U.S. government employees faced widespread confusion Monday following conflicting directives regarding an Elon Musk-backed mandate requiring them to summarize their weekly work via email or risk termination.
Just 48 hours after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued an email asking federal workers to report “what did you do last week?” the agency clarified that responses were voluntary, leaving individual departments to determine their approach.
However, as agencies grappled with the guidance, President Donald Trump weighed in, asserting that employees who refused to comply with Musk’s directive would be fired or “sort of semi-fired.” Later Monday evening, Musk reiterated the ultimatum, offering workers a final opportunity to respond.
The original OPM email, sent Saturday, directed recipients to submit five examples of their work over the past seven days without disclosing classified information. Employees were instructed to respond by the end of Monday. Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), warned that failure to reply would be treated as a resignation.
The directive sparked backlash, with federal worker unions and advocacy groups filing a lawsuit in California to block the mandate. Key agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services (HHS), Justice, and the FBI—now led by Trump appointees—advised employees to disregard the request, creating widespread uncertainty. Many federal workers received contradictory instructions from their respective agencies, leading to frustration.
“They’re succeeding in driving us insane,” said one HHS employee, who spoke anonymously to the BBC out of fear of retaliation.
On Monday afternoon, OPM convened a call with federal agency HR heads, stating that each agency could determine how to handle the directive, according to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner.
That same day, President Trump defended Musk’s mandate, calling it a “genius” move.
“We’re trying to find out if people are working, so we’re sending a letter asking them to tell us what they did last week. If they don’t respond, it’s very possible they don’t exist or aren’t working,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “And then if you don’t answer, you’re sort of semi-fired or fired because a lot of people aren’t answering, and they don’t even exist.”
Musk maintained that he was acting on Trump’s orders.
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” Musk wrote on X, referring to employees who had not responded by Monday’s deadline. “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
He further criticized noncompliant employees, calling the email request “utterly trivial.”
“The standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers,” Musk wrote. “Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”
Despite resistance from some agencies under Trump-appointed leadership, the White House insisted that all departments were aligned.
“Everyone is working together as one unified team at the direction of President Trump,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Any notion to the contrary is completely false.”
The statement did not clarify why federal agencies issued conflicting guidance to employees.
