On Sunday, Feb. 22, 2025, Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), emailed hundreds of thousands of federal employees to report their accomplishments at work from the previous week, or risk getting fired.
President Donald Trump wanted Musk to be more aggressive in cost-cutting in the DOGE. Musk sent the email on Saturday, giving workers around 48 hours to respond with their accomplishments from the previous week in five bullet points, including a cc to their manager. The email requested that employees not include classified information, links or attachments.
On X, which Musk owns, he wrote,”If any employee failed to respond by the deadline of Monday at 11:59 p.m ET, they would lose their job,” In a follow-up, Musk also wrote, “The bar is very low here. An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write.¨
Musk has faced resistance from U.S agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), State Department, Homeland Security, National Institutes of Health, the Defense Department, the National Security Agency and the Pentagon, which have advised employees not to respond to the email. Federal workers outside of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) do not report to the agency by responding to the agency directly; OPM cannot dismiss employees. According to CBS News reporter Paulina Smolinski, “OPM said in a statement that individual agencies will take ‘any next steps.’”
The newly sworn-in FBI Director Kash Patel told employees in an email to ‘pause any response.’ In a message obtained by CBS News, Patel wrote, “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.’”
Ambassador Tibor P. Nagy of the State Department emailed employees, stating the department would respond on their behalf. According to NBC News, Nagy said, “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.”
Democrats and some Republicans, such as Sen. John Curtis of Utah, didn’t agree with Musk’s decision. According to AP News, Curtis said, “‘If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this,’ Curtis, whose state has 33,000 federal employees, said on CBS Face the Nation. ‘These are real people. These are Mortgages. It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.’”
Musk has shown no confusion on his demands and is not easing up on his decision. Musk wrote on X, “EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of the government think this is TOO MUCH!! What is wrong with them?? Musk believes his actions are justified and not harsh.
Trump believes that the government was paying people who weren’t actually working. During a press conference, he explained the reasoning behind Musk’s email. According to The New Republic reporter Edith Olmsted, “You know why he wanted that, by the way? I thought it was great, because we have people who don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government,’ Trump said. ‘So, by asking the questions, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’ And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.’”
In response to Trump’s demand for more aggressive cost-cutting, he sent out an email to federal employees asking for a list of their accomplishments from the previous week. Musk has received backlash from other U.S agencies, which advised their employees not to respond to the email. Trump believes that Musk’s decision is an efficient way to identify who truly isn’t working for the government.
