GOLIKEHELLMACHINE

Contact DOGE is Four Letters

Introduction

Purpose

If this is your first time visiting my site, I write a regular feature called WORK IS FOUR LETTERS, in which I interview people about their work — how they got started doing it, why they do it, what matters about it, what they’ve learned from it, etc.

I’d like to do something similar for federal employees and contractors, whether still employed, on administrative leave, fired, or currently in litigation over your status. If you’re not a federal employee or contractor, but your work has been impacted because you’re downstream of these cuts, I also want to hear from you. I want to document the work you did or do, why you do it or did it, and what all of this means for all of us now, along with what it means for you. This project aims to capture both the personal significance of your work and its broader impact on the American public.

What I’ll Be Asking

I’m interested in hearing from you on the following topics:

  • What do you do? You don’t have to tell me your job title, but what’s your job?
  • How did you find your way into federal service? Did you always want to join up?
  • What does this work mean to you? Why is it important to you, personally?
  • What should be important about this work to Americans? Why does it matter?
  • What does all of this chaos and dysfunction mean to you? Do you have a sense of how it’s all going to impact your work and your mission?

Protocol

For WORK IS FOUR LETTERS, I typically like to interview people over Zoom, record the conversation, then transcribe and edit it. However, given the sensitive nature of all of this, for DOGE IS FOUR LETTERS, I’m going to recommend that we communicate using Signal, a free and encrypted messaging service that provides you more anonymity than a Zoom conversation or email would. If you haven’t used it, it’s pretty similar to iMessage or text messaging. To get started, follow the steps below:

  1. Download and set up the Signal app if you haven’t already
  2. Contact me via Signal at: golikehellmachine.66
  3. Let me know you’re interested in the DOGE IS FOUR LETTERS project
  4. I’ll send you the discussion topics and may have follow-up questions

Turnaround for initial contact will usually be 24-48 hours, depending on volume.

I publish four times per week, Monday through Thursday, so, depending on the queue, it may be a couple of weeks before I can publish your story — if you think it’s time-sensitive and you’d like me to expedite publishing, please let me know.

Questions/Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns before participating, please contact me directly through Signal.

Thank you for the work you do, and thanks for taking the time to read this. I don’t know if it’ll accomplish much, but I think it’s important to document what you do and why you do it, and this is one small thing I can do to help with that.

GOLIKEHELLMACHINE