Federal workers spent Monday trying to determine how— or whether— to comply with an email sent by Elon Musk over the weekend, demanding that they explain their work from the previous week or risk losing their jobs.
The day was filled with confusion and conflicting guidance, leaving many federal employees uncertain about how to proceed. Some were instructed to follow Musk’s request, while others were advised against it, and many were waiting for further directions from their agency’s leadership until late in the day.
During a Monday afternoon address from the Oval Office, President Donald Trump praised Musk's email demand as “ingenious,” adding that anyone who didn’t respond would be “semi-fired or fired.”
However, hours later, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) contradicted Trump’s statement, informing agencies that responding was voluntary and that failure to respond would “not equate to a resignation.” While some agencies passed on this message, others did not, leaving many workers still unsure how to handle the request as the deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday approached.
A career employee from the Department of Veterans Affairs summed up the confusion: “Our chief said it was mandatory. Then OPM said it became voluntary. Then Trump just told us it was mandatory again. No one knows who is in charge and who to listen to.”
Many federal agencies, including the Justice Department, State Department, Pentagon, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Energy, told employees not to respond to Musk’s request. However, the Commerce and Transportation Departments instructed their staff to comply, with Commerce asking employees to submit their responses to their supervisors.
Employees of the Federal Aviation Administration, which has been struggling with understaffing, were particularly affected. Many are working mandatory overtime with long hours, and their union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, criticized Musk’s request as a “distraction” during a time of heightened pressure on air safety.
NASA took a different approach, saying it would handle the responses for its employees, noting that participation was voluntary and opting out would not affect employment status.
Ironically, even employees at OPM, the agency that issued the original email, were uncertain about how to respond until about 6 p.m. Monday, when they received guidance stating that participation was voluntary but encouraged.
The day’s chaos began after the OPM’s email landed in federal workers’ inboxes on Saturday. In some agencies, work was disrupted as staff gathered in impromptu meetings to figure out how to handle the email. Agency leaders were caught in debates over how to respond to Musk’s demands, leaving employees to fend for themselves.
David J. Demas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3003, which represents Bureau of Prisons workers, said he received 30 calls from members on Monday asking for guidance on how to handle the request. Many workers did not have access to work emails at home, while others sought clarity on how to format their responses.
“Today was crazy,” Demas said. “A lot of people were coming in from being off to try to send an email, a silly email that doesn’t even make any sense to us.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice issued an email saying workers did not need to respond, and Demas passed that message along to his colleagues. At other facilities, officials set up rooms for employees without computer access, including janitors, to send in their weekly updates.
Workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also faced disruptions. One worker described how the email request caused delays in completing their usual duties as they tried to clarify instructions from leadership.
At the Department of Veterans Affairs, employees had to attend multiple meetings on Monday to discuss the directive, further disrupting patient care. "That’s all time taken away from patient care,” one employee said.
At the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), staff were told to keep their responses brief and general, cautioning them to tailor their responses as if they would be read by “malign foreign actors.”
Some employees took a more sarcastic approach, particularly at the IRS, where one group jokingly listed “fighting the BS you started” as part of their response to Musk’s email.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, where employees were told to comply with Musk's request but with limitations on sharing sensitive information, some workers expressed frustration. One EPA employee remarked, “Nobody has a spine. When you appease a bully, you give them license to come after you more.”
A State Department official shared that employees were conflicted, wanting to highlight their important work but uncertain about the security of sending their responses from individual email accounts.
In his Oval Office remarks, President Trump suggested that employees who didn’t respond might not be working at all. “We have to find out where these people are. Who are they?” Trump said, adding that those who failed to reply might not be paid anymore.
Despite the confusion, Musk remained resolute. Later that evening, he posted on X, stating that “subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
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