New York
CNN
–
In November 2022, days after Elon Musk took control of the company then called Twitter, the employees received an email with the matter: “A fork along the way.” He now focused his attention on the United States government, and federal workers have just received a memorandum with the same matter.
Twitter email offered workers an ultimatum: committing to “exceptional performance” and work “extremely hard” or leave the company. On Tuesday, the Memorandum to Federal Government employees gave them an almost identical option: to commit to “excellence” and be “reliable, loyal and worthy of trust”, among other things, or renounce and accept compensation.
The surprisingly similar language is perhaps the clearest signal so far that Musk, which is now one of President Donald Trump’s leading advisors, with an office in the White House, seems to be applying his Twitter acquisition plan to the federal government. And it is raising doubts about whether the United States government could quickly reduce its staff as a technology company, and if it will suffer the same consequences as Twitter, including broken systems and the strong value fall that has affected the social media company After its acquisition.
“The freezing of all federal expenses is disturbingly familiar with this former employee of Twitter when Elon took control,” said Lara Cohen, who left her position after the acquisition of Musk as a global marketing director and Twitter partners, in A Threads publication on Tuesday. “They arrive, they do not understand the context, they turn it off without knowing who does what… that was a social media company. This is the country and this will harm people irreparable. ”
In the electoral campaign, Musk often talked about the reduction of the federal government. And he played an integral role in the deployment of the purchases of the federal government on Tuesday, an official told CNN, through his position at the head of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge).
And it makes sense that Trump agrees with such a plan, said William Klepper, a management professor at Columbia Business School. “Trump is used to being in a reality show, right? He is accustomed to saying goodbye. That is a script that has, ”said Klepper.
But an environment is not necessarily like the other.
“The government is not a business,” he said. “In business, the winning formula is the one that results in providing greater value to customers than their competitors and gives it a higher profitability. In the government, it is a different perspective, for the most part you (try) to create greater value for your voters in terms of what they offer in programming and services. ”
The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, eluded a CNN question on Musk’s participation in the compensation plan on Wednesday, and said instead that Musk’s work in Doge has been “incredibly productive.”
On Wednesday, Musk said on a Twitter publication that “the reduction of government size is, by far, the most popular issue!” The publication referred to a reuters/Ipsos survey that mainly shows the opposition to Trump’s decrees, but says that 44 % of Americans support the end of government initiatives of “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The day before Musk closed his agreement of US $ 44,000 million to buy Twitter, which he renamed X, entered through the main door with a toilet. From the hours following its acquisition the next day, Musk gave the company a brutal blow, with measures that, according to him, were essential to “save” the company, but generated chaos.
The billionaire fired the majority of the company’s staff, and then had to ask dozens of workers to return.
He ordered the closure of at least one data center, and the platform experienced numerous failures and interruptions in the following months.
He trimmed the company’s security teams, dismantled content moderation policies and welcomed the platform to white supremacists and false information distributors, and many users and advertisers fled.
The company was sued by housing owners and service providers who accused it of not paying rent or agreed services. And was investigated by the authorities of the city of San Francisco for placing an illegal sign and for more than one report indicating that the Musk team had installed bedrooms in the office spaces.
Those and other controversial measures of the richest man in the world – among them, to use the site to promote racist conspiracy theories – have become, according to most versions, which was once one of the most real -time information sources in real time Important and influential world in a more toxic, less reliable and less useful place, and have promoted the appearance of several competitive platforms. (Even so, Musk and the other leaders of the company continue to refer to X as a global public square).
And since the acquisition of Musk, the value of the company has fallen around 80 %, fidelity estimated the past fall.
Even so, although the acquisition may have harmed Twitter employees, users and advertisers, at least in a certain sense, to Musk’s own pocket, his personal power has also increased. During the summer, Musk used X to try to influence public opinion in favor of Trump. And since Trump’s re -election, Musk now has the attention of the president and an office in the White House, and tens of billions of dollars have become richer, thanks to the expectations that his connection with Trump will benefit his empire of companies.
And for that reason, you may have few incentives to change your employment and dismissal strategy in your new position in Doge.
(Tagstotranslate) Elon Musk
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