Elon Musk says government workers need to explain their work or quit.
Fed. Kash Patel instructed workers to pause responses to OPM email, indicating disagreement among Trump officials. Elon Musk offered federal workers an ultimatum to respond or quit.
Sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that federal workers have already started getting an email asking them to summarise their work. Unlike Musk’s post, however, this email does not directly threaten to fire workers.
The email, which came from the Office of Personnel Management and was shared with NBC News, asked workers to copy their bosses on about five bullet points of what they had done this week. The email instructed federal employees to respond by Monday at 11:59 p.m. ET, advising them not to send classified information, links, or attachments, and warning of resignation if not responded.
It looks like not all Trump officials agree with Musk’s question about productivity because FBI Director Kash Patel told workers to “pause any responses” to the email that asked government workers what they did last week. Patel said that the FBI will follow its own rules and look over the work of its own workers.
On Saturday, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said that Musk and the Trump administration were to blame for the email. He promised to fight “illegal terminations” of union members and government workers across the country.
Kelley said in a statement, “Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their complete disregard for federal workers and the important jobs they do for the American people.”
“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to have to defend their jobs to this spoilt, out-of-touch, unelected billionaire who has never done an honest hour of public service in his life,” Kelley said.
Members of the National Treasury Employees Union who work at the FDA’s headquarters were “strongly” told not to reply by their chapter. They were also told that the NTEU and its office of general counsel are “taking immediate action.”
“We work for HHS/FDA, not OPM: OPM directives that have not been formally adopted or communicated by our employer, the FDA, do not create an obligation for you to respond,” the NTEU chapter’s advice said.
McLaurine Pineover, a spokeswoman for the OPM, told NBC News that the office wants workers to summarise their work.
As part of the Trump Administration’s plan to make the government workforce more efficient and accountable, OPM is asking workers to send their manager a short summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday. “The next steps will be decided by the agencies,” Pineover wrote.
The email comes at a time when Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are trying to make big cuts to the federal workforce. These cuts include mass layoffs, the accidental firing of Department of Agriculture workers who were working on the government’s response to the bird flu, and efforts to break up agencies like USAID.
The Pew Research Centre says that as of November 2024, the federal government employs more than 3 million people.