Thousands of U.S. government employees received an email on Saturday afternoon requiring them to submit a list of their weekly accomplishments or face potential resignation. The directive marks the latest step in the Trump administration’s campaign to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
The email, sent with the subject line “What did you do last week?” and signed by HR, instructed employees to submit five bullet points summarizing their achievements by midnight on Monday, without including classified information. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees federal human resources, confirmed the email’s authenticity.
“As part of the Trump administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of their weekly activities, copying their manager,” OPM said in a statement to CBS. “Agencies will determine any next steps.”
The message followed a post by billionaire Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), who wrote on X that employees would “shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.” Musk warned that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Musk later posted that “a large number of responses have been received already” and suggested those who responded promptly should be considered for promotions. He also claimed without evidence that some federal employees were collecting paychecks despite doing little work, adding that Doge suspected “outright fraud” involving non-existent individuals or the identities of deceased people.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal workers, condemned the directive. “It is cruel and disrespectful to force hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants to justify their jobs to an unelected billionaire with no experience in government service,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley. The union vowed to challenge any unlawful terminations.
Some government agencies pushed back against the email. FBI Director Kash Patel instructed employees to “pause any responses” to OPM’s directive, emphasizing that the FBI would conduct internal reviews according to its procedures. The State Department also assured employees that they were not required to report their activities outside their department’s chain of command.
The email mirrors Musk’s management style during his acquisition of Twitter (now X) in 2022, where he issued ultimatums demanding employees commit to an “extremely hardcore” work ethic or resign.
President Trump praised Musk’s workforce reduction efforts at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), stating, “We’re removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent, and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce. We want to keep the best people, and we’re not going to keep the worst people.”
In recent weeks, thousands of employees at agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Pentagon, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have been dismissed. Trump has encouraged Musk to intensify his efforts to streamline government operations, calling his work “great” and urging him to “get more aggressive.”
The move has sparked widespread concern among government employees and unions, raising questions about the future of the federal workforce under the administration’s ongoing cost-cutting measures.
