In the midst of Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s efforts to improve the efficiency of the government, federal employees have been given an ultimatum: they must answer to an email or they would be considered to have quit.
Musk, who is now a special government employee and is running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, made the announcement that beginning on Monday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, all federal employees are required to provide a summary of their weekly accomplishments. On Twitter, he issued a strict warning that failure to react will be interpreted as a resignation.
The email, which was issued after Trump’s appearance at CPAC, had the subject line “What did you do last week?” and urged recipients to cite five accomplishments without mentioning any classified material.
Some others, such as Matt Van Swol, thought it was sensible; yet, it was met with opposition. Kash Patel, the Director of the FBI, requested employees to suspend their responses, and officials from the federal court cautioned against taking any action. Everett Kelley, the President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), referred to the action as “cruel and disrespectful” and vowed to defend terminations that were unlawful.