Elon Musk said in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Feb. 11, that the number of retirement forms the federal government can process depends on the speed of a mineshaft elevator in Butler County — something local federal employees say is untrue.

Musk serves as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump via executive order for the purpose of “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Now, Musk aims to reduce the federal workforce by speeding up the federal retirement process.

During a news conference that included the president, Musk anecdotally referenced Iron Mountain’s facility in Cherry Township, which houses the Office of Personnel Management’s Retirement Operations Center. Musk said the office can process only about 10,000 retirement forms per month with around 1,000 employees using an analog system.

“The limiting factor is the speed at which the mineshaft elevator can move determines how many people can retire from the federal government,” said Musk, also the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. “And, the elevator breaks down sometimes, and then, nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy?”

Three people whose employment at OPM was verified by the Butler Eagle, have spoken about their experience and rebutted Musk’s recent comments. The employees requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

Created in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, OPM is the equivalent of the government’s human resources department. It helps manage the civil service, including pay schedules, health insurance and pension programs.

According to the OPM website, the agency’s roots go back to 1883 with the Civil Service Act. That law established merit-based hiring for many government workers, replacing a system that was previously prone to political patronage.

Iron Mountain operates the 233-acre facility about 220 feet underground in a former limestone mine and contracts with government and private entities, according to the company’s website. One employee said the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Defense also have offices in the facility, but OPM has the largest footprint of the government agencies.

The Butler Eagle recently reported on an internal meeting that suggests OPM may be the target of staffing cuts.

The three employees reached out to the Eagle to rebut Musk’s comments about the OPM facility and the required procedure for retirement filing.

One of the employees, who will be referred to as Employee No. 1, said there is no elevator in the OPM office facility. The lack of an elevator was verified by Employee No. 2, who also commented on the speed in which retirement forms are processed.

Both said the retirement forms processing speed depends only on the number of employees working, and that no limit exists on the number of forms that can be processed.

“No two retirements are the same,” Employee No. 2 said. “It changes depending on the agency they worked for, their position, and numerous other factors.”

Employee No. 1 said the office has worked toward digitizing the process, but uploading retirement paperwork to a server creates cybersecurity risks.

A 2014 Washington Post report said officials recognized the need to modernize the process as early as 1981 and had invested more than $100 million into the efforts. It detailed a previous modernization effort between 1987 and 1996 that failed. It was picked up the next year and scrapped again in 2008 after another $106 million had been spent.

In 2020, it took the same amount of time to process retirement paperwork as it did in 1977, according to the report.

In terms of storage, paper retirement forms are also required to be kept up to 129 years, according to the National Archives. Overall, about 80% of the process requires paper, Employee No. 1 said.

Employees No. 2 and No. 3 added that while retirement filing was done on paper, calculations for a retirement are done using modern technology.

Employee No. 2 further noted that the process to digitize all paperwork would cost “billions.” For example, that employee said, the filing cabinets holding the paperwork could theoretically stretch to the Moon and back, according to an internal statistic.

Employee No. 2 claimed that the facility has seen significant modifications since its time as a mine and that the entrance to the facility was “large enough to drive a semi through.”

Attempts to reach Iron Mountain for comment were unsuccessful.

The facility started as a mine that served steel mills in the Pittsburgh-area until the 1950s, when it became cheaper to mine limestone above ground. The federal government, looking for an extra 30,000 square feet of storage space, acquired the facility in 1958 to store old personnel files, according to Mediaite.

Iron Mountain bought the facility in 1998 and has made improvements since, such as the opening of the Guardian Gateway welcome center in 2017.

The 600 to 700 OPM Retirement Center employees walk or drive into the facility depending on their security clearances, and most of the inside looks like an average office space, Employee No. 1 said. More than 2,700 total people work at Iron Mountain facility, according to a 2013 KDKA article.

All three employees have expressed a common emotion after Musk’s comments: fear.

That fear intensified after an email, shared with the Butler Eagle, indicating employees are being asked to not speak to the media.

“As a reminder, employees should not engage with members of the media,” Chuck Ezell, acting director of the OPM said in the email.

Employee No. 1 was primarily alarmed that national scrutiny has been focused on Iron Mountain.

“My initial thought is that safety and security are now in jeopardy,” Employee No. 2 echoed. “We’re a target.”

Employee No. 2 claims that fear is “the consensus,” despite the location’s heavy security.

“I feel so much anguish and anxiety everyday that it’s gotten to the point where I dread going to work,” Employee No. 3 said. “We’ve had people show up at the gate and then we get put on lockdown.”

According to Employees No. 2 and No. 3, much of the staff felt that pillar four of the “Fork in the Road” buyout email is a challenge to the staff’s loyalties.

“The federal workforce should be comprised employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work,” the email read.

“We had to take an oath that we are there for the people and our country,” Employee No. 3 said. “We take that seriously.”