Elon Musk has asked US government employees to either list their achievements for the last week or resign. This is part of an efficiency drive that aims to improve US government services.
Musk announced the measure this weekend on his social network X: “Consistently with President Donald Trump’s instructions, federal employees will soon be receiving an email requesting that they understand what they did last week. Failure to respond is a resignation.
Soon after, as promised, federal employees began receiving a three-line message from the Office of Personnel Management. The message read: “Please respond to this email by approx. Please include 5 bullets describing what you did last week, and make sure to cc your supervisor.
Musk was appointed by President Trump as the Director of Government Efficiency Department (Doge). This department has already aimed government diversity and inclusivity programmes. The government has also asked workers to return to work full-time.
Musk did not mention in the memo that those who do not respond will be given notice of resignation.
Several federal agencies, including the FBI and the State Department as well as the Pentagon, have already told their employees to not comply with this demand.
Kennedy, the acting general counsel for Sean Keveney, had previously told some employees not to comply with his instructions.
In accordance with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, federal employees will receive an email asking them to explain what they accomplished last week.
If you do not respond, it will be interpreted as resignation.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk 22 February 2025
Keveney, according to the Associated Press reports, has concerns over security and safeguarding regarding employees who detail their work. He has not received any assurances about whether there are adequate protections in place.
Tibor Nagy is the acting undersecretary of management at State Department. He told his staff that “no employee has to report any activities outside their Department’s chain of command.”
John Curtis, a Republican Senator from the United States, told CBS he was also concerned about the severity of this measure. “These are real lives.” These are real people. These are mortgages. “It’s a false story to say that we must cut, and you also have to be cruel.”
The American Federation of Government Employees criticized the plans and called them “cruel” and “disrespectful”. They also vowed to fight any “unlawful terminations of federal employees.”
Everett Kelley is the president of the union. He said: “Once more, Elon Musk, and the Trump Administration, have shown their disdain towards federal employees and critical services that they provide for the American people.”
Musk said on X, that Doge believed “nonexistent people or dead people’s identities are being used for paychecks” but provided no evidence.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference at the weekend President Trump stated: “We are removing all the incompetent, corrupt and unnecessary bureaucrats.
We want to make the government smaller and more efficient. We will only keep the best employees.
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