The push for greater accountability in government is gaining momentum, with calls for corporate-style efficiency now extending to public offices.Â
Gurmeet Chadha, CIO at Complete Circle, in a post on X questioned why government employees and public servants should be exempt from the rigorous performance reviews common in private organizations.
“I remember having weekly MIS & monthly reviews in every organisation I worked—ACC, HDFC, Nippon, Citibank. Why should govt employees & public servants be any different?” Chadha wrote, suggesting that leaders like NR Narayana Murthy, Aditya Puri, Nandan Nilekani, or Anand Mahindra be brought in to overhaul the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in India.
This demand for accountability echoes recent developments in the US, where federal employees were given an ultimatum—list their weekly accomplishments or be deemed to have resigned. The move, backed by Elon Musk and the Trump administration, is stirring controversy over its potential impact on the workforce.
Over the weekend, US government employees received an email instructing them to submit a list of their accomplishments from the past week or risk resignation. The directive came shortly after Elon Musk posted on X, stating that employees would “shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” adding, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
The email, which had the subject line “What did you do last week?”, was sent by HR and requested employees to submit five bullet points summarizing their work, without including classified information, by midnight on Monday. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government’s HR agency, later confirmed the email’s authenticity, stating that it was part of an initiative to make the federal workforce “more efficient and accountable.”
Musk, a vocal proponent of cost-cutting measures, has been at the forefront of a sweeping restructuring of government agencies under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the White House’s approval. Thousands of employees at the IRS, Pentagon, and FAA have already been dismissed in recent weeks as part of the downsizing effort.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal workers, strongly condemned the move. “Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people,” said union president Everett Kelley, vowing to challenge any unlawful terminations.
Meanwhile, newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel urged his agency’s employees to ignore the OPM directive for now. “FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures,” Patel stated in an internal memo.
The policy closely mirrors Musk’s approach to employee management during his Twitter takeover in 2022 when he issued ultimatums requiring staff to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work culture or resign.
Trump has openly supported Musk’s actions, celebrating them as a step toward cutting bureaucratic inefficiencies. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he declared, “We’re removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent, and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce. We want to make government smaller, more efficient. We want to keep the best people, and we’re not going to keep the worst people.”