They can't- Musk is empowered to fire leaders of agencies that refuse to work with DOGE. It's comply or leave- and if you leave, they will just find a lackey who will comply.

It's better to be fired. That way no one can make excuses that they left willingly.

That sounds pretty entitled.

Nobody will help them "hold the line". The damage to them personally would be immense. If you have a family, or any other responsibilities (like your own health and well-being) there's only one wise thing to do: leave.

At the end, only surviving counts.

They're resigning at the point they would be fired anyway.

It's not entitlement, it's doing the right thing for as long as you can.

I know in the private sector if fired you can pretty much lie if ever asked and odds are no one will find out.

Probably different for government jobs. They will know if you've been fired from a government job. And once you are institutionalized as a beauracrat it can be hard to work elsewhere. You would basically be restarting your career from scratch.

And if they know, so what? The mere fact of being fired for doing the right thing will wreck your life?

Honestly, the very idea of a part of the executive branch dedicated to auditing the other parts and departments of the executive branch is just preposterous. We have Congress comittees for that, thank you very much.

Have they ever, in known history, done any of that in any manner one could call effective?

Congress is a pile of squabbling children and has been at least my entire lifetime.

they suck but it’s better than this shit—don’t tell me you believe Elon

he isn’t actually empowered tho?

practically speaking, yes? Because it looks like he's done that several times now, and the US Marshalls (and the President) are backing him up.