Elon Musk's DOGE team has slashed hundreds of jobs paid for by fees from banks, medical device companies and other forms of funding rather than taxpayer dollars, raising the question of whether the cuts will render hoped for savings.

“I feel like the cruelty is the point, if I am being honest,” a federal worker, terminated on Thursday, told CNN. “There has been so much indication from the new OPM director and Elon Musk and from DOGE that the whole point of this is to scare people away from working in federal government or those who are still there, to want to leave.”

Appeals filed by federal employees of their firings are screened by agency staff and then heard by in-house administrative judges, whose decisions can be reviewed by the three-member board. The board's rulings can be appealed to a Washington-based federal appeals court.

Federal workers fired for alleged poor performance as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's remaking of the federal government received excellent performance reviews before they were fired, according to interviews and documents seen by Reuters.

The scattershot approach targeting many federal agencies has some elected officials, bureaucrats, and union leaders saying the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" is creating chaos with serious safety concerns.