Musk Tells US Federal Workers to Either List Weekly Accomplishments or Resign

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Elon Musk, leading the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), has pushed for significant federal workforce reductions, with many government employees being fired.
• US government employees received an email demanding they report weekly accomplishments or resign, a move linked to the Trump administration's efficiency goals.
• The American Federation of Government Employees criticized the email as disrespectful, while agencies like the FBI and State Department issued internal guidance on how to handle the request.

On Saturday afternoon, US government workers received an email asking them to report their accomplishments from the previous week or resign part of the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to reduce the federal workforce.

This came after Elon Musk, a billionaire ally of Trump, posted on X, stating that employees would "soon receive an email asking for details on what they achieved last week."
"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," he wrote.

As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), Musk has been spearheading an external initiative to significantly reduce government spending through budget cuts and staff layoffs.

The email appeared in inboxes soon after Trump addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It had the subject line "What did you do last week?" and was sent by HR.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's HR agency, verified the email's authenticity in a statement to CBS, the BBC's US news partner.

"As part of the Trump administration's commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday, CC'ing their manager," it said. "Agencies will determine any next steps."

In a copy of the email obtained by the BBC, employees were instructed to outline their accomplishments from the previous week in five bullet points—without sharing any classified information—by midnight on Monday.

The message did not specify whether failure to respond would be treated as a resignation.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union for federal workers, condemned the message as "cruel and disrespectful" and pledged to contest any "illegal terminations" of government employees.

"Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people," Everett Kelley, union president, said in a statement.

On Sunday morning, Musk posted on his social media platform X that "a large number of responses have already come in," adding, "These are the individuals who should be considered for promotion."

A few hours later, Musk tweeted on X that the initiative was crucial because "a large number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little that they aren't even checking their emails."

Musk has consistently claimed fraud in defending his team's efforts across various government departments and functions.

However, on Saturday, there seemed to be some disagreement among department heads regarding the latest email.

Newly-appointed FBI director Kash Patel instructed his employees in an email to "pause any responses" to the OPM memo.

"FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information," Patel wrote in a message obtained by CBS News. "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."

The State Department issued a similar message to its employees, stating that it would respond on the department's behalf.

An email from Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary for management, which was obtained by US media, stated, "No employee is required to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command."

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents many government workers, criticized the email and warned of legal action if employees were wrongfully terminated.

"It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life," AFGE President Everett Kelley said.

Earlier in the day, Trump highlighted budget cuts and told a crowd of supporters at CPAC that federal employees' work had been insufficient, citing that some of them work remotely at least part of the time.

"We're removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce," the president told the crowd at the annual conference in suburban Washington on Saturday afternoon.

"We want to make government smaller, more efficient," he added. "We want to keep the best people, and we're not going to keep the worst people."