After laying off thousands of federal employees the US administration is now reportedly reinstating General Services Administration (GSA) staff amid extreme shortage of manpower affecting even basic functions.
Elon Musk, as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had caused quite a lot of disruption when he took charge. Over one weekend in early February he had demanded that federal employees list their weekly accomplishments or risk being considered as having resigned. Musk’s directive came as part of an external initiative to reduce government spending.
Although many agencies, including the FBI, State Department and Pentagon, had instructed employees not to comply, thousands had been laid off following this ‘productivity assessment’ exercise. As part of its attempt to trim the federal government workforce, DOGE had terminated some employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration or NNSA too. Later, however, it was made to realise that it wasn’t the best of moves because these indispensable employees were part of the workforce responsible for designing, building and maintaining the nuclear weapons of the US. A senior official of NNSA actually issued a public call to action when the layoff notices came, raising concerns about the thoughtless terminations. When the administration then realised the mistake and decided to bring them back, they struggled to get in touch with the employees. Because post firing them thoughtlessly the Department of Energy e-mail accounts of the fired staff members were rendered useless.
Now, the US administration has given hundreds of GSA employees (in charge of managing government work spaces), who were earlier asked to leave, to make up their minds about accepting the reinstatement offer or refusing the same. Those who decide to return must do so on 6 October. .
Not long ago the IRS had also offered employees, who had been forced to resign by DOGE, an opportunity to stay on. The Labour Department as well as the National Park Service have already reinstated some staff members who had accepted the buyout offer.
