Several US federal government employees received an official email on Saturday (February 22) titled “What did you do last week?”, after billionaire businessman Elon Musk announced it in a post on X. He said, “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) created under the new Donald Trump administration, Musk has been tasked with cutting wastefulness in government and improving efficiency in government. What is the mail and why is it attracting some backlash already? We explain. What does the mail say? The mail said: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.” Through the weekend, Musk continued posting and resharing support for the move on X, saying, “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 added, “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.” Musk did not cite data or provide proof of the claims. Why is there a backlash? There are two main reasons. First, there is no precedent for such an email or an established procedure for it, and that lack of clarity has been a source of irritation for some workers. Take the case of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the State Department. According to The New York Times, an official told their employees to pause responses to the email. It further reported that Trump-nominated FBI Director Kash Patel wrote an email to their staff, saying, “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.” He added, “For now, please pause any responses.” The size of the US federal government is huge, totalling more than 3 million employees according to Pew Research Centre, with several agencies and departments. All have different mandates and ensuring compliance across all of them may be difficult. Second, the notification comes amid several other measures from Musk and DOGE announced at breakneck speed within a few days. As The NYT reported, “For rank-and-file workers, the latest move by Musk underscored a climate of instability and fear inside the government.” In the last few weeks, some employees have been fired abruptly, and others have been advised to join a “deferred resignation program” to be on the payroll for the next few months but leave their jobs at the end of it. This has created uncertainty in the minds of many. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, said it would challenge any “unlawful” terminations over non-compliance with the mail. Everett Kelley, the union’s president, accused Musk and Trump of showing “utter disdain” for federal employees. “It is cruel and disrespectful,” he said in a statement, “to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.”
