Trump administration asks all feds to justify their jobs or risk losing them

Updated Feb. 22 at 10:12 p.m.

Federal employees throughout the executive branch began receiving emails on Saturday asking them to explain what they accomplished in the last week, which followed a threat from Elon Musk that workers who do not respond would be considered to have resigned. 

The subject of the email, which came from the same HR@OPM.gov email address that recently sent offers for federal employees to accept deferred resignations, asked employees “what did you do last week?”

“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the email said. “Please do not send any classified information, links or attachments.”

Employees were given a deadline of Monday at 11:59 p.m. ET to respond. 

After the emails went out, agencies across government warned employees not to respond. At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for example, leadership told employees in an email that it was "possible that the new message sent outside normal business hours was sent in error and/or is a phishing attempt." 

"Until such time that as we can verify that the message that was received at or around 4:46 p.m. ET is authentic, please do not respond," the note to employees read. 

NSA employees were instructed to "not respond until we send further notice" and FBI employees received a similar message. Employees at several other agencies told Government Executive they were instructed to wait for further guidance. 

Musk warned the emails were coming Saturday afternoon, which included the resignation threat and suggested they were issued at President Trump’s direction. Several CEOs at technology companies have deployed similar strategies in recent years. 

“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,” said American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley. “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.”

The emails themselves did not include the resignation threat. It is unclear how the federal government could force employees to resign, which by law must be a voluntary decision. AFGE vowed to challenge any “unlawful terminations” that federal employees face. 

Employees were receiving the email on a staggered basis Saturday. The Office of Personnel Management previously testified in federal court it takes eight hours to deploy emails to the entire federal workforce of more than 2 million civil servants. 

At least 20,000 federal employees have received termination notices in recent weeks as the Trump administration has fired—mostly recently hired—employees in their probationary periods. It is also threatening widespread layoffs across government, and has incentivized employees to leave through its deferred resignation program and early retirement offers.

This story has been updated with details about agency responses to the the OPM email.