Following confusion, OPM says Musk demand that feds report accomplishments is voluntary

The Office of Personnel Management on Monday informed agencies that compliance with an Elon Musk-backed order for federal employees to submit their accomplishments from the past week is voluntary, according to a source familiar. 

The news was first reported by The New York Times. 

Some agencies, however, have already directed their workers to respond. And President Donald Trump on Monday said that employees who don’t reply will be “sort of semi-fired” or “fired” according to an official pool report. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment to explain the apparent incongruence.  

On Saturday, OPM sent an email to federal employees asking them to provide, by Monday at 11:59 p.m. EST, about five bullet points of work they performed in the previous week. 

Before the request was sent out, Musk, the centibillionaire leading the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal government, posted on his social media platform X that not responding would be treated as a resignation. The emails themselves, however, do not mention anything about resignations. 

In the early hours on Monday, Musk posted on X that: “This 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. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will.”

IRS and EPA told their employees to reply to the email. The departments of Defense, Energy and Homeland Security instructed workers not to respond. The Agriculture Department said it was optional. 

Nextgov/FCW reported that the privacy assessment associated with the email system used to send the message, which is the same one that distributed the “deferred resignation” offer, requires that responses to it should be “explicitly voluntary.” 

Unions and advocacy groups on Sunday filed a lawsuit to stop OPM from requiring federal workers to report their accomplishments and to protect employees who don’t respond to the email. Rather than submit a new filing, the plaintiffs amended an existing complaint that seeks to bar the mass removal of probationary employees (i.e. new hires and recent promotions) and reverse all such firings. 

The unions argued that the email reporting program is covered under the Administrative Procedure Act, but OPM did not go through a formal rulemaking process to establish it.  

“No OPM rule, regulation, policy or program has ever, in United States history, purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to OPM,” according to the lawsuit. 

In a Sunday letter to acting OPM Director Charles Ezell, AFGE National President Everett Kelley characterized the email as an “irresponsible and sophomoric attempt to create confusion and bully the hard-working federal employees that serve our country.” 

“I have received numerous reports from dedicated civil servants, including those who care for our veterans and safeguard our nation, expressing frustration over the email’s tone and intent,” he wrote. “Rather than fostering professionalism and respect for their work, this hastily written email left many feeling undervalued and intimidated.”

Natalie Alms and Eric Katz contributed to this report