WASHINGTON ― The federal authorities’s human assets company on Monday advised federal businesses their staff don’t even have to answer an electronic mail despatched over the weekend demanding they listing off their accomplishments or be fired.
The e-mail, despatched Saturday on the route of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a prime adviser to President Donald Trump, initially despatched shockwaves by means of Washington and represented yet one more try by Trump and Musk to intestine the federal authorities workforce. Monday afternoon’s directions, although, decreased the e-mail to irrelevancy.
HuffPost obtained an electronic mail from the Social Safety Administration’s HR division, despatched Monday afternoon, telling staff that OPM clarified its coverage.
“Pursuant to updated OPM guidance, responses to the email from sender ‘HR’ dated Saturday, February 22, are voluntary. Non-responses are not considered a resignation,” the e-mail stated.
Spokespeople for OPM didn’t reply to requests for remark. The New York Occasions first reported the reversal.
The e-mail switcheroo represents the newest oopsie second for Musk’s much-ballyhooed cost-cutting staff, often called the “Department of Government Efficiency.” A number of businesses have scrambled to rehire key staff who had been let go as a part of DOGE’s mass layoffs throughout the federal workforce. A few of DOGE’s strikes even have been held up by courts or administrative businesses, with a separate ruling Monday discovering lots of the mass firings of probationary federal staff had been unlawful.
DOGE’s actions have turn out to be a political headache for Republicans, with polls indicating Musk and his efforts to intestine the federal government are unpopular, and constituents berating Republicans at city corridor conferences, demanding pushback towards Musk.
Even earlier than OPM stated the e-mail was voluntary, Trump-appointed leaders at a bunch of businesses, together with the FBI and Division of Agriculture, had already advised their staff to not reply ― an indication of how different Trump allies are actually guarding their turf towards Musk’s encroachment.
“Elon Musk’s latest email fiasco is yet another example of the chaotic and callous treatment of federal employees that has been the hallmark of Trump’s second term,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Authorities Workers, stated in an announcement. “It was nothing but a cynical attempt to demean federal workers and terrorize them into quitting.”
Congressional Republicans are slowly but increasingly speaking out against Musk, with Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins applauding other Trump appointees for setting the rules for their agencies.
“I was glad to see some of the new department heads have pushed back against that,” the Maine Republican told HuffPost on Monday. “It should not be Elon Musk’s call.”
A more conservative Republican, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, said she was happy OPM made responding to the email voluntary. “I don’t think it was handled very well in terms of the surprise element of it or what the point of it was,” she said.
Other GOP senators have been critical of the project as a whole.
“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wrote Sunday on X, formerly Twitter. “Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who chairs the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has quietly been urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate hundreds of employees it haphazardly fired.
“Certainly on the veterans side, we’re asking for information from the administration,” Moran advised Politico late final week. “We are being reassured that no one at the VA who has any direct care responsibilities are being terminated or laid off, and we’re just looking for the positions and circumstances in which it’s occurring.”
On Saturday, Musk announced all federal staff would obtain an electronic mail asking “what they got done last week” and that failing to reply could be “taken as a resignation.” Musk stated the e-mail demand had been impressed by Trump’s encouragement for Musk to be more aggressive.
The email that went out to all 2 million federal workers from OPM said “reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” adding that senders should not include classified information.
Trump praised the Musk initiative as “genius” on Monday, even as OPM reversed itself. “If you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired,” Trump claimed at the White House. “Because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist,” Trump said, baselessly suggesting there are nonexistent people in the roles of federal employees.
Some businesses stated they didn’t plan to adjust to the request in any respect. FBI Director Kash Patel advised his workforce the FBI “is in charge of all of our review processes” and to “pause” their responses. The USDA told workers there’s no penalty for not responding. However the VA told workers they had to comply.
The Department of Health and Human Services told staffers they were welcome to respond to the email, but also reminded them not to share information on specific drugs, research or experiments. And in an email sent Monday and viewed by HuffPost, it warned them of a big potential downside of responding to Musk’s team.
“Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly,” read the email.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
At least one federal agency, the Department of Interior, is still making its tens of thousands of employees submit a list of their weekly accomplishments — and telling them to prepare to do this potentially every week.
“This email is legitimate, and employees (other than political appointees and those who lack access to email) are expected to respond,” reads a Monday morning email to Interior Department employees from Charles Dankert, a senior adviser to Secretary Doug Burgum. “Going forward, Interior will consider incorporating an expectation that employees submit weekly accomplishment bullets into its regular weekly reporting structures.”
When OPM’s electronic mail went out on Saturday, an Inside Division regional director initially advised workers to carry off on replying to it till they obtained additional steerage, an company worker advised HuffPost. However on Monday, the regional director advised everybody to answer it with an inventory of their accomplishments. They even created a brand new electronic mail account for it: accomplishments@doi.gov.
“Definitely nothing indicating it’s voluntary,” said this Interior Department employee, who requested anonymity to protect their job. “People are so angry … that they’re actually hitting ‘reply all’ to the director’s email and airing their grievances to the entire department.”
This federal worker added, “It’s pretty much a full blown panic now in the office.”
An Interior Department spokesperson declined comment.
Kevin Robillard and Igor Bobic contributed reporting.
