Federal employees returned to work Monday still uncertain about how to handle an Elon Musk missive that sent shock waves through the workforce over the weekend.
Musk’s Saturday email asked workers, “What did you do last week?” and prods them to reply with bullet points detailing their accomplishments by the end of Monday. A failure to respond, Musk posted on the social media platform X, “will be taken as a resignation.”
Many federal employees spent the weekend scrambling to figure out how to respond to the request, and some were concerned that the content of their responses could impact their employment. The email prompted a fresh wave of frustration and panic among workers who fear losing their jobs as the Trump administration aims to dramatically slash the workforce.
“It’s obviously a trauma technique,” said one Interior Department employee who was granted anonymity because they fear retaliation.
Some agencies — including the Energy Department — told staffers to hold off on responding until managers could provide them with more guidance. Staff at other agencies, including EPA, were told to respond to the email with bullet points about their work.
The email — sent broadly across the government from the Office of Personnel Management — sparked fresh fear and confusion in a workforce that’s been targeted for massive downsizing by the new administration. President Donald Trump posted on social media Saturday that Musk is “doing a great job” leading his so-called Department of Government Efficiency effort, but “I would like to see him get even more aggressive.”
Trump called the email “genius” during remarks in the White House Monday. “A lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist,” he said. “We said ‘if you don’t respond, we assume you’re not around’ and you’re not getting paid anymore.”
Employees’ concerns include questions about how to respond if their work is sensitive and about what happens to workers who are on leave or vacation and don’t have access to their email and don’t respond in time.
The frantic push across government to respond “isn’t efficient,” the Interior staffer said, noting that federal employees were all arriving at work Monday with the response to the email at the top of their minds. “Most of our weeks are spent wondering what’s coming next,” that person added.
Musk downplayed the gravity of the exercise in a follow-up post Saturday. “To be clear, the bar is very low here. An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable!” He also posted a list of bullet points he said were generated by artificial intelligence, adding, “The standard@DOGE is asking for in a response is literally this low. EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH!!”
Musk has used the “What did you get done this week?” line of questioning before. He said that in a 2022 text to then-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal during a spat about Twitter’s leadership, according to Musk biographer Walter Isaacson. “It was the ultimate Musk put-down,” Isaacson wrote.
DOE employees told not to respond
At the Energy Department, the email set off frantic texts Saturday evening among career employees still grappling with the Trump administration’s staffing cuts and a far-reaching funding freeze.
Within hours of the Saturday email, DOE management told staff it was aware of the first message from OPM and was working to gather more information.
One DOE career staffer granted anonymity to speak freely said the email added more stress among staffers still shifting duties to fill the gaps caused by “indiscriminate” firings, and justifying expenditures to which the agency is already committed.
“If I answer this little pop quiz honestly, most of my listed activities would be cleaning up the mess caused by DOGE and the administration,” said the staffer.
By Sunday evening, Energy Secretary Chris Wright asked staff in an agencywide email to “pause” on directly responding to the email.
“The Department of Energy is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” Wright wrote. “When and if required, the Department will provide a coordinated response to the OPM email.”
Interior asked to comply
Interior Department bureaus were scrambling Monday for answers from leadership on how to handle the OPM demands before the department sent midday guidance directing staffers to reply to the email and to copy their managers.
“The email is legitimate, and employees (other than political appointees and those who lack access to email) are expected to respond,” said the message from Charles Dankert, a senior adviser to the Interior secretary. Employees were directed to avoid sending any confidential, sensitive or investigative information. In the future, Interior “will consider incorporating an expectation that employees submit weekly accomplishment bullets into its regular weekly reporting structures,” the message said.
Some Interior employees had been told to await additional guidance after the initial weekend email.
Employees at Interior’s Bureau of Land Management received an email Sunday asking staffers to hold off on responding to the OPM email. “I am seeking additional clarification and guidance,” wrote Barbara Eggers, BLM’s assistant director.
Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, sent an email to staff Monday morning telling employees to “draft” their five bullet points but implying Interior leadership has yet to provide the service with direction.
“We are currently waiting on more guidance from DOI,” Bowron wrote. “Draft your bullets and have them ready to send. If you do not hear more by the time your shift ends, please respond to the email by the above deadline.”
She said they were also awaiting instructions on how the email affects employees off on Monday.
One National Park Service employee in the northeast region said they expected NPS to heed the official demands out of fear of reprisal from the Trump administration.
“Unfortunately they have been going along with everything so far because anyone who speaks out or resists gets replaced with Trump/Musk sycophants,” said the park employee, who was granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the record about agency policies.
The Musk email came the same day park employees at Yosemite National Park in California unfurled an upside-down American flag — an act dating back to the Revolutionary War that signifies protest or distress — over the side of the park’s famous El Capitan cliff face. The Trump administration has fired roughly 1,000 park employees in its broader downsizing of the federal government, though Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has committed to hiring thousands of temporary staff to help staff parks during the busy season.
Still, employees fear greater layoffs at the service and other federal agencies because Trump signed an executive order Feb. 11 that orders agencies to prioritize sweeping staff reductions.
Burgum said in a recent interview with Fox News that his agency is “completely embracing the DOGE effort” and touted cutting government as a cost-saving agenda.
The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
EPA staff ‘confused’
Employees at EPA were “completely confused” by the email, said Nicole Cantello, president of a union local that represents EPA staff. “People really didn’t know how to respond or what to do.”
One concern at EPA, Cantello said, is that much of the agency’s work can’t be released to the public. That includes details about the enforcement staff’s work that can’t be released to anyone outside of EPA, she said.
Given the short turnaround between the Musk email and the Monday deadline, “the agency doesn’t have time to provide that kind of guidance about what you can and cannot release,” Cantello said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
EPA staff received an email Monday asking them to “Please respond to the email by the 11:59 p.m. deadline this evening.” That email, sent by the Office of the Administrator, told staff to keep in mind that “no sensitive, commercially sensitive, confidential, deliberative, law enforcement sensitive, or otherwise privileged or controlled unclassified information should be included.”
If employees are on leave, the EPA email said, they were directed to respond by the end of their first day back on duty.
EPA did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Bipartisan outrage
The Trump administration’s email prompted a backlash from lawmakers and employee unions, including swift bipartisan pushback from Capitol Hill.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska on Sunday wrote on X, “Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota went a step further, writing on X: “This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk — except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.”
In the House, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, called on Charles Ezell, the Office of Personnel Management’s acting director, to immediately explain the email, calling the threat “illegal” and “reckless.”
Connolly also led more than 100 House Democrats in sending a letter Monday to the heads of two dozen agencies, demanding they “clarify that the federal employees at your agency are not obligated to respond to this ill-conceived email stunt and that nonresponse cannot constitute resignation.”
Leaders at federal unions are also fuming.
Philip Glover, a national vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees, sent an email to members Saturday night questioning Musk’s authority to make demands on federal workers.
“AFGE strongly believes this email was sent illegitimately and that OPM lacks the authority to direct the assignment of work to agency employees in this manner,” Glover wrote. “We will formally request that OPM rescind the email and clarify under what authority it was issued.”
AFGE advised employees to huddle with their supervisors over whether to respond and what to include in response.
Glover’s message included a form response that federal employees can use in their messages to supervisors that states: “If I am required to respond I will. I will assume that I have no obligation to respond to the email unless instructed to do so.”
Contact reporter Robin Bravender on Signal at r_bravender.93 and Heather Richards at h_richards.99.
