Several federal workers across agencies told Business Insider they’re frustrated and scared for their jobs after Elon Musk said they must email their work accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.
Some are sceptical of the consequences, while others have been advised not to respond.
The productivity-tracking email, sent Saturday afternoon from an HR account in the Office of Personnel Management, came after President Donald Trump instructed Musk to “get more aggressive” in reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy.
It is the most recent of DOGE’s sweeping initiatives, which have resulted in mass firings, funding pauses, and work stoppages in federal departments and agencies.
Musk, who is closely associated with the DOGE office, teased that the email would be forthcoming in a post on X Saturday, writing: “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
“It’s terrible,” said one Department of Education employee whose workload has been hampered by executive orders and layoffs. “It feels like harassment, especially sending it out on a Saturday and boasting about it in advance on X so that everyone could be checking their email afternoon in anticipation of its arrival.”
Another federal employee, from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, stated, “Can only imagine how many people they’ll fire based on the responses/non-responses to this.”
Another questioned “how much money is being wasted” by having federal employees respond to the email, and yet another asked who would review the responses.
Business Insider’s requests for comment were not immediately responded to by White House or Office of Personnel Management representatives.
Many of the federal employees who spoke with BI stated that hours after the DOGE email was sent, they had yet to receive any communication from their supervisors about how or whether to respond.
“No idea how to respond because this is from outside our chain of command,” one federal employee told BI.
Others stated that they had been directed by their union representatives or managers to wait for further instructions before responding.
“Once again, agencies were caught off guard by these emails, just like the chaotic ‘Fork in the Road’ email,” the National Treasury Employees Union wrote in an email to its members, urging them not to respond until further guidance is received.
“This email is yet another attempt by the administration to intimidate hardworking civil servants who serve the American people every day. It is shameful. We will notify you soon.”
The American Federation of Government Employees stated in a notice to members that it “strongly believes this email was sent illegitimately and that OPM lacks the authority to direct the assignment of work to agency employees in this manner.”
“We will formally request that OPM rescind the email and clarify under what authority it was issued,” the message reads. “In the meantime, AFGE advises all federal employees to forward the email to their supervisor and seek guidance on whether and how to respond, including the type of information that can be disseminated to OPM.”
The productivity email sent to federal employees did not include Musk’s comment on X, which stated that employees who did not respond by Monday night would be considered to have resigned. Several employees who saw his post questioned whether it was possible—or legal.
“I’m not sure if firing people because they didn’t respond to this would be legal,” the Department of Education employee said. “There are a number of agencies, like DOJ, which has attorney-client privilege, or DHS, which engages with national security topics, where people will surely be told by supervisors not to respond.”
Some of the federal workers who spoke with Business Insider had decided not to respond. Others, disheartened by the DOGE office’s aggressive funding and job cuts, said they had started looking for other jobs even though they didn’t expect to be fired.
A member of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Disaster Medical Assistance Team, which responds to federal disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes, suggested they might resign in either case.
“I have another job like the rest of us, and I don’t need this type of stress,” the DMAT member explained. “Maybe I’ll just resign.”
The employee stated that they are part of a group of people who thrive “in stressful situations,” but that the stress of having their job in jeopardy “is different.”
