having worked inside public institutions with leadership attempting to implement rapid austerity, these messages--while rage inducing--are functionally worthless. they are meant to unsettle workers and pressure them into believing the narrative. I see these moves as desperation plays, the hail Mary on 1st and 10 betraying their complete lack of a strategy. and the real value in them is being able to confirm the identity of compradors/careerists who are on board with the new bosses.
something I keep close to my heart in contexts like that is that leadership is NOT a role. it is an ability. in a situation like this, the people at the top don't know shit about fuck. they certainly aren't leaders. they are just clumsy animals banging on the walls trying to be disruptive of the public goods factory. the defense is the same defense against them in the private sector: don't do what they want. don't accept what they peddle. quietly undermine them at every turn. bosses aren't institutions. workers are the institutions. workers have the real power, and they loathe us for it.
instead, focus on providing value to the stakeholders that deserve it, half-ass / ignore the leadership directives (not enough to get noticed, but ride that line lol), and keep delivering on your personal, idealized version of your institution's mission right up until the day they have to send someone to stop you and remove you specifically. they rarely have that capacity. and unless you are head and shoulders above the average in obvious subterfuge, they can't actually root you out like the naughty weed you are.
when their backs are turned, you are spartacus. when they look at you directly, you're just a numbered cell in a hive so large they find it existentially threatening.
it's all about trying to get us to voluntarily exit the public sector or become toxic/dysfunctional in our roles and degrade public services.
now, obviously there are limits to what you should put up with, but sometimes there's a perverse joy in fucking with the bosses by doing a good job in a way they don't want but can't complain about.