Musk says federal workers must detail ‘what they got done’ — or risk losing job

The billionaire adviser to Donald Trump emailed all federal employees hours after the President told him to be ‘more aggressive’ in slashing government spending.

Elon Musk on stage during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland at the weekend. Picture: AFP

Elon Musk said on Saturday that federal employees must detail their accomplishments at work or risk losing their jobs, the latest move by the Trump administration to overhaul the government that prompted confusion among the workforce.

“Consistent with President [Trump’s] instructions, 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,” Musk posted on X.

McLaurine Pinover, a spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management, said, “As part of the Trump administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday, CC’ing their manager. Agencies will determine any next steps.”

The email was set to go to all agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, the OPM spokeswoman said. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, wrote on X: “This is such a good idea and even White House staffers can list all of the great things they’ve done this week, just like everyone in the Administration should do as well.”

The Journal viewed copies of the email, which asked “What did you do last week?” in the subject line.

Federal workers were given until 11:59pm. Monday to respond with a list of “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”

The email asked employees not to send any classified information, and it didn’t say that nonresponses would be considered resignations.

Not all agencies are allowing their employees to respond to the email, at least not yet. Kash Patel, Trump’s new director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in a message to staff that they should “pause any responses” to the email sent by OPM.

“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all our review processes, and will conduct further reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in the message, which was viewed by the Journal.

The email created confusion across the federal government. One senior government official said some federal employees started checking with their own legal advisers about how best to respond.

One Justice Department official sent out an email asking their staff members to hold off on responding until management could provide further guidance. And one OPM employee questioned whether the agency is allowed to give work orders to employees in other agencies.

The acting head of the Department of Health Human Services’ main legal division told employees in his office, who number around 800, not to respond to the Musk email, citing concerns about attorney-client privilege and national security.

“Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the below email,” acting general counsel Sean Keveney wrote in an email Sunday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

President Donald Trump dances on stage after speaking at CPAC. Picture: Getty Images

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union representing thousands of federal employees, said in a statement that it would “challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”

OPM, the government’s human-resources arm, previously sent federal employees a notice titled “Fork in the Road.”

That email offered workers pay and benefits in exchange for their resignations. The deadline to take the offer was Feb. 6, and about 65,000 employees had taken the offer, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

The move by Musk, whom Trump has tasked with overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency, comes after the president earlier Saturday posted on social media that he wants the Tesla CEO to “get more aggressive” with his role. Trump also has previously said he is authorising everything Musk is doing as one of his advisers.

Musk has been guiding DOGE as it implements significant spending cuts across the federal government. Thousands of federal employees have lost their jobs including officials at the Internal Revenue Service, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Education Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

A Trump executive order instructs agencies to work with DOGE officials on rescinding or modifying a wave of regulations.

Musk’s post demanding workers respond to an email with details about their work, or risk their job security, mirrors how he ran Twitter after he purchased the social-media company in 2022, before later renaming it X. After a then-Twitter employee in 2023 said on the platform that he didn’t know whether he was still employed at the company, Musk wrote in response “What work have you been doing?”

The White House said Monday in a court filing that the billionaire businessman has no decision-making authority and isn’t the formal administrator of DOGE.

Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration that supports the executive branch, said in a recent court declaration that Musk has no “actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”

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