The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers

In August, months after Elon Musk left the federal government, the director of the Office of Personnel Management offered the first hard estimate of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s 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.

WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers across dozens of agencies to gather the most comprehensive picture yet of how the American government got to this point, and where it may go from here. Many sources requested anonymity because they fear retaliation. They told WIRED not just what has been going on inside the federal government at a time of unprecedented change—but what it’s been like to experience those changes firsthand.

The following is the story, in their words, of what happened when the world’s most powerful man unleashed the world’s richest one on the world’s most complex institution.

“I kept comparing it to a natural disaster,” one worker at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told WIRED. “But it wasn’t natural. Just a stampede of wide-eyed, confused government employees moving files around and looking over their shoulders because they think maybe Elon was creeping behind them with a chain saw.”

Donald Trump established DOGE within hours of taking office on January 20, assigning it the task of “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Within days, Musk’s allies and their coterie of young, inexperienced technologists were appearing in the offices of relatively unknown agencies like the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management—obtaining unprecedented access to government systems and personnel files in the process. The DOGE operatives included young men like Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, Kyle Schutt, and Ethan Shaotran, all of whom would go on to work at a number of government agencies, from the Department of Education to the Social Security Administration.

“I met Kyle and Ethan on January 23, and I very briefly bumped into Coristine before anyone was talking about him. I would describe them all as giddy, excited, curious, passionate, and super interested in learning about and jumping in on this new thing. I was super excited too at first.

“Then the next week it felt like everything shifted and suddenly they were no longer curious or asking questions or on an adventure, and instead they were just frantically running around trying to do impossible shit with no context and no flexibility and no ability to push back.

“I thought maybe it would turn around. But it never did.” —GSA worker

“The first meeting with DOGE—really the only meeting with DOGE, if I'm going to be honest—was … a virtual meeting that was 30 minutes long. In typical DOGE fashion, the government organization that we were promised unbelievable transparency on, they don't turn the cameras on, they don't tell you who they are, they don't tell you if anybody else is in the room, so you have no idea who you're talking to.” —Colin O’Brien, former head of security at the United States Institute of Peace

“We saw them immediately. They acted like new hires but a bit furtive since they were actually instructed not to share their full names with us at first.” —Technology Transformation Services (TTS) worker

“My big aha moment came late, because for so long I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. These guys were young and they had a job to do, and yes, they were doing it aggressively—but again, I assumed the best. But then Ethan Shaotran went on Fox News, on Jesse Watters. He just trash-talked us pretty bad, conflating things they’d found at other agencies, basically implying we were misappropriating grant money. It made my blood boil. Ethan had to know that wasn’t true. That was it for me—there is no good faith at all.” —Federal worker

“The vibe they gave was ‘So, what is it that you do here?’ and ‘Why can’t AI do that?’” —TTS worker

During the early weeks of the administration, emails from DOGE started showing up in federal workers’ inboxes—or at least in their spam folders.

“I logged on to find several emails tagged ‘External’ because DOGE just brought in their own servers and plugged them into the network. Then there were several subsequent emails from different leaders saying things like, ‘Thank you for all the phishing reports, but the emails are real and need to be followed. But also please keep reporting things that look like phishing. Except from DOGE … but probably even then. And this is totally fine and normal.’” —Contractor for the Veterans Administration

Among the emails was the now infamous “Fork in the Road,” encouraging workers to be loyal or quit. It closely tracked the language of an email sent to Twitter employees not long after Musk’s takeover of the company. A subsequent follow-up was even more insulting.

“It was truly so idiotic and looked like it was written by a disturbed child.” —CDC employee

“We’re used to every little thing done by regulation, and now we’re just getting crazy emails … This is a 5-alarm fire. This is a constitutional crisis.” —Department of Labor employee

“That response shocked me. We knew that this administration had little regard for professionals who choose to work for the federal government, but to state it so publicly, dripping with contempt, was truly unbelievable to me.” —General Services Administration employee

Federal employees who remained were forced back to the office. Many found their workplaces increasingly hostile.

“A woman I did not know in the cubicle next to me broke down. She was literally wailing, inconsolable, because she could not get into a childcare facility she could afford on such short notice. She literally had to choose between her little child and working. Her explaining to her manager the way her child cried and begged Mommy to stay home broke me. Then, as if on cue, an email from a person whose account said they were the acting IRS commissioner arrived in our inboxes, reminding us that it was “Mental Health Awareness” month and that we can do such helpful things as “practicing gratitude” and breathing techniques to deal with stress. It also reminded us we can take time off to seek professional help … I never saw her again, and her cube is now empty.” —IRS employee

“Because we are part of Homeland Security, there’s always an armed guard at FEMA facilities. That’s a very standard thing. But the guys we’re used to seeing are like the contracted out, office patrol guys—they’re mall cops, to be polite about it. They sit at the desk and make sure you have ID, and that’s the extent of their policing. We have a pretty good relationship with our local guy at the front desk of our building. He’s a nice guy, he’ll walk around our office sometimes, we share our snacks with him.

“One day he comes in to walk the office, like he does occasionally, and a few minutes after he passes by, another officer walks through. This time, it’s somebody we’ve never seen before, and he’s like, kitted out. He’s dressed in all black from head to toe, he’s got body armor on. He’s wearing a tactical helmet. He’s got a big gun on him, like a rifle, not like a handgun in a side pouch. He did not have a visible name tag, which is not standard at all—everybody in a federal facility is required to identify themselves at all times, and he had no individual identifying markings. The only writing on his uniform was the big yellow text on his back that said HOMELAND SECURITY.

“He was walking through the office as slowly as he could. He would pause behind you and watch what you were doing for five to 20 seconds and then move on. His entire demeanor, it was very obvious he wanted us to see him and he wanted to see us watching him. These are fucking office workers working on laptops. We’re doing spreadsheets and PowerPoints. Like, chill out, dude.

“My coworker went over [to the guard] and was like ‘Hey, welcome, can I help you with something, are we in danger? What’s the problem? The officer announces—not just to my coworker, but to as many people as can hear him—‘No, I don’t want your help, I’m just here to patrol you and to desensitize you to my presence.’ Then he just keeps on walking. That’s the only thing he’s said to us. He’s been through a couple times now and never gives anyone the time of day—never smiles, never says good morning, just walks through, dresses us all down for a few minutes, and leaves.” —FEMA employee

The offices were also quite literally gross—because DOGE had put a $1 spending limit on most government credit cards and didn’t make exceptions for basic necessities.

“The women’s restroom was out of toilet paper within a week or so of us coming back to the office. I brought this up to Facilities, like, ‘Hey, this is kind of a sanitation and dignity issue, can you hook us up with more toilet paper?’ They were like, ‘We’d love to, but we can’t purchase anything until they unfreeze the cards, and we don’t even know what the process is, because they have them sort of indefinitely frozen.’

“For five months we were instructed to bring in our own toilet paper. I literally kept two rolls at my desk. I wish I were joking.” —FEMA employee

Musk and Trump were eagerly filling government agencies with their allies. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Trump installed Scott Turner, a former NFL cornerback.

“[Turner] has two primary sources of anecdotes I keep hearing: his time in the NFL—specifically that he was drafted in the last round—and his father’s time working as a shelf stocker at Safeway and how he is doing the same thing at HUD by ‘taking inventory and restocking the shelves.’ For a motivational speaker and pastor he is neither motivational nor inspirational.” —HUD employee

Immigration was a major pillar of the second Trump administration. While the government made crystal clear it did not want foreigners in the country, it carved out an exception for a minority group of white South Africans in an executive order in February—a topic near and dear to Musk’s heart, as a white immigrant from South Africa.

“This administration has made a complete mockery of the humanitarian side of immigration. I have interviewed parents who saw their children beheaded in front of them, I have interviewed children who saw their parents killed in front of them, I have interviewed women who have been sexually assaulted, I have interviewed children who have been sexually assaulted, I have interviewed teenagers who were beaten and threatened by their own family because they were part of the LGBTQI+ community. What has happened to these people in South Africa that warrants refugee status in the US? Nothing.” —Department of Homeland Security employee

Musk said he wanted to downsize the federal workforce. What was the right size, exactly? As lean as possible. Entire agencies were gutted as tens of thousands of federal employees were subjected to reductions in force, known as RIFs. Some of these actions have been challenged in court, but the Supreme Court recently ruled that the Trump administration could continue its proposals to potentially lay off federal workers en masse.

“The moment everything crystallized for me was the day they came for a respected career deputy. Someone who embodied integrity and competence. His ‘crime’? Having the guts to challenge DOGE’s reckless RIF plans. One afternoon, he returned from lunch to find security waiting at his desk. No explanation, no warning—just a quiet escort out of the building while stunned colleagues looked on. Years of dedicated service reduced to a public humiliation.” —Department of Labor employee

“I knew what the powers that be were doing wasn't legal. So either they were incompetent and didn't know it was illegal or they knew it was illegal and didn’t care. Which one is scarier?” —CDC employee

“What stands out to me is how disorganized and unprofessional the GSA Reduction in Force (RIF) was. Staff were instructed to return government IDs ASAP. We lost Google Drive access immediately, and the agency put resources about our RIF on there. We were blocked from sending emails to non-GSA addresses. Even trying to email career documents to your private email address became a huge issue.” —GSA employee

“When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was first gutted, one person left their blazer in the office and was unable to get back into the building to get it. It was the only blazer they owned: They were broke, applying for jobs, and had nothing to wear to interviews because of this.” —CFPB employee

On February 14, tens of thousands of federal workers lost their jobs, in an event that would become known to those impacted as the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Other workers were told they were going to receive firing letters imminently—only to wait days with no news.

“My fiancée and I had just come back from dinner. We’re getting ready to go to bed. I decide I’m just going to disconnect from social media and my email. I’m just going to turn it off … I saw I had an unread message. I was fired at 11:00, 11:30 pm. [My fiancée] looks at me, and she sees my demeanor change. [She says,] ‘That was the email, wasn't it?’” —Fired Federal Aviation Administration aeronautical information specialist

“It was Valentine’s Day and my partner planned a romantic dinner for us that I ate in a catatonic state, in my sweatpants, covered in tears.” —CDC employee

On February 22, in another echo of his Twitter takeover, Musk warned that the entire federal workforce needed to write an email explaining what they’d gotten done the previous week.

“It was so humiliating to have to prove, ostensibly to Elon Musk—someone not in my chain of command or even a government employee—what I was doing. Not only is it none of their business what I was up to (they are not my supervisor) but they wouldn’t even understand anything I put in there anyway since it’s far too technical. I put read receipts on my first submission, and after I hadn’t gotten pinged that it had been read after two subsequent submissions, I just stopped sending them. It made me so mad that not only are they passive-aggressively insinuating I’m doing nothing, but they’re wasting tons of federal workers’ time (and taxpayer money) doing this exercise and they aren’t even opening the emails. Infuriating.” —Department of Defense employee

“[Employees were responding with] emails in different languages … responding with the Constitution, and (for someone coming right back from maternity leave) responding with things such as: ‘breastfed a newborn for X number of hours, changed Y number of diapers with Z throughput, managed stakeholder input from my in-laws on best ways to burp a child.’” —VA IT worker

“I actually laughed pretty hard [at Musk’s email]. It’s just so ridiculous … It’s either [that or] be mad 24/7 (which some of my compatriots have decided to do), and I just don’t have the energy anymore.” —FAA air traffic controller

On March 14, 2025, Colin O’Brien, then the head of security for the United States Institute of Peace, learned that the agency’s board had purportedly been fired. DOGE associates, including one named Nate Cavanaugh, arrived at USIP headquarters in Washington, DC.

“The on-duty security lieutenant called me and said, ‘Hey, DOGE is here.’ The instructions we had given were that any visit by DOGE that was unscheduled, they were not to be permitted entry. If they had a scheduled appointment, absolutely, we’d have let them in. They stayed outside for a little bit less than 30 minutes and then left.”

Later, O’Brien got another call from the front security desk.

“They're like, ‘Hey, the FBI is here with DOGE.’ So we step outside. It was two FBI agents to our right and then four DOGE people to the left, sort of standing in a semicircle. They're dressed like college kids, sneakers and jeans that are too tight—certainly not business attire.

“Our attorney asked the FBI: Why are you guys here? Do you have a court order, a warrant, anything? And they said no, and they said, ‘We're here to facilitate a cordial conversation.’ They looked embarrassed to be there, being just very honest.

“The conversation lasts maybe five minutes, then the DOGE people leave with the FBI agents. I didn’t realize at the time that one of the women in the DOGE SUV had run around to the side of the building and was trying to convince one of the guards to let her in through a side door, claiming at first that it was cold and she had to go to the bathroom. Then that changed, when she was told no, to: ‘I have every right to be in a government building.’ So on one hand you have the intimidation factor of federal agents plus DOGE at your front door. And then you have this juvenile covert attempt in the back door. If she’d gotten in the door she would’ve probably called 911 and claimed false imprisonment or something.”

DOGE ultimately got into the building (estimated value: $500 million; DOGE attempted to gift GSA the space but was blocked by a federal judge) and fired nearly every employee. On March 28, as staff were receiving termination notices—and finding out their health care would be cut the same day—one of O’Brien’s colleagues spied a salad in the office refrigerator with the name “Nate C” on it and promptly threw it in the trash.

Elsewhere, DOGE was entering more agencies for the first time. Departments that rarely faced political strain, such as those that support arts and culture programs, were put under a microscope. Others, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were put on ice.

“No one has ever been against museums and libraries before. It seems like a really nonpolitical issue, and here we are facing a hostile takeover in real time … We were put on leave on March 31. By April 3, we were already starting to hear about grants being terminated. They were done through email, very generically, not through the official recordkeeping system, saying that they no longer met the priorities of the agencies. We initially heard about it from grantees. They were posting things publicly. On LinkedIn. On social media.” —Institute of Museum and Library Services employee

“People’s livelihoods were gone, wiped out and thoroughly decimated. So many of these grantees work their entire lives to see a project, book, or exhibit come to fruition. These dreams came to a crashing and fiery end in the single hit of a button by someone who likely would never understand the true devastating impact.” —National Endowment for the Humanities employee

“I like to think of it as I am being slightly defiant. I’ll say ‘Although I was hired to do [certain duties] under the law, I have not been permitted to do work, so my accomplishments are limited to submitting a timesheet.’” —CFPB employee

After an initial flurry of lawsuits related to DOGE access to sensitive networks, the president decided to unilaterally declare on March 20 that they could go, essentially, wherever they wanted.

“Learning about that was like getting punched in the stomach. It goes against everything our agency stands for, our mission. I have personally encouraged immigrant parents to file for benefits for their American children because those children needed it, and have promised all of them that they were safe, and that we didn’t share their information, and they trusted me. And now this administration has made a liar out of me.” —Social Security Administration employee

At some agencies, that access extended to taking control of official social media accounts.

“I had to turn over access to our website and social media accounts. Ethan Shaotran asked me to turn over the login info to the website, to Facebook, Instagram, and X. I gave the passwords and usernames for those accounts. He came back later and asked for the address to log in to the WordPress account. I tried to just give the exact information they asked for because I wanted to passively resist. That’s why DOGE didn’t get access to our LinkedIn—they didn’t ask for it. The public considers these guys to be tech geniuses, but I’d say WordPress is pretty intuitive. It took them two days to take the website down.” —Federal worker

In March, the Social Security Administration readied a plan ostensibly to combat identity theft. Under the plan, beneficiaries would not be able to verify their identity on the phone as they had in the past. Instead they’d have to use an online portal or show up in person. (About a week later, the SSA relented and began allowing the phone again.)

“Some elderly beneficiaries were crying on the phone, terrified that they would lose their benefits if they couldn’t figure out how to travel to an office and show us their ID. One woman was in her nineties. Another elderly couple showed up at an SSA office to prove they were alive, but it was never clear that this was necessary—no policy guidance had been issued.

“We were told to be patient and wait until guidance could be provided. At one point, we were told that we would receive instructions a week AFTER the policy implementation day.

“In the end, the administration discovered that there wasn’t a problem with fraud in our teleclaims, something that frontline staff could’ve told them from the beginning. Less than 1 percent of claims were even flagged for further investigation. If our leaders would take the time to learn how to read the records, they might know this too.” —SSA employee

The concern for security apparently did not extend to DOGE affiliates themselves.

“In April, I happened to come across a partial list of employees and contractors who had not completed some of their mandatory security training. I wasn't surprised to see that DOGE-affiliated names made up more than a quarter of the list. It included [TTS director] Thomas Shedd, [Federal Acquisition Service head] Josh Gruenbaum, Ed Coristine, Luke Farritor, and Steven Davis. —Current GSA IT contractor

At AmeriCorps, DOGE called home thousands of young volunteers working on infrastructure projects or disaster relief around the country. It was chaos—a kind of chaos repeated across many agencies as spring wore on.

“DOGE arrived at our agency in early April. About a week later, on Tuesday, they shut down the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). They wanted to bring all the members home. Members were in the literal field though, like they were in forests and on trails.

“The next day, 85 percent of us were placed on administrative leave. They had people booking flights for members to get home, and their computers were cut off while they were booking. It was chaos. People were just disappearing. On April 24, people started receiving RIF notices, except a bunch of them were addressed to the wrong person.” —Current AmeriCorp employee

By June, Musk appeared to officially leave DOGE. With him went some key lieutenants: Steve Davis, Musk’s righthand man during the Twitter takeover and DOGE’s de facto leader; Nicole Hollander, Davis’ partner, who played a key role at the GSA; and Katie Miller, communications lead for DOGE and the wife of White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller. Musk’s send-off had included a friendly press conference with Trump, but that fragile peace was shattered a few days later, when Musk went to war with Trump on X. It seemed like Musk’s ouster from government—and breakup with the president—was complete.

“For all the talk that Trump likes teams of rivals, he doesn’t respect people who are nasty, interpersonally … I thought the cabinet secretary fights would be the end. The president was not going to tolerate him going after his cabinet secretaries, publicly or privately … The president just didn’t want that. He’s not going to tolerate that negativity. He likes all these people. These are his people. Marco’s a decade-old friend, at least, and a former competitor [with whom] he has a special comradery who he almost picked as his vice president. Peter Navarro went to jail for the guy. Took a federal charge, was found guilty, and ate it. Scott Bessent is his treasury secretary. Stuff like that was not gonna fly for very long.” —Senior Trump official

The era of Musk’s DOGE, the flashy, so-called agency that garnered Fox News specials and had orchestrated the biggest upheaval the modern US government has ever faced, appeared to be over. But the next phase was just beginning, with DOGE’s operatives and its ethos occupying every corner of government. And the toll on federal employees still hasn't stopped.

“We are in purgatory—not having enough resources to do our jobs, and not knowing what the vision is for the agency moving forward. Leadership by utter neglect.” —GSA employee

“I am a clinical psychologist with plenty of lifetime trauma myself, but I had never actually attended therapy or seen a psychiatrist until after the inauguration. I was so upset when I first spoke to the telehealth psychiatrist that I couldn't even speak and almost had to hang up. They said that I was not the first federal employee that they'd talked to.

“This was the trauma that they wanted, that they planned, that they promised us. And, for once, they did a great job of delivering.” —CDC employee

“I’m terrified for our country and what all this means for the future. I need medication to help regulate me, because [Trump is] not going away anytime soon. And since I'm in HR, I can't get away from it. I live and breathe this during all my awake hours. If I'm not at work fielding questions from terrified employees or working with another team to terminate tons of people, family and friends are calling to see if I have any inside scoop or to check on the status of my own job.’” —Federal HR employee

“I’m the type of person where, like, if you push me I’ll push back. I don’t like to live in a mindset of despair and negativity. When these people do this shit, it just lights my fire. It makes me more fucking mad. This used to be the best job I’ve ever had, the best environment I’ve ever had, the best culture I’ve ever had—and they fucking ruined it. I will never ever forget how much they ruined it. I’m like, fuck these people. They can’t get me scared. I will not give them what they want. I will not just leave. I’m going to make it as difficult as possible for these fuckheads.” —FEMA employee

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