"It's not unreasonable" - Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary defends Elon on firing unresponsive federal employees

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary recently sat down for an interview with CNN. During this, he expressed his support towards Elon Musk and his controversial take on firing federal employees who are unresponsive.

They are testing this by seeing who replies to the company e-mails. Kevin defended this approach by stating that every business has a right to expect timely communication from their employees whether they are working in a private or a public sector.

The discussion on the CNN panel started with the reports that Musk had set strict policies for employee communication. This meant that federal employees would be terminated for failing to respond to company e-mails.

Kevin said that this is an important aspect of business rather than an unfair measure and an average person will agree with him on this. Explaining his point of view, the Shark Tank investor said,

"Well, first of all, if they're not answering after 2 times requested, are they dead? I mean, it's not unreasonable to say, 'Look, you worked for the federal government, here's the e-mail we have on record for you. We've requested a response, and you haven't answered twice,' I mean, what's wrong with that? The rational person would say, 'Yeah, this is not okay.'"

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Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary backs Elon's take on employee communication

Kevin O'Leary, the Shark Tank investor, was then asked by the anchor about his thoughts on employees being told by their employers not to respond to these e-mails.

However, Kevin was steady in his opinion about the same and said that it is unrelated when we see the entire situation from a bird's eye view as a broader principle. He said,

"No, it doesn't. I don't think that many people are that worried about this because no one's ever tested this before. You've got billions of dollars going out to hundreds of people, thousands, tens of thousands of people and nobody knows if they are; A: alive or B: working. Where are they? What are they doing?"

The Shark Tank investor then gave his example to explain that these practices are popular in the private sector business and thus, why can't they be implemented within the government organizations as well?

He said that he often asks his employees about their whereabouts to understand where have they been spending their time. Kevin also says that any rational person will understand this logic.

Talking about the same, O'Leary expressed,

"There's nothing wrong with this request in the private sector. I do this every day. I ask, 'What are you doing? Where are you? I mean, are you alive?' This is not unreasonable. The average person doesn't think this is unreasonable."

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary acknowledged that Elon Musk and his strategies have often been perceived as "controversial" but this time, he is making the right choice with the federal employees because a lot of taxpayers' money is going into paying them which could be utilized elsewhere if these employees are fired. He said,

"So, at the end of the day, okay, you know Elon Musk is controversial I got it and this whole DOGE thing, you know, it's come on the scene and it's very electric and controversial. But, if you're not working, nobody can contact you, what's wrong with asking?"

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes are released weekly on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time on Fridays. They are later available to watch on Hulu.