Washington, March 26: Elon Musk's DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) was established to reduce US government spending and bring down the national deficit to better spend taxpayers' money. DOGE started cutting government spending on various departments such as USAID, the Department of Education, NASA, and others, which caused some employees to worry about the upcoming federal layoffs.

The reports said that the Department of Government Efficiency started implementing large-scale layoffs, which affected around 2,00,000 federal workers since the start of this year. These announcements, along with the other tech and media layoffs in the United States, have put the country's people under pressure. Block Layoffs: Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey’s Fintech Firm To Lay Off up to 1,000 Employees Amid Reorganisation.

Amid DOGE layoffs, the affected employees shared their deep concerns about job security and the wider applications for public services. When USAID staff was laid off and called for 15 minutes to collect their belongings, they had tears in their eyes when they walked out. However, a report by CBC said that more people were worried about leaving their personal information in the USAID office systems.

The report said that the bureaucracy-slashing department, i.e. DOGE, was created by the Donald Trump administration, which, to some, was concerning. The staff members said that the primary concern was "DOGE"s capability, their surveillance". The report does not clearly state what personal data the Department of Government Efficiency could have obtained about the staff. Tech Hiring Alert: Elon Musk’s xAI, ChatGPT-Developer OpenAI Recruiting Candidates for Artificial Intelligence, Robotics; Check Details Here.

As per the report,  around 90 to 95% of the staff, including fellow employees, were laid off by DOGE's efforts to dismantle the agency. Many turned to the Signal app to initiate private chats and share what happened. The people associated with DOGE forcibly entered USAID on February 1, 2025, and sought to access all the information about the staff, said the report. It also mentioned, citing The Associated Press, that the team entered SCIF(sensitive compartmented information facility), a room inside the office and gained access to all the sensitive information. 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2025 02:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).