Will federal employees be fired if they don’t respond to Musk’s ‘What did you do last week?’

“What did you do last week?” A mass email with this subject line has sent federal employees in the United States into a tizzy. Elon Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, directed through an email over the weekend that employees who did not respond by recounting their workweek would lose their jobs.

As the email stirred outrage, US President Donald Trump defended the move, calling it “ingenious”. However, later, he called the email asking for federal employees’ response “somewhat voluntary”.

The flip-flop orders have left federal employees anxious and confused. Let’s take a look at what’s going on.

Elon Musk’s threat email

On Saturday (February 22), Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X that “all federal employees” would soon “receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week” and warned that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

Hours later, federal workers got an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with the subject line “What did you do last week?”

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They were directed to respond with five examples of what they “accomplished” over the past seven days by 11:59 pm ET (10.29 am IST) Monday.

Musk said that employees’ failure to respond would be considered a resignation.

This comes as Musk’s DOGE works towards slashing federal staffing and spending.

Later, President Trump backed the billionaire’s efforts, describing them as “ingenious”. He further muddled the issue by saying the directive to federal employees was “somewhat voluntary,” but later added that a non-response would lead to termination.

“Well, it’s somewhat voluntary, but it’s also, if you don’t answer, I guess you get fired,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“We have to find out where these people are. Who are they? And we said, ‘If you don’t respond, we assume you’re not around, and you’re not getting paid anymore, too,” he was quoted as saying by Newsweek.

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“If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working,” the US president told reporters.

The confusion

The original email sparked confusion among federal employees. Sources told CNN that agency heads discussed how to respond to Musk’s threat.

However, many agencies told workers to ignore the OPM email, including the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Others like the Transportation Department, the Education Department, the Department of Commerce and the National Transportation Safety Board told employees to comply with the request.

Hours after Trump’s remarks, OPM officially informed federal agencies that a response was “voluntary” and a non-response would “not equate to a resignation”, reported CNN.

While some agencies notified the message to employees in their guidance, others did not.

“Our chief said it was mandatory. Then OPM said it became voluntary. Then I guess Trump just told us it was mandatory again,” one career employee with the Department of Veterans Affairs told CNN. “No one knows who is in charge and who to listen to.”

“It’s bedlam,” one Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee said to the American broadcaster.

The agencies held a call on Monday with OPM, where they asked the government’s human resources agency how the information provided by workers to the email would be treated, sources told CBS News.

OPM said there were no plans to do anything with the information.

As per Newsweek, Social Security Administration workers were told that responding to OPM’s email was “voluntary” and that failure to respond would not lead to losing their jobs.

However, the Tesla CEO was undeterred.

On Monday evening, Musk wrote on X, “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”

What now?

OPM sent a memo to agency heads on Monday night which contradicted the original “What did you do last week?” email.

As per CBS News, the memo directed that responses to the email should be sent to agency heads with a copy submitted to OPM. It did not say anything about termination.

“Agencies should review responses and evaluate nonresponses,” by considering whether employees were on leave or otherwise could not access their email before the Monday night deadline, the memo read.

“Agencies should consider whether the expectation for employees to submit activity and/or accomplishment bullets should be integrated into the agency’s Weekly Activity Report or future required organisational activity reporting in order provide [sic] an enterprise-wide view of workforce achievements and organisational trends,” the memo stated.

“Furthermore, agencies should consider any appropriate actions regarding employees who fail to respond to activity/accomplishment requests. It is agency leadership’s decision as to what actions are taken.”

A State Department official told CNN that workers are confused. “On the one hand, employees want to showcase the important work they’re doing,” but there is concern about “responding from individual email accounts and not knowing where the information is going,” the official said. “I suspect all federal employees everywhere feel conflicted and deeply disturbed by the derogatory narrative coming from our government.”

According to the White House, the original email asking federal employees to recount their work over the last week garnered one million (10 lakh) responses.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that Trump would leave it to his Cabinet secretaries on how to respond to the directive, reported CNN. “The agency heads will determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies,” she said.

Musk’s threat email has already courted legal action. “No OPM rule, regulation, policy, or program has ever, in United States history, purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to OPM,” a lawsuit filed on behalf of federal employees, unions and conservation groups said, reported Newsweek.

The US’ largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has also pledged to challenge any unlawful terminations.

With inputs from agencies