You have got to listen to this entire clip or at least read it below. It is hilarious. If their claims are true, federal employees need a reality check. As public servants paid with tax dollars, they’re hired to work professionally. They shouldn’t waste time whispering gossip in break rooms with faucets running, using white noise machines, or trash-talking their bosses during work hours in “private messages”—save that for home or their lunch break at least. These people are clearly not used to having their work scrutinized, paranoid that accountability will expose their slacking and acting as if basic oversight is the KGB, Cold War, or a horror film monster stalking them. If they’re doing nothing wrong, they have no reason to fear. Federal workers need to focus on work instead.
Transcript:
MSNBC Host: …One employee from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development put it like this, quote, it’s like being in a horror film where you know something out there wants to kill you, but you never know when or how or who it is. Alright, joining us now Crooked Media correspondent and anchor of What A Day Newsletter, Matt Berg, and Crooked Media news editor, Greg Walter. Matt, I wanna start with you. What is the big takeaway? When you guys do this, you talk to all these people. What is the thing that stood out? And what’s the big picture this investigation?
Matt: The big picture here is that anxiety and fear are running rampant among federal employees, in part because some of them have been told that DOGE is monitoring their workplace, whether that be with artificial intelligence or just ..
MSNBC Host: Told by whom?
Matt: Their managers at these, at at least two agencies that they are being monitored secretly in meetings.
MSNBC Host: Greg, what exactly are they monitoring for? Are they scanning for disloyalty or are they scanning for, I don’t know what?
Greg: Well, great question. Uh, DOGE has promised the American people both efficiency and transparency. It doesn’t really seem to be delivering either one. Uh, but one of the things that the managers are warning employees about is they need to be careful with what they’re talking about because they shouldn’t criticize Trump or Elon Musk or DOGE and to be really cautious about what they’re saying.
MSNBC Host: That’s, I mean so in addition to writing their 5 things emails, which is the complaining I hear most from people, the government I talking to, they now have to worry about what they’re saying even in their office. Greg, I also wanna ask you, according to this new report, EPA managers told employees that DOGE was using AI to scan through agency communications to find any anti-Musk, anti-DOGE, as you just mentioned, anti Trump sentiments, adding that employees should be, quote, very careful about what they say in private messages and virtual meetings. All right, you’ve been around DC for a while. You’ve done a lot of reporting on the federal workforce. What impact do you think this is gonna have in people’s day to day effectiveness when they’re afraid to even say something they think might be wrong with a program or whatever?
Greg: Well, I think this is reporting by, uh, Matt here and also Joseph Gideon from The Guardian. And what they found was that federal workers are scared, they’re nervous, they’re losing sleep, they are not able to focus on what they’re doing. They’re worried about employees who have, uh, been fired, they’re worried about being fired themselves. And in addition, they are very concerned about surveillance. We’ve heard stories of some people who have gotten, uh, white noise machines to turn on their office. Uh, we’ve heard stories about people going into an office break room to turn on the faucet.
MSNBC Host: This is like out of a spy movie, like in the shower so we can have a conversation.
Greg: It’s like old school Cold War stuff.
MSNBC Host: Right.
Greg: Except this is not the KGB. This is the Trump administration that they’re worried about.
I can’t get over this part. The MSNBC host said: I mean so in addition to writing their 5 things emails, which is the complaining I hear most from people, the government I talking to, they now have to worry about what they’re saying even in their office.
“5 Things Emails” refers to a directive from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, requiring federal employees to submit weekly emails listing five accomplishments from the previous week. Employees feel it adds unnecessary pressure and undervalues their work, as seen in complaints reported by NPR and ABC News.
Now federal employees have to list their accomplishments at work and worry about what they’re saying in their office. Welcome To The Real World.