- Federal workers were emailed Saturday with a request to list productivity details from their week.
- Elon Musk said that those who don’t reply by 11:59 p.m. on Monday will have forfeited their role.
- Many federal employees told BI they feel frustrated by the request. Some have already been told not to respond.
Several federal workers across agencies told Business Insider they’re frustrated and scared for their jobs after Elon Musk said they must email their work accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.
Some say they’re skeptical of the ramifications — others have been told not to respond.
The productivity-tracking email, sent Saturday afternoon from an HR account in the Office of Personnel Management, followed President Donald Trump’s instruction to Musk to “get more aggressive” in reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy. It’s the latest of DOGE’s sweeping initiatives that have resulted in mass firings, funding pauses, and work stoppages in departments and agencies across the federal government.
Musk, who’s closely linked to the DOGE office, teased that the email would be forthcoming in a post on X Saturday, writing: “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
“It’s terrible,” one Department of Education employee whose work has been slowed by executive orders and layoffs said. “It feels like harassment, especially sending it out on a Saturday and boasting about it in advance on X so that everyone could be checking their email afternoon in anticipation of its arrival.”
Another federal employee — from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — said they “can only imagine how many people they’ll fire based on the responses/non-responses to this.”
Another wondered “how much money is being wasted” on having federal employees respond to the email, while yet another questioned who would review the replies.
Representatives for the White House and Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Many of the federal workers who spoke with BI said that hours after the DOGE email had been sent, they had still not received any communication from their supervisors regarding how or whether to respond.
“No idea how to respond being as this is from outside our chain of command,” one federal worker told BI.
Others said they had been instructed by their union representatives or managers to wait for further direction before replying.
“Once again, agencies were caught off guard by these emails, just like the chaotic “Fork in the Road” email,” the National Treasury Employees Union wrote in an email to its members, urging them not to respond until they receive further guidance. “This email is yet another attempt by the administration to scare hardworking civil servants who deliver for the American people every day. It is shameful. We will update you soon.”
The American Federation of Government Employees said in a notice to members that the union “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.”
“We will formally request that OPM rescind the email and clarify under what authority it was issued,” the AFGE email reads. “In the meantime, AFGE advises all federal employees to forward the email to their supervisor and seek guidance on whether and how to respond, including the type of information that can be disseminated to OPM.”
The productivity email that was sent to federal workers did not include Musk’s comment on X that employees who did not respond by the Monday night deadline would be considered as having resigned. Several workers who saw his post said they wondered whether that would be possible — or legal.
“I question whether them firing people based on a non response to this would be legal,” the Department of Education employee said. “There are a number of agencies, like DOJ, which has attorney-client privilege, or DHS, which engages with national security topics, where people will surely be told by supervisors not to respond.”
Some of the federal workers who spoke to Business Insider had resolved not to respond. Others, disheartened by the aggressive funding and job cuts propelled by the DOGE office, said they had begun looking for other work even if they didn’t believe they’d be fired.
A member of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Disaster Medical Assistance Team, part time disaster workers who respond to federal disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, suggested they might resign either way.
“I have another job like the rest of us and I don’t need this type of stress,” the DMAT member said. “Maybe I’ll just resign.”
The employee said they’re part of a group of people that thrives “in stressful situations,” but that the stress of having their job in limbo “is different.”
