, when it comes time to promote or give raises, you’re keenly aware of what your needy employees do all day every day, but have no idea what your best employees do.
This type of exercise, done on a regular basis, keeps you up to date. It’s also incredibly helpful should someone get sick, have a family emergency, or quit. You have documentation of what they do on a regular basis.
To read the remaining four reasons I love it and the reason I don’t, please click here: 5 Reasons I Love Elon Musk’s Request for Five Things, and 1 Reason I Hate It
Please don’t make excuses for this bullying and terror campaign. It’s not good and it’s not designed to BE good; like the back-to-office push, removing DEI protections, and other nonsense, it’s designed to create a toxic and hostile workplace that drives people out of these jobs.
Even if it wasn’t, it’s still an idea so stupid it boarders on suicidal for any organization that engages in it. By focusing on wins for the week you are disincentivizing people from working on difficult problems or laying the foundations for major accomplishments. What you end up with is a bunch of flashy, soundbite-worthy, but insubstantial “accomplishments” that ultimately do nothing to support the organization or its objectives.
And ignoring all that, completely ignoring normal channels of communication is idiotic. The first thing I realized when I moved into management was that part of the deal was sacrificing the level of detail I used to see things at. The whole reason my job exists is so that my boss and their boss don’t need to know the details; it’s my job to translate those to my bosses in terms they care about (dollars and cents in my case). In many cases the executives we ultimately report to don’t even understand what counts as a success–try explaining mapping undulating subsurface topography in karst to a business major! And that’s fine in a healthy relationship. They don’t need to care. They care that I can make them a healthy margin.
Finally, these sorts of antics destroy trust in an organization. They all know that their jobs are not valued, that the organization is wildly unstable, and that ultimately they cannot count on…well, anything really. There are no rules other than “Whatever Musk wants”, which isn’t a situation that allows for planning. Do I start a project that will take three years? Probably not–I have no idea if I can accomplish it or not, and it may be dangerous to abandon it partway through (people WILDLY under-estimate how dangerous the energies and chemicals necessary in an industrial civilization like ours are). Again, this is going to result in a lot of showy, soundbite-worthy activities that ultimately add up to nothing and end up being extremely costly.
There is no good here. It’s intentionally designed to be terrible and destroy organizations. There is no excuse.
You are correct on all counts. I was shocked when I saw the headline. Bad bad bad.
Everything that Dinwar said. I think I understand what you were going for here, but insinuating that there is anything good about how Musk handled this is a bad look. If anything, your article should have been focused on where he went wrong and then how organizations can do it right. This title, without reading the article (which, let’s face it, people don’t do) it makes it sound like you support this.
I get why you wrote this but you aren’t seeing the whole picture, most of us keep track of every project we work on in our Time app, We also list the things we do for our appraisals,
As a DoD employee I’m all for trimming the fat of all the agencies but they are going the next step in trying to slaughter the herd!
I’m happy you listed the final part that Elon isn’t an elected official and should not have the power to fire people, but with that…. We know he will.
As an Air Force Veteran and current DoD employee how would you react to our elected officials who are saying We don’t deserve to be employed and don’t deserve our pay? These people are people we voted in and now they are turning on us. I hope in the next election I don’t have to turn on them.
Personally, I think Musk had a great idea by sending out this massive email and attempting to get all government employees to explain what they do. Musk has a history of not letting things slide when it is obvious they arent valuable to the company and in some ways I agree with that. I also agree with the one reason she hates it because he doesnt have that authority but I think he has the right idea.
Where I work we have a sister community that we are close with and I contact their HR every once in a while to kind of gauge how similar our jobs are and we both struggle to explain what we have done. Listing 5 things shouldnt be hard and I can definitely do it but without a habit of tracking what exactly was done its hard to say on the spot. Recently I have asked to meet with my executive director weekly to explain what I have gone through and taken care of to put me at a better practice. It honestly helps as well as setting goals at the beginning of the week and tracking how far you reach them by the end. Overall like I said Musk doesnt like people wasting time, money or space and he had a good idea, it works, just needed better execution.
I’m appalled that you’re siding with the administration on this one. Let me address your points, line by line.
“1. Knowing what your employees do is necessary for success” –
a. federal employees do NOT work for OPM. OPM is the agency demanding this information, and it’s heavily implied that Elon Musk is involved as well. Federal employees do not work for OPM, full stop. They also do not work for Elon Musk. It’s not that much different than if the Dept of Labor suddenly demanded a write up of what every WalMart employee does (and implied in media interviews that those who didn’t get fired.) Like, there’s just no mission connection between OPM and any agency.
b. federal employees already have a list of what to do for success. It’s in our annual review. If a particular boss doesn’t know what we do, that’s the bosses fault.
“2. It gives you a chance to record your successes”
a. This is an obtuse read on what’s the purpose of these emails. It’s heavily implied that these emails will be used in upcoming firings. How, or why, it’s unclear. And again, federal employees already HAVE an avenue for recording successes- in their annual review (which also has a 6-month checkin.)
“3. It helps leaders spots gaps”
a. I agree with your take on cc’ing the managers.
“4. It identifies people who don’t want to be there.”
a. You discuss the value of having people who don’t want to work for Trump work for Trump. As a reminder, federal employees don’t swear allegiance to one president. They swear to uphold the constitution. So while they may not want to work for the present administration, they are willing to suck it up because they believe that without them, the Constitution is at risk and the American public will suffer. Also, you know, they get money and excellent benefits for it. You don’t acknowledge that anywhere in your responses, which is, at best, tone deaf.
“5. It’s super easy and yields great results” Again, not for the feds! It’s part of a major effort to make the workplace toxic, stressful, and encourage people to leave. These emails get sent out on Friday and Saturday, did you know that? They’re designed to mess with employees’ off time. As if the week isn’t full of enough conflicting advice and chaos.
Overall, I see some of your points, and I get the sense you’re not a fan of this overall. But by making five points “for” and only one point “against,” it looks as if you’re supporting these actions. Also, your article doesn’t reflect a solid understanding of how the government works in the early points. Too many assumptions that the private world and the federal world are the same. And, most annoyingly, it doesn’t acknowledge the reality that federal employees are being targeted and being treated like dirt.