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Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk says every federal employee will receive an email asking what they accomplished this week — and that those who fail to respond will be considered as having resigned.
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote Friday afternoon. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
As of Saturday night, employees at several agencies — including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — had received the emails, Reuters reports.
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According to CBS News, federal workers received an email that read: “What did you do last week.” They were instructed to reply with five bullet points of what they had accomplished in the last week, excluding any classified information.
The deadline given, according to emails reviewed by Reuters, is 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday.
University of Minnesota law professor Nick Bednar told The Washington Post that considering those who don’t respond as having resigned is illegal.
Musk famously asked the same question of former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (whom he later fired) while scheming to buy the social media site in 2022.
“I’d like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and don’t get distracted, but we aren’t there right now,” Agrawal told Musk.
“What did you get done this week?” Musk fired back.
The post comes after Trump praised Musk’s efforts on Truth Social, encouraging him to go even further: “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.”
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DOGE is slashing jobs across federal agencies. Tens of thousands of probationary employees — those who were hired less than a year ago — have lost their jobs in recent weeks as part of the agency’s work.
Many of these jobs weren’t funded by taxpayers, meaning some cuts have actually lowered savings for the American people that Trump’s administration promised, Reuters reported Friday.
Meanwhile, nearly 7,000 probationary IRS employees were laid off this week in the middle of tax filing season. Former officials and Democratic lawmakers alike have warned these freezes and firings could disrupt Americans’ abilities to easily file their taxes and receive any potential returns, The New York Times reports.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
