Individual federal agencies are in control as to what actions will be taken against government employees who did not respond to an Office of Personnel Management email asking for a bullet-point list of what they accomplished during the previous work week, a White House official told Fox News Digital.
‘Agencies should consider any appropriate actions regarding employees who fail to respond to activity,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital Tuesday. ‘It is agency leadership’s decision as to what actions are taken.’
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chair Elon Musk announced Saturday that federal employees would receive an email directing them to list their accomplishments from the week prior, with the DOGE leader adding later that day that the assignment should take less than five minutes to accomplish.
Employees had until 11:59 p.m. Monday to send the list or risk losing their employment, according to emails regarding Musk’s directive that were sent by the Office of Personnel Management.
‘Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,’ Musk wrote on X Saturday. ‘Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.’
‘To be clear, the bar is very low here,’ Musk wrote. ‘An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write.’
Musk added to X on Monday evening that, ‘subject to the discretion of the President, (federal employees) will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.’
‘The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!’ he wrote in a separate post. ‘Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?’
A handful of federal departments that deal with sensitive and classified information told staffers to ignore the order to list their accomplishments, which President Donald Trump said on Monday was a ‘friendly’ rejection due to the sensitive materials some government employees handle on a regular basis.
FBI Director Kash Patel, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security were among the agencies and departments that informed staff to not respond to the email.
‘That was done in a friendly manner,’ Trump said Monday while speaking with the media alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. ‘Only things such as, perhaps Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things. Or the FBI, where they’re working on confidential things. And they don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They’re just saying there are some people that you don’t want to really have them tell you what they’re working on last week.’
Other Trump officials, such as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Small Business Association Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, publicly reported their accomplishments for the previous work week on social media or in comments to Fox News Digital.
Following the deadline, Musk posted a meme on X showing Greek mythology warrior Achilles and an arrow piercing his heel. A caption over the Greek figure reads, ‘Largest most entrenched bureaucracy on earth,’ while a caption over the arrow reads, ‘What did you get done last week?’
Trump lauded the directive Monday, arguing that it will expose government employees who aren’t actually carrying out tasks.
‘There was a lot of genius in sending it,’ Trump said Monday from the White House. ‘We’re trying to find out if people are working. And so we’re sending a letter to people. Please tell us what you did last week. If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working.’