Elon Musk deepened the confusion and alarm of workers across the federal govt Saturday by ordering them to summarise their accomplishments for the week, warning that a failure to do so would be taken as a resignation. Shortly after Musk’s demand, which he posted on his social platform X, civil servants across the government received an email from the Office of Personnel Management with the subject line, “What did you do last week?”
The missive simultaneously hit inboxes across multiple agencies, rattling workers who had been rocked by layoffs in recent weeks and were unsure about whether to respond to Musk’s demand. Musk’s mounting pressure on the federal workforce came at the encouragement of President Trump, who has been trumpeting how the billionaire has upended the bureaucracy and Saturday urged him to be even “more aggressive”.
In his post, Musk said employees who failed to answer the message would lose their jobs. “All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” he wrote.
However, that threat was not stated in the email itself. “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished this week and cc your manager,” said the Office of Personnel Management message that went out to employees Saturday afternoon. The email told employees to respond by midnight Monday and not to include classified information.
Some agency leaders welcomed Musk’s move. But in a sign of the upheaval and the potential legal and security issues caused by the demand, officials at some federal agencies told their staff to hold off on responding and await further guidance. Among them was Kash Patel, the new FBI director. “The FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in an email to staff obtained by NYT. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
In response to his threat of dismissal if workers did not comply, the American Federation of Govt Employees, the largest federal employee union, said it would challenge any “unlawful” terminations. “It is cruel and disrespectful,” the union’s president said.