With Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) merging with the US Digital Service (USDS) to become the US DOGE Service, dozens of employees of US Digital Service have received termination letters.
US Digital Service is a government information technology (IT) workforce which is now under the control of Musk’s DOGE.
This restructuring and rebranding exercise is being seen as an attempt by Musk to bring in his own people.
The laid-off employees received letters clearly stating that their “services were no longer required” because of the changes made to USDS’ structure and mission.
There is a lot of uncertainty with Musk trying to impose his efficiency approach on the workings of the IT team of the government. The existing employees are feeling insecure about their future and the way forward for the IT department itself.
Since 14 February, at least a dozen employees have received termination letters.
The impacted employees have been informed that the terminations are in line with the US President Donald Trump’s executive orders issued last month.
In January 2025, the administration under Trump had offered full-time federal employees salary till September if they opted to resign immediately.
Then, last week, that is the second week of February, federal agencies were directed to hire just a single employee to replace four terminated employees. This was the most recent order from the US president who, in consultation with Elon Musk is attempting to trim the US government workforce.
The workforce of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), once integral to America’s worldwide humanitarian efforts, has already been drastically trimmed from 10,000 to merely 300.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), responsible for managing the US federal workforce, is also facing job cuts in the range of 30 to 70 per cent.
