- Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is looking for the "top 1%" of people.
- DOGE will expect its staff to work 80-plus hour weeks — a common request of Musk's employees.
Elon Musk wants you to help root out government waste — but only if you're really smart and willing to work 80 hours a week.
Musk, who's standing up DOGE — or the Department of Government Efficiency, named after a cryptocurrency he's linked to — is looking for the top 1% of people who are interested in joining his effort.
In a post on its newly created X account on Thursday, the new department wrote: "We don't need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting."
"If that's you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants," the post continued, referencing businessman Vivek Ramaswamy who will lead the endeavor alongside Musk.
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s…
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 14, 2024
Trump tapped Musk and Ramaswamy earlier this week to lead the new — and unofficial — government department, which the president-elect has said will work to slash regulations and cut government spending.
Musk had poured more than $100 million of his own money into getting Trump elected. Now that his efforts have paid off, Musk has made a home for himself in Trump's inner orbit. Musk also joined the president-elect's calls with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, according to several reports.
The Tesla CEO is known for working long hours — even sleeping on the floors of Tesla's factory and at Twitter's then-headquarters.
Since his early days at Tesla, Musk has pushed the company's staff to work "super hardcore" — a management style he mirrored at X after he took over the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Musk's aggressive work expectations appeared to have contributed to the mass exodus at Twitter (now renamed X) following his 2022 takeover.
In a late-night email sent to company employees at the time, Musk said they should work "long hours at high intensity," adding that "Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade."
In his new DOGE endeavor, Musk has said he will create a leaderboard displaying the "most insanely dumb" examples of government spending in an attempt to promote "maximum transparency" and allow the public to comment and share feedback.
Several marketing and communications experts previously told Business Insider that the leaderboard is likely to get attention, while one game designer warned that it's implicitly biased because of who's defining "waste."