
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is in the news for his hardcore work ethic. He often drives staffers across his many companies to adopt a “hardcore” work ethic and bragged that the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is clocking in 120-hour work weeks, stated a report by the Economic Times.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the Department of Government Efficiency employees work 120 hours a week, inviting criticism on social media. He called working weekends a "superpower", adding that bureaucratic opponents are "losing so fast" because they work 40 hours a week.
Earlier, Elon Musk boasted that DOGE staffers were working through the weekends. “Very few in the bureaucracy actually work the weekend, so it’s like the opposing team just leaves the field for 2 days! Working the weekend is a superpower,” Musk wrote, adding a laughing emoji.
He took the lead of the new task force just two weeks ago, running an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that aims to slash federal spending by as much as $2 trillion.
DOGE work ethic
The gruelling work week equates to over 17 hours of work a day for DOGE employees. The group is not technically a government agency but a team working alongside the White House to cut costs. However, this doesn't come as a surprise.
In 2018, Elon Musk claimed to have worked 120-hour weeks running Tesla, his electric vehicle (EV) maker company. He has encouraged his employees to work the same long hours.
In 2022, when Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, he demanded staffers commit to a “hardcore” work life and put in “long hours at high intensity” – or leave for another company. The pressure to perform pushed more than half of the company's 4,000 workers to leave, opting instead for three months of severance, according to the Business Insider.