Musk Email Demands All Federal Employees Justify Their Paychecks By Monday Night or Resign
Subject Line: “What did you do last week?”
Earlier this month, a government worker at a Leesburg, Virginia, town hall revealed that members of the Department of Government Efficiency team were conducting 15-minute interviews with federal employees asking them to “justify their existence.” This would allow DOGE to determine if they were necessary to the agency or if they should be fired.
On Saturday afternoon, Elon Musk took things up a notch. In an ominous post on X, he wrote, “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.”
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
Musk’s post followed President Donald Trump’s morning message on Truth Social: “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE. REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”
As promised, on Saturday evening, all federal workers received an email from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to list five tasks they had accomplished last week. The email requested that employees “cc” their responses to their managers and set a compliance deadline for Monday at 11:59 p.m. EST.
In the subject line of the email, federal employees were asked, “What did you do last week?” Next, they were instructed to “reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
Civil servants across the government are getting hit with an email this evening asking them to justify their jobs
Subject: What did you do last week?
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.” pic.twitter.com/wI2r2c19Gl
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) February 22, 2025
[Note: Pew Research Center estimates that as of November 2024, there were more than 3 million federal employees.]
So, was this move a little too brazen — even for Team Trump? Unsurprisingly, many people believe it crossed a line.
Newly minted FBI Director Kash Patel, a fiercely loyal Trump supporter, has reportedly told employees to “pause any responses” to Musk’s email. According to NBC News, “Patel said the FBI will review the work of its own employees in accordance with its own procedures.”
NBC also reported that State Department employees were told not to respond to the email. “Ambassador Tibor P. Nagy said in an email to employees that the department would respond on employees’ behalf and that ‘no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.’”
Needless to say, Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, wasn’t too pleased by Musk’s email and issued a statement in response. It read:
Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.
It is cruel and disrespectful 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.
The Associated Press reported that federal court officials advised recipients not to respond to the email in a Saturday night message. The officials wrote, “We understand that some judges and judiciary staff have received an email … directing the recipient to reply with 5 accomplishments from the prior week. Please be advised that this email did not originate from the Judiciary or the Administrative Office and we suggest that no action be taken.”
Still, as undiplomatic as Musk’s email was, many people were delighted by his audacity. Here are a few responses to his post on X:
To be clear, the bar is very low here.
An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable!
Should take less than 5 mins to write. https://t.co/MTL1wyzaxd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
Exactly https://t.co/08sGxNJgvq
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
Just gonna remind everyone of this one: pic.twitter.com/EXKuWnl7HA
— Rebecca Mistereggen (@RMistereggen) February 22, 2025
Who’s gonna be the one to argue that workers don’t have to be productive???
Who is going to say the workers shouldn’t have to show the job they are doing???
I dare someone
— Common Sense Custodian (@Wall_St_Custo) February 22, 2025
— Donna Davis (@DonnaDavisHNL) February 22, 2025
I’d be interested to hear what our readers have to say about this maneuver in the comments section.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Time to scramble! Make some crap up!
No problemo! It’ll be easy to fool Musk.
On a week with one holiday and a record snowfall on the east coast. Great timing.
Yep, plenty of time to reflect and compose an email.
Not on the weekend. I’m not allowed to telework.
Then it looks like it’s the highway for you sweetie
Some of the most creative writing comes from employees who are too lazy to work.
This is true.
Summarizing the week for my actual direct supervision isn’t hard or out of line. But responding to an unsigned unencrypted weekend email from outside the CoC isn’t going to happen without guidance.
Then it’s goodby to you
Or you could be a grown up and use the same summary for your manager in the email. I mean you know, it’s your choice
Outside the chain of command? It came from a guy who reports directly to the chief executive.
If you can’t do this in your job with about 2 minutes at any level of seniority you need to be fired for cause, no matter how important you think you are. As for “chain of command” if the CEO appoints a management consultant in private industry to do a review or audit and you don’t quickly and politely reply to the best of your ability , you get canned, This happens every day in companies all over the world.
hr.opm.gov is above the local chain of command, I only used one bullet point.
“I operated a 100 PSI boiler safely for 40 hours of regular time as of midnight tonight, and an additional 17 hours of overtime because we have 3 of the 5 operators necessary to run a plant 24/7/365. That’s the sole bullet needed – operated 100 PSI steam boilers safely…. ”
Last night was the first of 3 days of 12 hour shifts with 13 hours off that I’ve been doing since last September. Without a break. Plus the other two days. And another 6 hour OT shift every other week. And if someone needs a day off- more OT.
You are destined for the dreaded PSE (Private Sector Employment) if you cannot list 5 things you did over the past week at work. And if your reading comprehension matched that of a 7th-grader you would know that you are required to “cc” your manager. Two birds with one stone…
JFC. I never said I couldn’t provide 5 things. But cc my manager is not direction FROM my manager. That’s who I work for. If any of the 2 O-6s and one GS-15 I report to ask sure. But this was a bad idea.
I never said I couldn’t provide 5 things. But CC my manager is not direction FROM my manager. If any of the two O-6s and one GS-15 I report to ask sure. But this was a bad idea.
Musk is such a jackass. Stick to the books and find the fraud. Enough with the dumbass corporate stuff.
This will reveal nothing useful. What the hell is he thinking?
That there is deadwood who needs removing.
Next question…
It will reveal people like you who think they’re too special for any accountability.
I suspect it will reveal some of the biggest #Resistance bigmouths.
And the naughty people “working from home” while on the beach somewhere or out of state in contravention of their employement contract, And the fools that use Chat GPT for everything. They are now dealing with tech savvy people who can quantify this stuff. Good luck with your childish resistance @taxleeches
“What the hell is he thinking?”
It’s like a chess game. He’s made a move. Now we have to wait and see what move they’ll make and then see what move he’ll make after that, etc etc.
When the game is over, we’ll see who the winner is.
So it will reveal that you personally did nothing useful? I guess that is a possibility.
He would’ve “stuck to the books”, were not venue-sought judges being the newest tactic to invalidate democracy. You can’t “stick to the books” when judges issue rulings saying you can’t “access the books”.
But you can evaluate the employees.
“disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”
The issue is who actually provides those services and who sits on –their —.
They’ve earned every bit of the disdain they have.
How can Musk evaluate employee performance when he knows hardly knows anything about their job?
it is fraudulent to take money for doing the useless or unnecessary
No, it isn’t. An employee’s duty is to do as he’s told, and it’s none of his concern whether it’s useful or necessary.
And if he’s not given any work to do then he has every right to be paid for doing nothing.
I had a do nothing job for a while. Drove me insane (insaner). Then I got better. I couldn’t ask my manager for help, He also had nothing to do and neither did his boss.
I once had an eight-week contract with a well-known large company. They insisted that I had to be there so early each day that I had to wake up before 5, and that I couldn’t stay after 4 PM. I got there and they gave me some work to do, so I did it. A week later I turned it in and expected to be given the next batch of work, but the manager said they didn’t have it ready so I should wait.
For the next seven weeks I would arrive at 7 AM and catch a nap, then drink some coffee and read the paper, and mid-morning I’d go look for this manager and ask if she had anything she wanted me to do. She’d say no, so I’d go back to my desk and read a book, have lunch, and mid-afternoon I’d ask again.
Eventually I decided that the work they’d given me at the beginning was supposed to have taken me eight weeks, and they had nothing else for me but were too embarrassed to say so.
At the end of each week the manager would sign my time-sheet and I’d be paid. I’d remind her I was available for any work they might need done. When the contract ran out they obviously didn’t renew it, but they also reported to the agency that I was unsatisfactory, which led to the agency dropping me. I think it bothered her that I was nagging her for work when I should have just enjoyed the paid vacation.
Sounds like working under the Soviet quota system.
His employer, however, has every right to decide it’s not worth paying him to do nothing anymore and expects there make him do something or let him go. His job is not by right a sinecure.
It will reveal people like you.
The fraud is the people who are being paid without doing any work.
I am a CPA, so I am fairly knowledgable on the workload of IRS agents. It is very low, especially since a large percentage work from home, which is highly inefficient along with computer security risks with data accessed via internet. (covid and post covid procedures).
I am absolutely in favor of terminating low performing employees. That will accomplish several things including reducing payroll costs and motivating other employees to actually improve productivity.
The problem that Musk has to overcome is Congress authorizes expenditures with limits the executive branches ability to curtail unneccessary expenses. Further, government employees enjoy significant civil service protections.
Simply having less than a year on the job doesn’t automatically make them low performers. That’s what’s been happening My sense is that will come back to haunt DOGE when a court forces the government to offer them their jobs back with full pay and time accrued.
If they wanted a RIF they should have ordered a RIF. At least that has a process and protections.
Probationary government employees have zero right to appeal their dismissal. Zero. They may be released from employment without reason, explanation or justification.
In fact, when executing a RIF, the very first action is release all probationary employees so the net result would be the same.
You are correct that the recent hires are not automatically low performers. However, b/c they are within their probationary period they do NOT enjoy the same level of civil service protection as longer tenured Federal workers. Even the longer tenured folks are entirely vulnerable to a reduction in force; they can be offered a transfer to short staffed departments and if they decline they become unemployed.
I know how a RIF works.
Using “poor performance” or anything like that with employees who are rated successful or haven’t been around long enough for a review will come back to bite them. Any doubt this ends with a judge reinstating everyone with back pay and time? I don’t.
His employer, however, has every right to decide it’s not worth paying him to do nothing anymore and expects there make him do something or let him go. His job is not by right a sinecure.
Article 2 of the Constitution vests the POTUS with executive power, which presumably includes hiring/firing of those in the executive branch. I wonder if federal law that grants “protections” to civil service employees might actually be unconstitutional? Have these protections been tested in federal court? A rudimentary interpretation of Article 2 suggests that civil service laws substantially limit the president’s executive power and thus could be overturned.
The Supreme Court has held repeatedly that the executive power does not include hiring/firing everyone in the executive branch, but it does include some. Most federal laws protecting employees are valid, but some are not.
Hence the court case going on with Hampton Dellinger; he claims the law protecting his position is valid, the government claims it isn’t. Each has precedents to point to but there’s nothing directly about this specific law, so the courts will have to decide whether it’s more like similar laws that have been upheld or it’s more like ones that have been struck down.
Fine. Assume the law protects this guy’s job. It probably doesn’t protect what he does, where he does it, and perhaps even how much he is paid.
That is a ridiculous position.
What is, and how is it ridiculous? Where did you get the idea that Congress can’t make laws governing employment in the executive and judicial branches?
No, Congress merely makes the money available. It’s then up to the executive to decide how that money is used.
That is not true at all. Sometimes Congress gives the executive some flexibility in deciding the exact details, but it sets at least general guidelines and often quite specific ones, and the government must adhere to those.
If it says specifically so many million dollars are appropriated for this specific program, every cent must be spent on that program. And if it says this amount is appropriated to build a six-level parking lot at this address, then it must be spent on that building, even if the executive has no use for it.
It’s so amazing to watch you be so wrong with such certainty.
The reason we are having this discussion at all is that allocated money was NOT going to the issues for which it was allocated.
And worse, that things were being appropriated for that no one wanted by unaccountable bureaucrats.
But that is what you’re here for–to let us know that despite the evidence of reality, the left is always right.
Totally true. But he has no line management authority to fire people anyway- he is an appointed consultant. The relevant department heads have to do that. I don’t envy them.
Q: How can Musk’s little team go through thousand of replies in such a short time?
A: He’s only going through the ones he’s already decided to fire. Duh!
Even easier as this just taking attendance.
That’s essentially what this exercise amounts to. No answer implies the employee doesn’t exist or at least isn’t monitoring their email. It’s a nice flag to check on these individuals.
There will also be morons who refuse to follow this instruction “on principle.” That is insubordination.
Now, frankly, I ( I was Fed HR management for 25 years) doubt that a single instance of insubordination at this level is sustainable grounds for termination under progressive discipline policy. So, a shot across the bow with a written reprimand, which gives the employee an opportunity to respond. However continued failure to reply is a suspension, and finally termination. It’s a stupid hill to die on.
Oh, and the obvious- if you comply the first time, as Paula points out, management is going to be too swamped to do anything but identify illiterates. However if you fail to reply the first time you can bet your ahem job that you’ll get real scrutiny when you do finally reply.
/blockThat is insubordination.
No it is not.
Musk is not in the chain of command of any of the people he sent the email to.
As a person who worked in HR, you should know that for an act to be insubordinate, the person giving the order has to be a direct superior.
In other words, some supervisor in the Department of Energy cannot tell a person in the Department of Agriculture they have to do something and then say they are “insubordinate” when they fail to do so.
There is nothing Musk can do if someone fails to comply.
Come on. He is an appointed consultant by the CEO.
Management consultants advise HR to can people all the time in indusrty
Trump is EVERYONE in government’s direct superior under Article 2 and the vesting clause. His appointed consultants can advise the relevant department heads to can them. Additionally , this kind of thing is a trap for the more intellectually simple. Even if you are right and you can’t be done for insubodrination , this goes in your personnel file, Good luck during the next round of layoffs or promotion time. Stupid not to take 2 mins out of your day to reply. If you can’t or won’t , you shouldn’t have a job.
The WH in the EO creating DOGE out of USDS, signed off on a directive for every Dept/Agency to cooperate with DOGE.
Musk himself can only make recommendations to the President but given that this directive about a 5 bullet point email came on the heels of DJT encouraging DOGE and Musk to ‘move faster and cut deeper’ it seems incredibly short sighted for some random Federal worker to decide to defy so simple a task order.
Musk did not send the email himself. He went through proper channels. The email was sent out by Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Also there was nothing in the email threatening that anyone would be fired if they failed to respond.
All executive power is vested in the President. Everything else that happens in the executive department is because of authority delegated by the executive. When the president delegates an authority to review all employees in the department, that reviewer IS in the chain of command of every department employee.
Correct He was appointed and DOGE established by executive order. The order is specific on what DOGE can do. Requiring employees to do this type of thing is not in the order. DOGE has no authority.
Correct. The order requires agencies to cooperate with DOGE in accessing computer systems. “What do you do?” is not a computer system.
No, it is not. DOGE has no authority from the establishing EO to go down this path. The Office of Personnel Management has no authority either as that is outside their delegated responsibilities.
While I am for DOGE and the cutting of waste and examination of fraud, if I were to get this email, my response would be simple: “I do the work that is assigned to me by my supervisor. This work survey does not fall into that category. Have a nice day.”
Once again, this is an directive that crosses a boundary in agencies. It is not “insubordination” to refuse to do it.
Paula:
“Failure to respond will be taken as resignation.”
In response to @Milhouse
That was not in the email that was sent out.
Hodge:
Not if your actual employer has told you not to respond. If you read this post you would see that the FBI, the State Department, and the federal courts (or some of them, it’s not clear from the post) have told their employees not to respond.
True. They said it would still happen but be handled in house at the agency. Next?
Even easier he’s gonna go through the ones who foolishly choose NOT to comply with the directive. It is the folks who choose to be flagrantly insubordinate in the midst of a Gov’t wide restructuring, cost cutting and weeding out ‘resistance’ minded federal workers who will be likely be terminated.
And if not immediately , their non compliance will have consequences down the road. It would take most of us 2 minutes to reply to this.
“Q: How can Musk’s little team go through thousand of replies in such a short time?”
Obviously he’s going to use AI.
“Siri, find me the 20,000 replies with the worst attitude.:
“Find me all the ones that were replied to by DC workers working from home in the Caribbean”
That’s a good one.
First thought: How is DOGE going to handle the work load of all those emails?
Second thought: A bit of overreach.
Third thought: If it gets the attention of those who aren’t pulling their weight, so be it.
Fourth thought: My fellow workers and I had to justify our paychecks so federal workers should too; it’s not hard if you’re actually doing your job.
.
We already do. To our supervisors, on a continuing basis. That’s how it works at my office.
The Federal Government is a funny place. As I mentioned above I was Fed HR for 25 years. For our agency I designed and implemented a pay-for-performance system for our some 10,000 management employees.. One thing it was intended to do was “starve out” the worst performers by essentially halting any annual pay raises. While designing the system I noticed that we had sub-standard (according to their performance evaluations) who had been rated substandard for years. We discussed this fact and decided that any employee who had been sub-standard for three years would be mandatorily placed in a 90 day PIP (performance improvement program). Of the hundred or so not a single one failed. Did they begin working or did their managers not want to be the bad guy and fire them? I never found out as the program was dropped as a pointless exercise.
You mean in what most of us call “the real world where adults have to be acoountable to their employer”?
Simple. Use the basics to do it:
1. Did the person reply?
2.Did they meet the deadline?
3. If so did they follow the very clear instructions to use a 5 bullet point format?
Don’t have to.screen for anything else this go round. Just ID and fire the folks choosing to be flagrantly insubordinate by not doing it. Then see of they followed the basic directives of time limit and format of content to determine if these employees can demonstrate ability to comprehend and follow basic instructions. Fire the ones who can’t demonstrate that. Easy.
I”d be hard pressed to say what I did in any week. It’s more of a develop a system in a year and get back to us. “Thinking” sounds weak but that’s what’s going on. The system came from somewhere but you don’t know where.
We’ll help you out here rhhardin
1.)wake up at noon in your parents basement
2.) Take a dump in their commode
3.) Turn on your ( their) computer
4.) Open up bookmarked site legalinsurrection
5.) don’t read the post but write dribble anyway
6.) This one’s for good measure and puts you ahead of the cure for Musk
Raid the refrigerator, steal your parents food
7.) Now you’re really cooking. Return to bed in the basement , it’s time for your nappy! (actually just a mat on the floor)
Developing that system has components and parts that you work on, doesn’t it? Are you saying the ‘system’ is s nebulous that it doesn’t have any discreet entities you can say you worked on?
I have seen these kinds of emails hundreds of times over the years. It’s usually a part of a yearly evaluation.
No one in the private sector would have freaked out.
I agree with @Paula, they are looking at the ones who are already on the short list.
They are seeing who doesn’t respond or who responds with insubordinate answers. (Yes, there will be hundreds of entitled little snots who get pissy in their response.)
This could also be to see how management handles the uproar.
As far as the; “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together should realize that is never going to fly in a unionized workforce.
In the private sector nobody would have noticed and already have replied to this in about 2 mins amongst the myriad admin things that is required of everyone from cleaner to CEO.
I can’t see how this helps anything, and can see how it gives ammunition to the leftists.
Agreed. Like changing the name of the Gulf, it’s a stunt that will accomplish nothing but giving ammunition to leftists.
Untrue. Now democrats will run against the name Gulf of America and Vance will get to bash them over the head with it. Because there’s no legitimate reason to switch it back.
“there’s no legitimate resson to switch it back”
Quite the strawman argument. I never suggested changing the name back — just that the name change was a foolish move that doesn’t help President Trump. You may recall that according to the poll that Mary Chastain wrote about here at LI last week, President Trump’s policies have strong support overall, but 71% thought that the name change wasn’t a good idea. That’s a higher percantage than the % who favored “drill baby drill”.
Thank you for your…. concern.
They are not giving it the same weight as drill baby drill by any means. False analogy.
You said changing the name accomplished nothing. You were wrong. It gives Vance a stick and makes democrats expend political capital on something that really doesn’t matter. It also forces them to explain why they want to name something after Mexico instead of America when there’s no reasonto change it. It accomplished quite a bit.
Ammunition to be extreme. No need to have wet pants over them.
It will help them identify anyone who is actually working and/or interested in keeping their job.
it also says they are boss. As to the union, considering all the nasty crap unions have promoted, maybe it is time to break their back. Just dropping their membership will hurt.
do we really care if Leftists add another delusional talking point to its arsenal?
“delisional talking point”
Kash Patel doesn’t think it’s “delusional’.
Judging by the upvote/downvote score of 1-7, Kash Patel must have become a persona non grata in the LI comment section.
Nope. Just you.
You’re a terrible judge.
And you’re too cute by half when you know what Patel is doing is just handling the action in house instead of ‘resisting’ he’s not your ally.
It’s a trap for the leftists and they are diving into it with self righteous , entitled blue rage.
Not smart.
Another thing DOGE should figure out is how to get a “Proof Of Life” from Social Security beneficiaries. I’ve been collecting SSA benefits for 7 years and have never had any contact with anyone from the SSA. If I authorized a joint account with my daughter she could collect my benefits until I’m 150 years old or older. This would probably be a pain in the butt for me to comply with but it needs to be done.
I wonder if they could figure out a way to interact with Medicare since most SS beneficiaries are going to be using medical services. If you haven’t had a medicare claim in at least X months someone reaches out?
Or get a data feed of death certificates from the states, for a start.
When I was in Panama, our agency’s answer (which existed before I got there) was to throw a huge party every year for all Panamanian retirees. If you couldn’t show up because of age or infirmity your relatives had to give us your address, and we had a U.S. employee bring you a gift basket… and take your fingerprint (we joked about Little Red Riding Hood’s Grandma and wolf “what young eyes you have grandma!). No show, no dough. We cut it off and you had to fight to get it back.
Of course this is irrelevant for the U.S. but it was a great party!
My Japanese wife who draws Japanese SS must submit “Proof of Life” every year and must appear in person every three but gets no party!
Som yeah , it’s completely doable.
They are electronically notified when the funeral director files with them thst you’ve died.
Whose card has “mob victims draining Social Security?”
Supposed to be but we have about 40 million+ active SSA # in excess of the total US population not to mention something like 25 million + over age 100 so something ain’t working.
Do a birth month audit. In person go to SSA office during the month of your birth. Bring valid ID; passport, Military ID, State issued DL/ID card. If unable to come due to infirmity schedule an in person visit at your home or hospice.
Put eyes on every SSA recipient age 91 and older along with valid ID. That stops the BS.
About 10 years ago, Social security put in a rule that payments stopped at age 115. That such a rule was needed, strongly suggested they were indeed, paying people long past their expiration date. The left is claiming there is no fraud in the SSA but that’s a load of crap. Those systems are engineered to make it next to impossible to do a proper audit and that needs to change.
When my spouse died, the funeral home notified social security.
I thought I saw a Tweet from Musk saying that they really did just want to see responses with coherent sentences in English showing that employees actually saw the emails. So if DOGE gets back emails saying anything that would probably be more than adequate, even if it isn’t five bullet points.
I gather that there is a not insignificant number of folks in the WFH category (and possibly even in office) who never bother to read their emails, and I suspect those are the ones they are trying to catch out and yeah, since they are probably making more than I am, I’d rather not be paying them to sit on their butts drinking coffee and watching Netflix all day.
I expect they’ll feed all of these email responses into an AI ‘large language model’ which will allow them to build a map of what everyone is doing (thinks they are doing) within the federal government. They’ll use this as a roadmap to help them figure out what/where to deep-dive next.
Dear Mr. Musk,
I could name countless accomplishments from the past week, but here are five highlights:
1. I heel-walked my caster chair over to the group coffee pot and poured myself a cup of joe. I didn’t have a quarter to toss in the coin jar, but made a mental note to throw in an IOU next time, if I happen to have pen and paper handy.
2. I fiddled my travel expense report to disguise commuting mileage as business related.
3. I extensively surfed several new porn sites and created a false identity for an adults-only dating site.
4. I joined some colleagues at an extended business lunch, which featured very reasonably priced pitchers of beer and pole dancers.
5. I set my mouse jiggler to make it appear that I was working, while I took a well-earned nap.
I hope this convinces you that I am upholding the finest traditions of the civil service. I applaud your efforts to clean house and get rid of the deadwood.
Signed,
Your Humble and Obedient Servant,
Johnny Hardacre
If it really happens there might not be any federal employees left
I’m astonished that anyone would actually object to naming 5 tasks they accomplished in a given week.
When I worked for other people, there usually was not time in a week to get everything done, so I’d have to work extra hours or find someone to delegate tasks to. Choosing only 5 might have been the difficulty.
But then again, I always worked in industries where productivity = profits, and if as an administrator I couldn’t point to where I had influenced productivity, I’d have been eased out.
Every work day I have to give an update on what I’ve worked on, especially on any impediments I’ve had. I may not be able to give a list of five accomplishments in a week, but that’s because the tasks take more than a day.
Notwithstanding the entertainment value, it was a horrible message to send to the federal workforce. Anyone involved in legal, medical, or investigative work, among others, cannot possibly respond without risking the improper disclosure of confidential information. Inquiries like this should go through proper channels.
When I was working, I submitted reports each week, whether on the road or in the office. A typical week on the road would see “conducted X witness interviews for case xxxxx, x for case xxxxx. Met with Western District of Arkansas AUSA X on Tuesday on case xxxxx”. The report was turned in to my ASAC. In the office I would show time on each case for report writing, etc. There would be no disclosure of sensitive information without the ability to access the case file for each case number and the case files were kept in a vault with limited access.
How long did that take you?
Like 10 minues , tops?
Any objectors to this shouldn’t be employed anywhere.
Oh come on.
I’m an ER physician and this would take me about 2 mins without disclosing any confidential info at all.
They are not asking for specifics:
Completed oustanding invoicing and admin paperwork
Researched major criminal prosecution
Attended meeting with investigators
Planned apprioach to jury selection
Meeting with senior staff to discuss strategy at end of week.
That took 90 seconds.
The only objections to this are ideological.
Medical professionals can share very basic stuff without risk: “Monday: Saw patients and wrote up case notes” or “Worked 12 hour shift in hospital clinic and provided patient care in accordance with latest care standards”. I spent almost 20 years working in hospitals, and I don’t see any confidential information being shared there since no names or diagnoses are listed.
I understand some departments have told their employees to ignore the email and told DOGE that they will be taking care of this in house. I suspect that if nothing else, this email will light a fire under any other departments which weren’t in a rush to show that they are on board with the program.
You can reply what you did in general terms without specific client information. You’re trying too hard.
Elon is putting on a clown show. His minions have no clue that many government positions are taken by retired veterans that take positions because they are motivated by the opportunity to continue to serve in their retirement years. They may bring incredible knowledge and be overqualified for positions. They might have just onboarded in a position after being thoroughly vetted by a command. Then they got a clown email asking them to Quit by a website with no verification as to whether the Quit applied to them. Then have been told they are a list to be cancelled. The command not even being in the loop until the command was told to request exemptions. Then while waiting for exemptions, the clown sends out an email asking what did you do this week. At that is point, it is clear to me that clown needs to go.
If you can’t answer that in 90 seconds , it’s not Elon that needs to go.
If they didn’t do anything last week, is this anything other than a glorified make-work program? I say this as the wife of a 21+ year navy vet.
Even if they command is still working on writing up the exemption, the guy/gal should be able to write up an email saying what he/she was doing, even if it is just doing the onboarding tasks.
Attended annual mandatory safety fire safety training class.
That would qualify for Elon’s “write an email in coherent English showing that you aren’t just sitting at home drinking coffee and watching Netflix” requirement.
Bruh, it’s a 2 minute task to respond with 5 bullet points of what you did last week. It ain’t hard. Please don’t encourage anyone to become intransigent and lose their job over this b/c it somehow offends your sense of self worth. No one is indispensable.
Oh, because some nebulous theoretical veteran somewhere MIGHT have just onboarded, Elon isn’t allowed to ask the millions of others what they were actually working on?
Sit down, clown.
This isn’t hard. If you’re training and onboarding, that’s what you worked on last week. ‘Completed XX training courses, did 20 hours of practical training’.
The more immature whiners like you scream that nobody should be accountable anywhere in government, the more you confirm just how many need to be fired.
The clowns are the people who are bitching and crying about having to complete a very simple directive. The thing is, no one is owed a job in the public or private sector and when someone else is giving you money in exchange for your time, it is not unreasonable for that “someone else” to make it a condition that you justify the money you’re receiving. It’s not “dehumanizing” or any of the other crap people are claiming. No one escapes accountability, not even the self employed. The contractor who is remodeling my house sends me weekly reports detailing exactly what he’s done and provides copies of all receipts. It’s insulting to suggest some federal employee can’t list 5 things they did in 40 hours.
How many such retired veterans take such positions? For that matter, how is bringing “incredible knowledge” judged?
“[Note: Pew Research Center estimates that as of November 2024, there were more than 3 million federal employees.]”
Having been to the Pew webpage on this subject about two hours ago, Pew shows the Executive Branch employment figure is 2,278,730 as of March 2024. The remainder of the “more than three million” are USPS employees (about 600,000), congressional staffers, employees of the government’s various intelligence agencies or presidential appointees who require Senate confirmation. The Pew research shows that the level of Federal employment, as a percentage of US civilian employment, has been stable at 1.5% since 2000 (other sources claim this data applies going back to 1980) The absolute number of Federal employees has grown at a fairly steady rate of a little over 1% per year, somewhat remarkable given the increase in spending since 2000.
Don’t forget to include all the Federal contractors and NGO who function as indirect employees b/c their salaries come from Federal gov’t. Probably close to another 5 million +/-.
It sounds like what they’re being asked to do is perfectly normal and routine. At every job I had I was required to write weekly staff notes explaining tasks accomplished and progress on longer term projects.
It was also the primary vehicle to get help when it was needed from senior management to break down barriers. Nasty emails with BCC’s were seriously frowned upon.
I see nothing wrong with this.
OPM is ignoring that there is a chain of command. Incredible disrespect for our military leaders.
Article 2 .
Who is the head of the chain in the US?
Who can appoint management consultants at any level?
I’m not even American.
This stuff is not hard.
The head of that Chain, the President himself, delegated to DOGE the authority to make the Govt more efficient. Firing federal employees who choose not to execute a simple task to explain in bullet points what they did at work last week seems like a good start..
The.folks who don’t do so either can’t comprehend the task, defiantly refuse to do it at all, do it in an untimely manner or in a manner inconsistent with the very simple directives. Any of those seems like a very reasonable basis to show them the door.
Some of the complainers really need to come back to reality. There wasn’t a job I had where I didn’t have to provide status. In some cases I had weekly staff meetings where I had to provide it to the entire team. (I hate staff meetings), Providing status is just part of the job. Get over it or get out.
As for staff reductions I was RIFd from every job I ever had. Half the time it was the result of political infighting. Disagreements between me and the new sheriff in town. The other half was because the company was failing. Job security just doesn’t exist unless you’re a union worker in some cases. (That is one of the big negatives of unions.) Again. this is unpleasant but it is reality. Don’t like it? Start and run your own company where you can be the boss, call the shots, and be the fireree instead of the fired, (Also take the risk).
Certain jobs there are already procedures in place And certain jobs would be much harder to put in those terms, ( you might only have one task for the whole week that took 50 hours that week), say a DOD branch historian.
Then your bullet point for each day is “continued to catalog and memorialize memos from September-December 1943.
When you are given one task to work on for a week that task almost always has subcomponents.
Which area of DOD history did you look at? Where did you look? Etc.
This is easy as pie. You got a.deadline and 5 bullet points to type and hit send. If you can’t or worse won’t do it then get ready to be selected for transfer to an unpleasant location prior to being terminated.
It’s not any worse than letting it all continue. When the garage is in shambles, you have to clean out before you can reorganize. There’s no good way, and people that said Biden was a sharp tack have little credibility.
It. Is. A. Litmus Test.
It is also an IQ test.
Amazing how many are failing it.
From the bizarre comments , I expect many would also fail a urine toxicology test.
He’s fishing for ghost employees.
That’s fine. I have no problem with the department answering to DOGE 5 things each employee has done in the last week. That should be easy stuff. Each department should have lists of things every employee has to do, all the time.
But this Nagy character is wrong about State department employees not being answerable to anyone outside of the State department. That is not true. The State department is not its own little fiefdom. It and all of its employees, answer to the President.
Nagy is a Clinton ambassador that’s clearly been allowed to remain decades past his expiration date.
I believe I read he left or retired but came back on 1/20 to work in the Trump administration.
Correct. He was not a “Clinton ambassador”, he was a career State Dept employee, who served as an ambassador under presidents Clinton and W Bush. His last ambassadorship ended in 2002. He came back in the first Trump administration as an Assistant Secretary of State, left when Trump’s term ended, and returned as an Under Secretary of State in the new Trump administration. So he’s clearly a Trump person.
The state department is a problem child and has been for decades. They do not care who is President because they can just “resist” and operate under malicious compliance until the President leaves them alone because the president will be gone in 4 years and their job is for life. They are a constant and persistent thorn in the side of every President to the right of Lenin. I personally, would make them justify their existence every single day until I could burn that agency to the ground and rebuild something that worked for, not against, the American people.
From: George Dinglebarry
Subject: Re: What did you do last week?
Department: General Acquisitions for Reimbursable Purchases, Political Appointee Division
– Inventoried 2 year supply of hair bleach (side note: We need more. A LOT more.)
– Disposed of expired cosmetics such as botox and injectable derma fillers (not gonna say how – just a suggestion to steer clear of any rivers and beaches in the D.C. area)
– Helped Pam Bondi put on her eyelashes (Stu was out)
– Handed out lanyards at CPAC (and PROUDLY! – pass this on!)
– Gave yo mamma a sponge bath
I’m currently listening to the audio book of “Bullshit Jobs” – if such jobs are rife in the private sector, there’s no reason to believe they aren’t also prevalent in government as well.
Everett Kelley, President, American Federation of Government Employees:
Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the 5 critical services they [each] provide[d] to the American people [last week]. (There, Everett – FIFY)
Comrades:
I’ve taken the liberty (apologies for the use of that word) of crunching the numbers, and I’ve figured out that if we stop manufacturing artillery shells for Ukraine (or give them old ones and backfill ours, whatever…), we can stock up on General Bondi’s hair bleach for the next 5 quarters. Spreadsheet to come.
In solidarity,
Comrade Dinglebarry
why don’t moron 1 and moron 2 just be honest. Unless you are part of the moron MAGA cult , you can’t work for the Government. It’s just pathetically astounding how the moron MAGA cult just rolls over and accepts a dictatorship,
You’ve never actually held a job, have you, transvestite1156?
English is my fourth language , but allow me to make an observation.
If you cannot punctuate or spell at fourth grade level , how is it that you are employed and where?
Additionally , perhaps you should avoid calling others “morons” given your limited intellectual capacity?
You are welcome.
tjv is just personally butthurt because he sees the writing on the wall — his mommy’s job now has a predicted half-life of two months, the fellow he thinks is his daddy has just moved to Portland, and his old supervisor at Hardees instituted new hygiene requirements.
The fainting couches and pearl clutching by the media over the poor overpaid underworked Federal employees is a sight to behold. They keep saying the American public is aghast…and there is huge backlash..,,
Well hate to break it to them but other than those overpaid underworked federal employees…. The rest of America is applauding
Meanwhile those of us that work in the real world already have to do this every 6 months.
Every 6 months we give our Top 3 Accomplishments and Top 3 Opportunities, and our raises and bonuses are based on those.
The idea that workers have to prove that they’re actually WORKING and doing work that’s worth doing is some kind of ‘oppression’ is insane, and just demonstrates what an absolute cesspool the government has become.
Providing this information to someone in your COC who requests it is valid … but not for any request made by anyone outside of it. You answer to your COC and nobody else.
I was going to say. I have to fill out a much more detailed self evaluation than this, including this information, as well as goals, etcetera.
On the social security bit- some of us oldster, like my wife and I (69 me/67 her) have family we interact with on a daily basis. If we were to not react to any of the group chats we’re on or not post to them ourselves, or post on social- our closest child would be sent to the house to check on us. And if we weren’t there… well, there’d be follow up.
Others- not so much. I’ve read more then one account of smells in a house with mail piling up where someone passing by calls the police and they actually investigate- and find some old dude (usually, but not always, a male) sitting upright and dead in his easy chair, where he’s been for months. And in some cases, more than a year. I imagine a lot of these never make the news. One case I recall the old dude lived in an apartment- and had his accounts set up so everything, including his rent, was automatically taken from his account. That one was, IIRC, over a year. And the super went in to insect after other apartment dwellers noticed the smell.
So, yeah, a yearly in person “Are you alive?” check isn’t at all unreasonable.
My son is a civilian aerospace engineer working for NAVAIR San Diego. He was advised by several levels of supervisors up the military chain not to reply.
Back when I participated in the rat race, I required all of my staff and their staff down the chain to submit weekly objectives by noon Monday and a report on accomplishment of the previous week’s objectives by COB Monday. This process was less to check up on people than to force them to think about priorities in what needed to be accomplished. It also reminded people that someone was watching.
What your son is doing, how he is doing it, when he is doing it, does not belong on an unencrypted transmittal to OPM. The is basic operational security. I am surprised Elon screwed this up in all his excited. Obviously getting push back and being told to stand down.
The original charge said not to include anything classified, however that leaves too much to the skill of the reporter in balancing vagueness with accuracy. “I worked on a Navy transportation vehicle” is very different from “I designed a new missile release system that will increase the speed at which air-to air missiles can be fired from the F/A-18E.” (Please note these are entirely made up comments). he said they already do similar reports for the supervisory chain.
Federal workers need to be held to the highest standard. If they can’t deal with that, they can find work elsewhere. I have no problems with the email because when it comes to the federal behemoth, the inmates have been running the asylum for far too long.
I saw some employees at Yosemite decided to hang the American flag upside down from El Capitan which just further reinforces that fat should be trimmed.
There are times when it is difficult to take Elon seriously. This is one of those occasions.
Micromanaging does not become his place from executive level.
The knuckleheads at the NPS who have made fools of themselves made need to relieved of duty and the supervisors/managers who tolerated such behavior reassigned to duties more suited to their skill set(s). Maybe parking lot attendants or road maintenance.
Nothing I’ve seen states that employees are required to respond to Musk.
Unless they work for Musk, he is not qualified to evaluate employee performance.
It is wrong to put employees in the position of doing what their agencies COC says to do or responding to Musk’s demand.
It’s a disgrace that POTUS put this clown above our military leaders. I think maybe now he might understand that clown show is not the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, Space Force, Coast Guard …