The Trump administration despatched one other obnoxious electronic mail to federal staff ordering them to record their achievements from the earlier week, making clear it intends for the bureaucratic memo train to be a brand new weekly ritual for greater than two million staff.
The e-mail from the Workplace of Personnel Administration, or OPM, was titled “What did you do last week? Part II.” Just like the earlier one, it instructed staff to “please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets describing what you accomplished,” and gave a deadline of Monday at midnight.
The primary such electronic mail was paired with a risk from Elon Musk, the pinnacle of President Donald Trump’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, who mentioned nonresponses can be thought-about resignations. It prompted widespread confusion throughout companies, with some division leaders telling staff to answer, and others telling them to disregard it and keep inside their company chain of command.
Comply with-up emails shared with HuffPost on Saturday confirmed some company leaders falling extra according to Musk after OPM’s second “what did you do last week?” demand.
Management on the Division of Homeland Safety despatched an electronic mail to staff Saturday telling them they had been “implementing a structured process to submit a brief summary of their key accomplishments from the previous week.” They known as the brand new coverage “part of our internal accountability” efforts, and mentioned it might align with OPM’s latest steering.
The earlier week, DHS had instructed staff to “pause” any response to OPM and mentioned “no reporting action from you is needed at this time.”
“One worker said the exercise seems to be based on the premise that first-line supervisors pay ‘absolutely no attention whatsoever to wtf’ their employees are doing.”
In an indication of how time-consuming this train has already been, the performing commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Safety, which is a part of DHS, despatched out a two-page memo to staff on Saturday attempting to clarify what’s anticipated.
It listed 17 questions and solutions on the method, together with “What should I do if I did not work all or part of last week?” (Reply: Reply and “indicate you were on leave”), and “Should employees who perform the same activities each week send the same bullet points each week?” (The TL;DR reply: “If you are unsure about what to include, ask your supervisor for assistance.”)
One employee, who spoke on situation of anonymity for worry of reprisal, mentioned the train appears to be based mostly on the premise that first-line supervisors pay “absolutely no attention whatsoever to wtf” their subordinates are doing.
On the Division of Power, Secretary Chris Wright had what one worker described as a “change of tenor” within the second week of OPM’s demand. After initially being informed they didn’t have to reply, staff had been notified Saturday that they need to reply.
Jose Luis Magana by way of Related Press
“At DOE, we do impactful and vital work for America and are proud to share our accomplishments with others,” Wright mentioned in an electronic mail shared with HuffPost. “To that end, I ask all DOE employees to reply to the OPM email by the requested deadline of Monday at 11:59pm ET each week.”
He added, “Employees currently without email access due to leave, temporary duty, or other valid reasons should submit their response within 48 hours of regaining access.”
Some company leaders had been nonetheless pushing again on the OPM directive, nonetheless. Each the State Division and the Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration despatched messages to staff this weekend instructing them to not reply, in line with a report in The Washington Put up.
The accomplishment memo is a part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to shrink the federal workforce, largely by making staff depressing and inspiring them to give up. The White Home has unilaterally shut down federal companies, orchestrated the firings of 1000’s of probationary staff and tried to push out many extra via a legally dicey deferred resignation proposal.
Trump’s implementation of workforce insurance policies has been rife with chaos and confusion, as leaders contradict and reverse each other in pursuit of the administration’s objectives. After OPM initially ordered staff to record their week’s accomplishments, the company later walked again its demand and mentioned replying was voluntary.
However that recommendation was undermined by Trump himself, who mentioned publicly Monday that staff might be punished for not replying to OPM.
“And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist,” the president mentioned.
Go Advert-Free — And Shield The Free Press
Already contributed? Log in to cover these messages.
Are you a federal worker with one thing to share? You may electronic mail our reporter right here, or contact him over Sign at davejamieson.99.
