4 ms·

Elon Musk's first order of business in Trump administration: Kill remote work

14 points by noncoml 2y ago

gsibble 2y ago
For sure this is just another form of laying off workers, but as bloated as the federal government is, I'm fine with it. You do realize that for at least the past year, the only reason the employment reports have had a positive figure is because the government is hiring more people than the private sector is laying off? That's unsustainable.
- ChumpGPT 2y ago
  I'm not sure it's that bloated. The US is doing much better than most countries regarding headcount at the federal level. The Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, USPS, make up about 2/3 of the total. I think it was just another campaign tactic, theater for the masses and the reality is very different. It's programs that cost the American people the most so if Elon and Vivek want to save money, they will need to look at programs like SS, Veterans benefits, Medicare, Education, etc.
  - jfengel 2y ago
    The plan is to cut the entire Department of Education. That would cut 4,400 employees -- most of whom are tasked with administering funds like Pell Grants. Those funds are mostly matters of law, so I'm not sure if the goal is to just not actually follow that law, or what. If you did indeed stop following that law, you could save a goodly chunk of money -- over $200 billion. But the actual employees are only a tiny fraction of that cost, so firing the entire staff would save far, far less (perhaps half a billion.)
- frumper 2y ago
  The numbers don't appear to support that. Federal government employees haven't fluctuated very much over the past 40 years. https://www.statista.com/statistics/204535/number-of-governmental-employees-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/204535/number-of-governm...
  - coldtea 2y ago
    Given that productivity has risen 10x isn't having the same number of people as 1980 already a sign of big bloat (or increased busy-work)? Plus, how much of stuff it used to do internally 40 years ago are now done through subcontractors and delegated to private companies? Meaning even that number is now doing less than 1980?
    - fzeroracer 2y ago
      Have you considered that the US population has grown from 220m to 330m? Meaning proportionally, the government uses fewer resources to cover a larger amount of people?
reramuyc 2y ago
[dead]
nikolay 2y ago
It depends on the job, but for software engineering, remote work is the most efficient one. Of course, there always will be slackers in all modes of work, but I've seen more slackers in the office than among remote co-workers. Elon Musk is a strange bird that many idolize and consider him super smart, but he is not. Of course, being the most terrible speaker and dancer is the least of his issues! It's funny how he suddenly became a Republicans supporter when he started Tesla with policies pushed by the Democrats and who claims to be a conservative and someone vocally against migrants but meanwhile works on replacing Americans with clumsy and super expensive robots. I'm also not sure how conservatives like his Neuralink company, and Starlink, which is beeming us constantly without any place to hide.
JSDevOps 2y ago
Ok then, no more starlink contracts signed. It enables remote work.
noncoml 2y ago
The masks have dropped. Return to office was never about productivity and was always about forcing people to quit.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  It's always about controlling workers.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
quantified 2y ago
Note how much attention is on what Musk is saying about stuff. He's the laser dot dancing on the floor, the cats writing and reading the journalism can't help fixating on it. There is so much else to be actually interested in about the transition.

14 points by noncoml 2y ago

For sure this is just another form of laying off workers, but as bloated as the federal government is, I'm fine with it. You do realize that for at least the past year, the only reason the employment reports have had a positive figure is because the government is hiring more people than the private sector is laying off? That's unsustainable.

ChumpGPT 2y ago
I'm not sure it's that bloated. The US is doing much better than most countries regarding headcount at the federal level. The Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, USPS, make up about 2/3 of the total. I think it was just another campaign tactic, theater for the masses and the reality is very different. It's programs that cost the American people the most so if Elon and Vivek want to save money, they will need to look at programs like SS, Veterans benefits, Medicare, Education, etc.
- jfengel 2y ago
  The plan is to cut the entire Department of Education. That would cut 4,400 employees -- most of whom are tasked with administering funds like Pell Grants. Those funds are mostly matters of law, so I'm not sure if the goal is to just not actually follow that law, or what. If you did indeed stop following that law, you could save a goodly chunk of money -- over $200 billion. But the actual employees are only a tiny fraction of that cost, so firing the entire staff would save far, far less (perhaps half a billion.)
frumper 2y ago
The numbers don't appear to support that. Federal government employees haven't fluctuated very much over the past 40 years. https://www.statista.com/statistics/204535/number-of-governmental-employees-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/204535/number-of-governm...
- coldtea 2y ago
  Given that productivity has risen 10x isn't having the same number of people as 1980 already a sign of big bloat (or increased busy-work)? Plus, how much of stuff it used to do internally 40 years ago are now done through subcontractors and delegated to private companies? Meaning even that number is now doing less than 1980?
  - fzeroracer 2y ago
    Have you considered that the US population has grown from 220m to 330m? Meaning proportionally, the government uses fewer resources to cover a larger amount of people?

reramuyc 2y ago

[dead]

nikolay 2y ago

It depends on the job, but for software engineering, remote work is the most efficient one. Of course, there always will be slackers in all modes of work, but I've seen more slackers in the office than among remote co-workers. Elon Musk is a strange bird that many idolize and consider him super smart, but he is not. Of course, being the most terrible speaker and dancer is the least of his issues! It's funny how he suddenly became a Republicans supporter when he started Tesla with policies pushed by the Democrats and who claims to be a conservative and someone vocally against migrants but meanwhile works on replacing Americans with clumsy and super expensive robots. I'm also not sure how conservatives like his Neuralink company, and Starlink, which is beeming us constantly without any place to hide.

JSDevOps 2y ago

Ok then, no more starlink contracts signed. It enables remote work.

noncoml 2y ago

The masks have dropped. Return to office was never about productivity and was always about forcing people to quit.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
It's always about controlling workers.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

quantified 2y ago

Note how much attention is on what Musk is saying about stuff. He's the laser dot dancing on the floor, the cats writing and reading the journalism can't help fixating on it. There is so much else to be actually interested in about the transition.