WASHINGTON ― The federal government’s human resources agency on Monday told federal agencies their employees don’t actually have to respond to an email sent over the weekend demanding they list off their accomplishments or be fired.
The email, sent Saturday at the direction of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a top adviser to President Donald Trump, initially sent shockwaves through Washington and represented yet another attempt by Trump and Musk to gut the federal government workforce. Monday afternoon’s instructions, though, reduced the email to irrelevancy.
HuffPost obtained an email from the Social Security Administration’s HR department, sent Monday afternoon, telling workers that OPM clarified its policy.
“Pursuant to updated OPM guidance, responses to the email from sender ‘HR’ dated Saturday, February 22, are voluntary. Non-responses are not considered a resignation,” the email said.
Spokespeople for OPM did not respond to requests for comment. The New York Times first reported the reversal.
The email switcheroo represents the latest oopsie moment for Musk’s much-ballyhooed cost-cutting team, known as the “Department of Government Efficiency.” Multiple agencies have scrambled to rehire key employees who were let go as part of DOGE’s mass layoffs across the federal workforce. Some of DOGE’s moves also have been held up by courts or administrative agencies, with a separate ruling Monday finding many of the mass firings of probationary federal workers were illegal.
DOGE’s actions have become a political headache for Republicans, with polls indicating Musk and his efforts to gut the government are unpopular, and constituents berating Republicans at town hall meetings, demanding pushback against Musk.
Even before OPM said the email was voluntary, Trump-appointed leaders at a host of agencies, including the FBI and Department of Agriculture, had already told their employees not to respond ― a sign of how other Trump allies are now guarding their turf against Musk’s encroachment.
“Elon Musk’s latest email fiasco is yet another example of the chaotic and callous treatment of federal employees that has been the hallmark of Trump’s second term,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. “It was nothing but a cynical attempt to demean federal workers and terrorize them into quitting.”
Congressional Republicans are slowly but increasingly speaking out against Musk, with Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins applauding other Trump appointees for setting the rules for their agencies.
“I was glad to see some of the new department heads have pushed back against that,” the Maine Republican told HuffPost on Monday. “It should not be Elon Musk’s call.”
A more conservative Republican, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, said she was happy OPM made responding to the email voluntary. “I don’t think it was handled very well in terms of the surprise element of it or what the point of it was,” she said.
Other GOP senators have been critical of the project as a whole.
“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wrote Sunday on X, formerly Twitter. “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.”
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who chairs the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has quietly been urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate hundreds of employees it haphazardly fired.
“Certainly on the veterans side, we’re asking for information from the administration,” Moran told Politico late last week. “We are being reassured that no one at the VA who has any direct care responsibilities are being terminated or laid off, and we’re just looking for the positions and circumstances in which it’s occurring.”
On Saturday, Musk announced all federal employees would receive an email asking “what they got done last week” and that failing to respond would be “taken as a resignation.” Musk said the email demand had been inspired by Trump’s encouragement for Musk to be more aggressive.
The email that went out to all 2 million federal workers from OPM said “reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” adding that senders should not include classified information.
Trump praised the Musk initiative as “genius” on Monday, even as OPM reversed itself. “If you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired,” Trump claimed at the White House. “Because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist,” Trump said, baselessly suggesting there are nonexistent people in the roles of federal employees.
Some agencies said they didn’t plan to comply with the request at all. FBI Director Kash Patel told his workforce the FBI “is in charge of all of our review processes” and to “pause” their responses. The USDA told workers there’s no penalty for not responding. But the VA told workers they had to comply.
The Department of Health and Human Services told staffers they were welcome to respond to the email, but also reminded them not to share information on specific drugs, research or experiments. And in an email sent Monday and viewed by HuffPost, it warned them of a big potential downside of responding to Musk’s team.
“Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly,” read the email.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
At least one federal agency, the Department of Interior, is still making its tens of thousands of employees submit a list of their weekly accomplishments — and telling them to prepare to do this potentially every week.
“This email is legitimate, and employees (other than political appointees and those who lack access to email) are expected to respond,” reads a Monday morning email to Interior Department employees from Charles Dankert, a senior adviser to Secretary Doug Burgum. “Going forward, Interior will consider incorporating an expectation that employees submit weekly accomplishment bullets into its regular weekly reporting structures.”
When OPM’s email went out on Saturday, an Interior Department regional director initially told staff to hold off on replying to it until they got further guidance, an agency employee told HuffPost. But on Monday, the regional director told everyone to respond to it with a list of their accomplishments. They even created a new email account for it: accomplishments@doi.gov.
“Definitely nothing indicating it’s voluntary,” said this Interior Department employee, who requested anonymity to protect their job. “People are so angry … that they’re actually hitting ‘reply all’ to the director’s email and airing their grievances to the entire department.”
This federal worker added, “It’s pretty much a full blown panic now in the office.”
An Interior Department spokesperson declined comment.
Kevin Robillard and Igor Bobic contributed reporting.
