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Sunday, February 23, 2025 9:10:04 PM
'What did you do last week?' email stokes confusion and anger among federal workers
Updated February 23, 2025 8:07 PM ET
Stephen Fowler
Demonstrators gather outside of the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 7 to protest federal layoffs and demand the termination of Elon Musk from the Department of Government Efficiency.
Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
A federal government-wide email asking employees "What did you do last week?" plunged workers and agencies into a weekend of confusion and conflicting directives.
Billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk said failure to reply would be taken as resignation. But some department officials told their employees they could hold off on responding.
Adding to the confusion is previous guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the agency that sent the broad request, saying that responses to such mass emails were "voluntary."
Federal workers resurfaced the OPM guidance after they received Saturday's email, signaling their latest objection to changes pushed by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk teased the OPM notice Saturday afternoon, posting on his social media site X that "all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week."
The leader of the DOGE initiative also said "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
Many federal workers are covered by civil service protections that prevent them from being fired without cause, and the actual text of the email sent from an OPM address did not include the ultimatum. Employees were asked to reply with "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager" by Monday 11:59 p.m. ET.
[...]
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/23/nx-s1-5306366/musk-federal-worker-email-confusion
Updated February 23, 2025 8:07 PM ET
Stephen Fowler
Demonstrators gather outside of the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 7 to protest federal layoffs and demand the termination of Elon Musk from the Department of Government Efficiency.
Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
A federal government-wide email asking employees "What did you do last week?" plunged workers and agencies into a weekend of confusion and conflicting directives.
Billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk said failure to reply would be taken as resignation. But some department officials told their employees they could hold off on responding.
Adding to the confusion is previous guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the agency that sent the broad request, saying that responses to such mass emails were "voluntary."
Federal workers resurfaced the OPM guidance after they received Saturday's email, signaling their latest objection to changes pushed by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk teased the OPM notice Saturday afternoon, posting on his social media site X that "all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week."
The leader of the DOGE initiative also said "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
Many federal workers are covered by civil service protections that prevent them from being fired without cause, and the actual text of the email sent from an OPM address did not include the ultimatum. Employees were asked to reply with "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager" by Monday 11:59 p.m. ET.
[...]
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/23/nx-s1-5306366/musk-federal-worker-email-confusion
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