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DOGE Is Four Letters

If this is your first time visiting my site, I write an occasional 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.

The purpose of this project, DOGE IS FOUR LETTERS was to capture some of the work being done by federal workers and civil servants, all of whom were in the crosshairs of Elon Musk and the administration's DOGE group, who accomplished none of their stated goals but did a tremendous amount of damage in the process, something that can be said about the second Trump Administration broadly, even after Elon Musk.

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We Have Been These People With federal oversight there is a robust bureaucratic machine that levels the playing field, where the rules are the same for developers in all 50 states. Spite Can Keep You Going It's not sexy, but someone has to buy the screws and the oscilloscopes, and you can't do research without equipment and materials. Going Down Swinging When I think about whether to stay in or not — and I have thought about that some — I think, "Good lord, I'm not perfect, and I remain suspicious that maybe I'm just trying to justify myself, but how could I bag out now?" Woke Ops at HHS We all deserve to have access to the resources, information, and tools to help plan for our futures. Computer Science in the Stars Lone geniuses didn't get us these successes, the hard work of many many teams of people did, and if we give these people the funding and support needed to do their jobs, there's so much more we could do. Answering the Call When I was a little girl, my mother’s house burned to the ground — no one was hurt but everything was lost. The outpouring of help from neighbors and family has stayed with me my entire life, and I have always wanted to be able to help the next person in the same way my family was helped. Down and Out at the FDIC I liked that I was part of a solution to problems with financial stability by working in resolution planning, and being at FDIC would be the pinnacle of that work. Wired Into the Army of the Future My position now has a lot more direct connection to mission, to the hard trades that have to be made to put equipment in people’s hands who are putting themselves in harm’s way, and it feels much more important and immediate to get it right. Disaster Response is Democracy We are losing our ability to build a responsive, smart, and nimble government that can meet the challenges of today, much less those of tomorrow. Abroad and in the Field He's not saving money, he's cutting services that people didn't have to think about, how those things happen, and who does that work. Fighting for the Worker Congress effectively gave us this job: fighting for people who are treated poorly at work. We make work fairer and safer, and we do it without charging a cent. Doing Less with Less If there were massive waste, we’d see it, and we'd know it. Records, Kept Records are essential to government functioning. Man in the Field I worked in rangeland ecosystems. I went out and collected field data on ecological processes, plant, wildlife, etc. I looked at grazing and the benefits or degradation that occurred. The Boy Scout From the time I was young, I wanted to do work that helped others, helped my community, or helped my country. Sabrina | Washington, DC I made the money happen for a near-billion-dollar coastal wetland restoration program called CWPRPA, or the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act, that shores up South Louisiana. LJ | Washington I’m fairly high up at HUD, still work there, and I’m absolutely terrified about what the planned staffing cuts mean for the literally millions of vulnerable people on rental assistance. A | Pacific Northwest If the IRS sends you a notice that you owe money, you can contest that in the Tax Court. I work for the office of attorneys that represents the government in that court. HW | West Coast I work in nuclear command and control at STRATCOM, NC2. We track missions, operations, and status of the US arsenal. Jordan | Texas I worked in USAID's South and Central Asia office, supporting 4 countries over 3 years. MW | Pacific Ocean I am in a mission critical position that is directly involved in emergency and routine warship repair. W | Southeast US I’ve been working for the past 15-20 years on the inspection of safety and compliance of our nuclear industry. Jamie | Southeast US I'm a Department of Labor attorney. In my part of in the Department of Labor, we are basically civil prosecutors, or trial attorneys for any violations of regulations that the Department of Labor oversees. Nate Brought | Maryland I am the Director of the Executive Secretariat at the National Institutes of Health until COB Friday, February 28.