Elon Musk says federal employees must either document their work — or lose their jobs

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 be fired 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. 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."

It's unclear what legal weight the threat carries. Many federal workers are covered by civil service protections that prevent them from being fired without cause.

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.

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."

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.

NPR's Shannon Bond and Stephen Fowler contributed reporting.
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