Federal workers started getting emails on Friday night, “asking them to provide a list of accomplishments from the week,” reports The New York Times. According to the outlet, the message told workers they’ll now be expected to provide such a list every Monday by 11:59PM ET.
This time around, the Times writes that “employees who worked only on classified or sensitive activities were instructed to write ‘all of my activities are sensitive’ in response.” The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reportedly sent the email to agencies that include the FBI, the General Services Administration, and the Departments of Defense, Justice, Labor, and Agriculture. In at least one other case, it was sent by an internal department address, according to The Associated Press.
The Times notes that it’s not clear whether there are any consequences for those who don’t respond to the new email or future ones. After a similar email was sent to federal workers last week, Musk wrote on X, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation” — a detail that was missing from the original email, something a number of legal experts have said is illegal.
On Thursday, a federal judge said the OPM cannot fire employees of another agency and ordered it to rescind directives that resulted in the mass firings of probationary employees, many of whom were senior workers in key roles. In an open letter the same day, Senator Alex Padilla (D-California) urged Musk and the OPM to stop sending emails to employees of legislative branch offices and agencies “who are not subject to personnel actions by the Executive branch.” Padilla said the messages are “wasting time and resources and potentially misleading employees into responding and sharing legislative branch information in an unauthorized manner.”
Many agencies told employees not to reply to last week’s email, while others said they should. Musk claimed last week, without evidence, that the original round of emails were aimed at finding fraudulent employees. The Times points out he repeated that claim during a Wednesday cabinet meeting, saying there may be “a number of people on the government payroll who are dead.”
