Updated February 23, 2025 at 13:20 PM ET
Federal workers across the U.S. government received an email on Saturday afternoon asking them to account for what they did in the past week — and Elon Musk says they will lose their jobs if they don't respond.
The emails arrived several hours after Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency team that has orchestrated the mass firings of at least 20,000 government workers over the past month, gave notice about the apparent ultimatum.
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X, which he owns. The post ends: "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
The emails, which NPR has confirmed, were sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). They ask workers to reply and provide "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager," and give a deadline of Monday 11:59 p.m. ET. They ask that no classified information be shared.
OPM said in a statement that the emails are "part of the Trump Administration's commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce," and that "agencies will determine any next steps."
The legality of the request is questionable, given it was made directly by OPM and not by agencies themselves. Many federal workers are covered by civil service protections that prevent them from being fired without cause.
Last week, in response to the mass firings of probationary employees, labor unions sued the Trump administration, claiming OPM has no authority to manage employees of federal agencies other than its own.
Their complaint points to federal statute that states, "The head of an Executive department or military department may prescribe regulations for the government of his department, the conduct of its employees, the distribution and performance of its business, and the custody, use, and preservation of its records, papers, and property."
In other words, while OPM handles many human resource functions for the federal workforce, it does not have congressional authority to tell other agencies what to do. "Each agency has its own authorizing statutes that govern its administration," the unions' attorneys wrote.
Suzanne Summerlin, a labor attorney and expert in federal labor relations, said that a termination for refusing to respond to the email would likely not be legal.
"Firing someone who was unable or unwilling to respond would be found to be a disproportionate punishment by a labor arbitrator," she said.
But the employee could still face discipline as a result.
"A letter of reprimand or a suspension would likely be found by an arbitrator to be proportionate," Summerlin said.
Employee, agency confusion
Many employees were left confused by the implications of the email. In an email to employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), agency officials said the email from OPM is "a valid request."
But some agencies told employees to ignore the missive.
New FBI Director Kash Patel sent a message to the FBI workforce that the agency will review its own processes and employees should hold off on responding to the email from OPM. The FBI email was confirmed by an individual at the bureau who isn't authorized to speak publicly.
The State Department also let its employees know that the department plans to respond on their behalf, so employees aren't required to report their activities directly to the OPM email, according to a screenshot of the communication obtained by NPR.
At another agency, in a division within the Defense Department, a supervisor told staff to wait to reply until they receive internal guidance on how to respond, according to an email shared with NPR.
"In the interim, please do not reply given the many sensitive activities of the [department]," the email read.
In a statement responding to the email notices, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — which represents more than 800,000 civil servants — said it would challenge any unlawful firings of federal workers.
"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," AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
"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 the this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life," Kelley added.
The emails come as Musk and the new Trump administration continue to aggressively fire government workers and remove top leaders from federal agencies.
It's a familiar management tactic for Musk. The billionaire pulled a similar move at the helm of at least two of his companies, Twitter — before he rebranded the social platform as X — and Tesla, where he mandated weekly reports from his employees on productivity and attendance.
Late Saturday night, Musk wrote on X about the email to federal workers: "To be clear, the bar is very low here. An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write."
NPR's Shannon Bond, Stephen Fowler, Andrea Hsu, Ryan Lucas and Tamara Keith contributed reporting.
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