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This DOGE Operative Got a Huge Surprise Once He Was Actually Inside the Government
Love of the Game One of Elon Musk's government-wrecking flunkies was in for the surprise of his life when he discovered that the federal workforce is full of dedicated civil servants who run it like a tight ship. In an interview with Fast Company, that flunky, tech founder Sahil Lavingia, was candid about his experience working for the billionaire's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will continue its work despite Musk's slated exit at the end of this month. Lavignia has, as Wired revealed last month, been working pay-free at the Department of Veteran's Affairs under DOGE's cost-cutting mandate. Aside from his […]
One of Elon Musk's government-wrecking flunkies was in for the surprise of his life when he discovered that the federal workforce is full of dedicated civil servants who run it like a tight ship.
In an interview with Fast Company, tech founder Sahil Lavingia was candid about his experience working for the billionaire's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will continue its work despite Musk's rumored exit at the end of this month.
As Wired revealed last month, Lavignia has been working without pay at the Department of Veterans Affairs under DOGE's cost-cutting mandate. Aside from his early stint at Pinterest and the creation of Gumroad, the creator-centric ecommerce marketplace he launched in 2011, Lavignia's role at the VA is only his third job ever — and according to him, it's been pretty eye-opening.
Upon arriving at the massive department that currently employs nearly 500,000 people, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."
"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."
Notably, that streamlining has been something of a pipe dream for Lavignia.
Years ago, the Gumroad founder began applying to the United States Digital Service, an Obama-era initiative that preceded DOGE in its aim to centralize government data. The labyrinthine application and vetting process turned out to be too in-depth for Lavignia's tastes, however, and he apparently gave up the ghost — but when DOGE became a thing, he jumped at the opportunity to effectively take a side door into federal work.
"[DOGE] just sent me to the VA," the tech founder told FastCo. "They just kind of helped me find the job. Which is great — I’m proud of that."
Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley.
"I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."
Yes, you read that right: a guy who so believed in DOGE's efficiency mission that he chose to work there for free is admitting that the government is more efficient than Musk suggests.
Still, Lavignia said that he chooses to continue with the work because he's "basically taking Elon at his word" — a head-scratching conclusion.
More on DOGE: Elon Musk Is Getting Huge New Government Deals While Everything Else Is Getting Slashed
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