Musk’s demand for federal employee reports faces agency resistance

Several federal agencies, including the State Department, Department of Defense, and FBI, have instructed employees not to comply with Elon Musk’s email order demanding they summarize their accomplishments from the past week or face dismissal.

On Saturday, Musk posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account a directive requiring government employees to submit weekly summaries of their accomplishments, warning that failure to comply would be considered a resignation.

Around the same time, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an email requesting federal employees to list five accomplishments from the past week, though it did not include a threat of termination, according to the Associated Press.

The directive has prompted multiple federal agencies to advise employees against responding or to pause compliance until further guidance is issued.

The State Department advised its employees not to respond to Musk’s email, stating that the department would handle the matter internally. “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” said Tibor Nagy, under secretary of management, in an email to employees, according to The Washington Post.

Kash Patel, the newly appointed FBI director, instructed bureau employees to hold off on responding for the time being. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel said in an email, according to the Associated Press. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”

Under Secretary of Defense Darin Selnick issued similar guidance, stating, “The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures.” He added, “When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week.'”

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard also advised against replying, “Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email,” Gabbard said, according to The New York Times.

The directive is part of Musk’s and President Donald Trump’s broader initiative to streamline the federal workforce, which has already led to significant layoffs and restructuring.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal workers, condemned the move, calling it “cruel and disrespectful,” and vowed to challenge any unlawful terminations, according to Reuters.

Musk has defended the directive, citing concerns over fraud and inadequate productivity among government employees.

“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” Musk said. “In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”