- Federal workers were told to send a list of accomplishments by midnight on Monday or lose their jobs.
- However, some federal agencies told their employees not to respond.
- President Donald Trump and Elon Musk appeared intent on moving forward with the request.
The deadline for federal employees to email in their lists of personal accomplishments has passed.
In the lead-up to the deadline, federal employees received conflicting guidance from President Donald Trump, DOGE leader Elon Musk, and government agencies on how — and if — they should respond to the request from the Office of Personnel Management.
Here’s the latest.
What Trump is saying
On Saturday, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal workers asking them to send an “email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week” by Monday 11:59 p.m. ET.
At a press conference on Monday, Trump said he thought the OPM’s email was “great.”
“So by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?'” Trump said.
Trump wasn’t clear on what happens if federal workers don’t send in their emails.
“And then, if you don’t answer, you are sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired,” Trump said.
When asked about the conflicting guidance agencies have given on the request, Trump said that had been “done in a friendly manner” and that they weren’t running counter to Musk’s actions.
“Only things such as perhaps, Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things, or the FBI where they are working on confidential things. They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon,” Trump said.
In a Truth Social post published on Saturday hours before the OPM sent out its email, Trump praised Musk’s work with DOGE but said he would like to see Musk “get more aggressive.”
Musk’s latest comments on the DOGE ask
In an X post on Saturday, Musk wrote that failure to respond to the OPM’s email “will be taken as a resignation.”
By Monday, Musk’s wording had changed.
Musk wrote in an X post on Monday that federal workers who have yet to respond to the request “will be given another chance.”
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” Musk wrote.
In a Monday morning X post responding to Garry Tan, the president and CEO of Y Combinator, Musk said the DOGE request was “basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.”
“This mess will get sorted out this week,” Musk wrote. “Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will.”
The request echoes one that Musk made to employees at X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Shortly after he bought the social network in October 2022, Musk asked software engineers to print out their latest code for review.
Representatives for the White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Guidance varies across departments
In a memo to heads of departments and agencies on Monday, the OPM reiterated its deadline for employee emails and said all emails should be addressed to agency heads with OPM copied.
At least eight agencies have told workers they don’t have to respond to DOGE’s email. These include the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, NASA, the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture, the State Department, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
It is unclear how the White House and DOGE plan to reconcile the conflicting guidance that has been given since what some agencies are saying contradicts the OPM email deadline.
According to emails seen by Business Insider, some departments have told workers that responses about productivity and accomplishments will be handled by the agencies, not staff.
Other government departments have told employees they can respond to OPM if they wish, but that not responding will not incur penalties.
There have been conflicting communications from some government departments, which first told staff to respond to the OPM email before reversing course.
The Social Security Administration told employees on Sunday that the OPM email is a “legitimate assignment.” On Monday afternoon, the agency told employees that responding is “voluntary.”
“Non-responses are not considered a resignation,” the agency’s email to employees read.
This turmoil comes at the end of a chaotic few weeks for government employees, as Musk’s DOGE proposed broad head count cuts across government agencies.
Thousands of federal workers have been fired. Some of these workers received termination notices saying that the job cuts were based on performance, per documents BI viewed.
- Federal workers were told to send a list of accomplishments by midnight on Monday or lose their jobs.
- However, some federal agencies told their employees not to respond.
- President Donald Trump and Elon Musk appeared intent on moving forward with the request.
The deadline for federal employees to email in their lists of personal accomplishments has passed.
In the lead-up to the deadline, federal employees received conflicting guidance from President Donald Trump, DOGE leader Elon Musk, and government agencies on how — and if — they should respond to the request from the Office of Personnel Management.
Here’s the latest.
What Trump is saying
On Saturday, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal workers asking them to send an “email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week” by Monday 11:59 p.m. ET.
At a press conference on Monday, Trump said he thought the OPM’s email was “great.”
“So by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?'” Trump said.
Trump wasn’t clear on what happens if federal workers don’t send in their emails.
“And then, if you don’t answer, you are sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired,” Trump said.
When asked about the conflicting guidance agencies have given on the request, Trump said that had been “done in a friendly manner” and that they weren’t running counter to Musk’s actions.
“Only things such as perhaps, Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things, or the FBI where they are working on confidential things. They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon,” Trump said.
In a Truth Social post published on Saturday hours before the OPM sent out its email, Trump praised Musk’s work with DOGE but said he would like to see Musk “get more aggressive.”
Musk’s latest comments on the DOGE ask
In an X post on Saturday, Musk wrote that failure to respond to the OPM’s email “will be taken as a resignation.”
By Monday, Musk’s wording had changed.
Musk wrote in an X post on Monday that federal workers who have yet to respond to the request “will be given another chance.”
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” Musk wrote.
In a Monday morning X post responding to Garry Tan, the president and CEO of Y Combinator, Musk said the DOGE request was “basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.”
“This mess will get sorted out this week,” Musk wrote. “Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will.”
The request echoes one that Musk made to employees at X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Shortly after he bought the social network in October 2022, Musk asked software engineers to print out their latest code for review.
Representatives for the White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Guidance varies across departments
In a memo to heads of departments and agencies on Monday, the OPM reiterated its deadline for employee emails and said all emails should be addressed to agency heads with OPM copied.
At least eight agencies have told workers they don’t have to respond to DOGE’s email. These include the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, NASA, the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture, the State Department, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
It is unclear how the White House and DOGE plan to reconcile the conflicting guidance that has been given since what some agencies are saying contradicts the OPM email deadline.
According to emails seen by Business Insider, some departments have told workers that responses about productivity and accomplishments will be handled by the agencies, not staff.
Other government departments have told employees they can respond to OPM if they wish, but that not responding will not incur penalties.
There have been conflicting communications from some government departments, which first told staff to respond to the OPM email before reversing course.
The Social Security Administration told employees on Sunday that the OPM email is a “legitimate assignment.” On Monday afternoon, the agency told employees that responding is “voluntary.”
“Non-responses are not considered a resignation,” the agency’s email to employees read.
This turmoil comes at the end of a chaotic few weeks for government employees, as Musk’s DOGE proposed broad head count cuts across government agencies.
Thousands of federal workers have been fired. Some of these workers received termination notices saying that the job cuts were based on performance, per documents BI viewed.
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