In the quiet town of Pieve di Soligo, Italy, the mayor just made a move that might make Elon Musk nod in approval—or maybe try it himself.
Mayor Stefano Soldan removed every coffee and beverage vending machine from city hall and the local library after citizens complained that staff were spending more time chatting over coffee than doing their jobs.
“The people were waiting in line to handle paperwork while staff lingered at the machines talking,” Soldan said, explaining his decision.
Residents had repeatedly raised concerns, and even internal warnings to employees hadn’t helped. So Soldan pulled the plug—literally.
“Not an Attack on Staff”
Soldan insists this isn’t about punishing everyone. “A choice that unfortunately falls on all municipal employees even if it concerns a few people,” – continues Soldan – “I would therefore like to point out that this is not an attack against the staff, but a gesture to resolve the problem since the individuals involved have not been able to change their habits.”
The issue was simple: long coffee breaks that exceeded what the employment contracts allowed. It caused delays for the public and irritation among co-workers who had to pick up the slack.
Unions didn’t love the move. Representatives organized meetings and accused the mayor of acting like a strict schoolteacher.
“I don’t want to be the ‘scolding teacher,” Soldan responded. According to him, the warnings didn’t work, and they needed a solution.
His fix: let workers still enjoy their coffee breaks, but off-site. They now have to clock out and head to local bars or cafes for their caffeine fix.
Elon Musk Would Love This
While Soldan is trying to prevent inefficiencies in his small town, Elon Musk is being accused of causing them on a national scale in the U.S.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has rocked Washington by giving its tech team sweeping access to government IT systems.
Experts say Musk’s team, made up of young, inexperienced tech workers, is making changes without securing the systems already in place.
“This is the stuff I live every day, and it makes me angry,” said Kurtis Minder, founder of GroupSense, about the chaos DOGE is leaving behind.
Musk jokingly calls himself “Humble Tech Support,” but his team has what experts describe as “god mode” access. That means they could read, write, or even delete data in essential systems—including payroll and employee records.
Dr. Richard Forno, Graduate Program Director of the Cybersecurity Program at UMBC, wrote : “DOGE has hired young people fresh out of – or still in – college or with little or no experience in government, but who reportedly have strong technical prowess. But some have questionable backgrounds for such sensitive work.”
And while DOGE was created to modernize federal systems, experts fear it’s actually making the U.S. more vulnerable to cyberattacks, mismanagement, and possibly financial disruption.
In contrast to Soldan’s hands-on solution, Musk’s approach has already caused resignations, panic, and what one expert called “a system administrator’s end-run around the Constitution.”
One Fixes the System, One Breaks It
Soldan’s decision to yank coffee machines is a small-town story, but it reflects something much bigger: how leadership styles can shape public trust. One mayor is cracking down on idle time to improve service; another is overhauling a nation’s digital infrastructure with what some experts say is reckless abandon.
As Emerson Tan, a cyber-security technologist, put it: “You do what DOGE is doing.”… ” You do it through the IT systems.”
Maybe it’s a good thing Elon Musk hasn’t heard about the Italian mayor just yet. But if he does, those coffee machines in the White House might be next.