DOGE leader Elon Musk says workers should respond to the email or it will be seen as a resignation, but also says workers who respond could be promoted.
An email has been sent out to federal employees asking what they did in the past week as tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is involved in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), suggested that those who don’t respond could face consequences.
Musk, an adviser to President Donald Trump, wrote on social media that if federal workers do not reply to the email, it will be seen as a resignation.
“All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote on X Saturday. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
OPM Confirms Email
Federal employees—including some judges, court staff, and federal prison officials—received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson at the Office of Personnel Management, confirmed the directive and said that individual agencies would “determine any next steps.”
Pinover added that individual agencies would also look into how to proceed if a worker is on leave or vacation when they received the email. The Epoch Times contacted the office for additional comment Sunday.
Musk Says Some Workers Deserve Promotion
And on Sunday morning, Musk provided an explanation as to why the email was sent out and said it’s designed to root out possible fraud.
“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” he wrote on X. “In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”
The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used… https://t.co/Rj5Xe6vYZB
Musk also said that there have been “a large number of good responses” to the email“ and those ”are the people who should be considered for promotion.”
Throughout the day on Sunday, the owner of X made frequent reference to the emails that were sent out. At one point, Musk also posted a poll asking whether it is appropriate to have an employee respond with a short email about their productivity over the past week.
