(AFP) – Employees of the US federal government on Monday faced a deadline imposed by Elon Musk that required them to explain their work achievements in an email or potentially lose their jobs. The demand represents the latest challenge from Musk against government workers as his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) works toward gutting federal staffing and spending. DOGE is a wide-ranging entity run by the tech entrepreneur and world’s richest person, though its cost-cutting campaign has faced increasing resistance on multiple fronts, including court rulings and some pressure from lawmakers.
On Saturday, more than two million federal employees received an email from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — the government’s HR department — giving them until 11:59 pm Monday to submit “approximately 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.” The message followed Musk’s post that “all federal workers” would receive the email and that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” As the deadline neared, President Donald Trump defended Musk’s message, calling it “genius” as it would expose whether “people are working.”
“If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working,” Trump told reporters. The demand resembled similar ultimatums Musk, known for his stringent workforce expectations, sent to staff when he took over Twitter in 2022, before renaming it X. Creating confusion among an already anxious workforce, multiple US federal agencies — including some led by prominent Trump loyalists — told staff to ignore the email, at least temporarily.
The list included the Defense Department, which posted a note requesting staff “pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week.'” US media reported that Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI, the State Department, and the Office of National Intelligence also instructed staff not to respond directly. However, the Treasury Department on Monday directed workers to comply with Musk’s request by midnight. The request “reflects an effort to increase accountability by the federal workforce, just as there is in the private sector,” stated an email sent to Treasury staff, seen by AFP. The Treasury added that the response “will not be difficult or time-consuming.”
As confusion spread across the federal workforce, speaking anonymously, an administration official told Politico that employees should defer to their agencies on how to respond to the email.
– ‘Dose of compassion’ –
Unions quickly opposed Musk’s request, with the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), vowing to challenge any unlawful terminations. Several recent polls indicate that most Americans disapprove of the disruption to the nationwide federal workforce. Concern has begun to emerge on Capitol Hill from Trump’s own Republican party, which controls both the House and the Senate.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, ‘Please put a dose of compassion in this,'” said Senator John Curtis of Utah, whose state has 33,000 federal employees. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages,” Curtis said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Dozens of lawsuits against Musk’s threats or demands have yielded mixed results, with some requests for immediate halts to his orders being denied by judges. One federal judge on Monday barred the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management from sharing sensitive information with the Musk-led department.
– Alex PIGMAN
© 2024 AFP
