• Elon Musk plans to reduce his time on government work to focus more on Tesla.
• Even reducing his time with DOGE could still make it hard to oversee a half dozen companies.
• Investors are often OK with "multi-CEOs" when things go well, but that can change if sales slide.

Even if Elon Musk cuts back his work reshaping the US government, he'll still be a busy guy.

And perhaps he's too busy — and controversial — to run the many companies under his domain as well as he could, leadership observers told Business Insider.

Musk, who said Tuesday he plans to soon reduce his time working on the Department of Government Efficiency, still has half a dozen companies to oversee, including Tesla, X, xAI, and SpaceX.

It adds up to a lot, especially when, like at Tesla, there are challenges like slumping sales.

"It's hard to imagine there's enough time in a week to really give each of those the attention that it needs," Christopher Myers, the faculty director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, told BI, referring to Musk's companies.

Myers said that while Musk has long been exceptional in his ability to run multiple entites at once, keeping a hand in DOGE one to two days a week, as Musk suggested he might, means there still won't be all that much time for him to go deep on reviving sales at Tesla, where auto revenues dropped 20% in the first quarter.

Even if Musk devoted all his time outside DOGE to the automaker, doing anything only two to three days a week would be a "minimal investment," Myers said.

Downshifting might not be enough

Another big challenge: Musk's involvement with DOGE is turning off some would-be buyers of Tesla vehicles. That means that simply giving over more time to the company might not be enough to fix its problems, Lorenz Graf-Vlachy, a professor of strategic management and leadership at Germany's TU Dortmund University, told BI.

Investors appeared buoyed by the idea that Musk would spend more time thinking about the company and less on Washington, DC. Tesla shares, which have tumbled in 2025, rose more than 5% on Wednesday.

Graf-Vlachy, who researches leaders who run more than one company — rare breeds he calls "multi-CEOs" — said investors are often OK with chiefs juggling more than one commitment when things are going well.

"As long as everybody's getting rich, nobody asks exactly how that's happening," he said.

But when business goes south, investors' confidence can erode, Graf-Vlachy said.

Even one of Tesla's biggest bulls, who has remained upbeat throughout the company's year of declining sales, said the EV maker faces a "code-red situation" if Musk stays at DOGE.

"Musk needs to leave the government, take a major step back on DOGE, and get back to being CEO of Tesla full-time," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note on Sunday.

Musk didn't respond to a request for comment Wednesday from BI.

Myers said that another challenge for Musk is that he's described himself not as a micromanager but as an even more hands-on "nano-manager."

"It seems hard to nano-manage that many companies across that wide of a range," Myers said.

He said it's possible that Musk's other companies, beyond Tesla, would have to take "more of a back seat" or that others within those organizations would have to further step up if Musk continues to devote even limited time to DOGE.

Myers said it might have been easier to see how a single CEO could simultaneously run two tech-focused entities, like Tesla and SpaceX. Yet the management playbook can get blurry when the scope of a CEO's focus widens. In Musk's case, he's waded into government work and acquired Twitter, which he renamed X.

By having such a diverse portfolio, Myers said, it's possible that Musk has made it harder for employees at his companies to discern a clear sense of mission.

He said a Tesla employee, for example, might worry about the hit that tariffs could have on the company. Musk, who has said he favors free trade, could be put in difficult positions, Myers said.

"Depending on which of his offices is releasing the press release, they're going to take wildly different stances on the role of tariffs," he said, referring to DOGE and the White House's position on tariffs.

"That can be frustrating, confusing, and certainly demotivating for individuals within those organizations," Myers said of Musk's companies.

Multihyphenate CEOs aren't new

Musk isn't the first CEO to face scrutiny for wearing more than one hat. In 2020, shareholders and activist investors questioned whether Jack Dorsey could run Twitter and Block, both public companies, simultaneously.

Yet the Musk universe is far larger, with federal contracts, over a trillion dollars, and thousands of employees at stake.

Jonathan Marshall, an executive coach and former assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, said it is possible to run multiple companies effectively.

"Giving clear direction and having capable people under you whom you trust makes a huge difference. It permits the leader to step back," he said.

Marshall said in the best cases, executives under a busy CEO can step up — but the setup can go wrong, too.

"In one case, I've seen it lead to tremendous inefficiency as the executives felt they couldn't make a decision without the CEO's approval," he said. "But where there has been clear direction from a trusted and competent substitute for the CEO, I've seen it go well."

In 2018, Harvard Business School's then-dean examined how CEOs spend their time, writing that a CEO's calendar "is a manifestation of how the leader leads and sends powerful messages to the rest of the organization."

Non-work activities, he wrote, could represent a distraction, so CEOs should "carefully restrict" their time on community and social engagements.

Graf-Vlachy said that even though Musk has proven himself capable of overseeing several companies, there are limits to how far the multi-CEO can push himself.

"There are only 7 days a week, even for Elon Musk," he said.

• Erik Boquist, 27, has made a side gig out of helping older adults improve their tech skills.
• He charges $50 an hour, offering personalized guidance.
• Boquist said he enjoys the work because the older people he helps are grateful and "so sharp."

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Erik Boquist, 27, who lives in Sutton, New Hampshire, and travels the US and beyond working as a house-sitter with his girlfriend. Boquist also does video editing. His latest side gig is showing people, many of whom are older, how to level up their tech skills. Business Insider has verified his identity and that Boquist has earned money from these efforts. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

I started thinking about training baby boomers on technology because of the simple tech tasks my mom needs help with and because I saw glimpses of my dad's workflow. Those were huge revelations.

It was everything from how they email, surf the web, and watch videos on YouTube. There might be simple things they don't know about, like changing the playback speed or using the arrows to go ahead or back five seconds.

My mother lives in a 55-plus community, and one day, after helping her, she said, "Erik, you should be doing this for everybody here."

Boom. She was right. If I'm going to help the community as much as possible, I just have to let people know I would be willing to talk with them.

My role is often vetting what they're hearing and then making money off researching it and determining if it's legit.

Other times, it might be simple things like someone wanting a box of markers to do crafts. I ask whether they've thought about Amazon and whether they have an account. If not, I might help them set it up.

I want the people I'm helping to realize that — whether they're able-bodied or not, they just need to be able to use their fingers. Dude, they're so sharp. You talk to somebody who's 80 years old — I'm not going to generalize, but I'm going to generalize — they can do what younger people can do on computers. I don't want older people's voices to be lost, the wisdom to be lost. I want them to express themselves.

I've been doing this for about six months. One of the things I'm working on now is digitizing the journals written by a woman's brother who passed away. The journals span decades.

She wants to get them into a PDF that can be shared with his friends. We're also thinking of using AI to create an audio recording of the entries. This can bring more remembrance of her brother's life and experiences because they're fascinating stories, and his voice is so interesting. Once it's digitized, she can even then play with text and make songs from the journal entries using AI.

That's why I sit down with people, usually IRL, and ask, "What do you want to do? What have you heard that interests you?"

Outside my parents, the first person I helped was my neighbor, who I always saw walking her dog. I was chatting with her, and she shared that she couldn't listen to audiobooks at night, which she had liked to do, because the battery on her phone kept dying.

I went on YouTube and used various search engines. The question became, "How do I replace a battery for an iPhone 7?" She's using an older phone, but it works for her. I'm not trying to sell her on a new one. Some of the reviews on battery-replacement kits were that the battery died 30 days after they were replaced. So, I suggested she avoid one seller, who was cheaper, and maybe go with an authorized battery replacer, who was $90. She said, "Oh, that's so great to know all this. Thank you so much. Let me pay you for this."

I told her no because it was a great lesson for me. That was the start of realizing, "Wow, that took me about 15 minutes." Then I shared all that with her in about 60 seconds, and it seemed to really impact her.

The business is essentially demystifying tech and bringing more knowledge to people.

It's been a great addition to my workflow. In recent months, I had three consistent clients. We talk about an hour at a time. It's not a 40-hour workweek by any means, but it's meaningful. So it's been four to 12 hours a week since I started, and I love it.

My fee is $50 an hour, and I haven't had the heart to bump it up. People are OK paying for it. Those who have called have been so enthusiastic. They're like, "Oh my gosh, I wish that somebody had been doing the sooner."

Every client surprises me. Someone might say something like, "I hear Bluesky is the opposite of X." Just hearing that brought me to dive deeper into that comparison. It's fascinating.

My girlfriend and I are heading to Seattle soon to house-sit for a family with a pair of beagles. We've been doing it for a couple of years now. There are coffee shops a two-minute walk from the place. I'll put up flyers there and at the grocery store, and we'll see what rolls in.

I've had sessions on FaceTime, but when I'm in person, people seem more likely to ask if I can come back the next week. Then, one of the things we work on is to go from cash or check to Venmo.

• Federal job cuts are creating an opportunity for companies in need of skilled workers.
• While private-sector hiring for desk workers is sluggish, it could offer a narrow lifeline to some.
• The CEO of Range said the startup hopes to accelerate hiring because so many workers are available.

Fahad Hassan has seen the impact of federal job cuts through some of the people he's met.

Not long after the Department of Government Efficiency began orchestrating sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, Hassan's friends introduced him to several government workers who were seeking safer waters.

He sensed an opportunity.

Hassan, who is cofounder and CEO of Range, a digital wealth-management startup outside Washington, DC, saw the exodus of federal employees as a chance to scoop up workers with the expertise he needed.

"We're getting lucky and potentially being able to hire a bunch of folks ahead of schedule," he told Business Insider.

Some of the places where people with extensive public sector experience have traditionally landed, such as universities or nonprofits, face their own funding challenges under the DOGE doctrine.

Yet companies like Range that haven't slowed hiring amid concerns about a possible economic gut punch from a trade war could offer an important, if narrow, lifeline for current and former government workers seeking jobs.

Finding a home in the private sector won't necessarily be easy. The job market for desk workers is broadly sluggish — something some laid-off government workers are already experiencing even as some state governments try to pick up the slack.

Cuts outlined by DOGE, the advisory body led by Elon Musk, translated to more than 280,000 planned layoffs of federal workers and contractors in the past two months, according to a new tally by the staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

More government layoffs followed this week, for example, at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal knowhow

A recent analysis by Indeed found that workers at government agencies in DOGE's crosshairs are searching for and applying for jobs at "well above" the usual level.

Ben Walker, CEO of Ditto Transcripts, sees a potential benefit from the government's retrenchment. He often seeks to hire people with federal certification to work with the criminal justice information that his company handles.

Many of Ditto's clients are law enforcement and other government agencies that work with sensitive records pertaining to everything from healthcare to criminal activity and wiretaps.

Because more people with government experience — and familiarity with the federal guidelines his company needs to adhere to — are or soon could be out of work, Walker expects it will be easier than in the past to find workers.

Walker said he's hoping to hire as many as 10 transcriptionists in the next two to three months for various contracts that he expects will come through. The company is based in Denver, but most of its 50-some employees work remotely throughout the US.

Walker said he might also use the market's surplus of qualified workers to cut a handful of low-performers.

"Why wouldn't we replace them with three or four outstanding people?" he said.

'A ton of opportunity'

Hassan said Range is looking to hire 100 people, including staffers in operations, marketing, and product management and more than 30 engineers.

Range is largely hiring at its McLean, Virginia, headquarters, though also in the New York and Seattle areas.

"We have a ton of opportunity," Hassan said. Many would-be employees exiting the government he's met are available, excited, and interested, he said.

Those with federal experience on their résumé often use that as an in with businesses that contract with the government.

Yet it's not clear how much of that work will persist, said Patrice Williams-Lindo, CEO of Career Nomads, which helps professionals navigate career changes.

She told BI that government contractors could see their workloads decrease as spending cuts in Washington, DC, ripple through the economy. That could occur if the government dumps contracts or if it says no to some of the related add-ons that tend to extend workloads — and the need for employees.

"The pie is smaller," Williams-Lindo said.

Nevertheless, she said, even a job that doesn't last as long as government jobs historically have would likely be a godsend for someone needing work.

A possible payoff

For federal workers who manage to snag a role in the private sector, the rewards could be substantial.

Hassan, who runs Range, said government workers with the necessary skills and expertise can often expect a jump in pay. He said an engineer with seven years of experience earning about $145,000 at the Department of Energy could pull in closer to $250,000 a year at Range.

Hassan said he doesn't want to take advantage of workers accustomed to government salaries by lowballing them.

"I'm going to pay them what they're worth," he said.

Hassan doesn't worry that those who have spent "their whole lives" in government aren't suited for life inside a startup. He said the right people are those who can be trained and who can pivot, including federal workers.

"They've got amazing skills and superpowers in one or two areas," Hassan said of the government workers he's spoken with. "If we need to adjust them to be in a more Google-like environment, we can do that."

Ultimately, he said, there are phenomenal people everywhere.

"A lot of them are in government," Hassan said.

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