Elon Musk’s open-reply “what did you do last week” email to federal employees invited a flood of fictionalized fireable offenses that hilariously undercut the unelected bureaucrat’s ultimatum to reply.
An unwelcome email arrived in the inboxes of workers across the federal government Friday, prompting them to send “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week” to an email address that appeared to be for human resources at the Office of Personnel Management.
The recipients were asked to copy their managers on their replies, not to send any classified information, and to respond by the end of the day Monday. Although it did not explicitly state it in the email, Musk later posted on X that a failure to respond would be considered a resignation.
It wasn’t immediately clear how seriously anyone should consider Musk’s email, or his subsequent threat to fire the noncompliers. But, as it turns out, a lot of people did respond—just not federal employees. And they certainly didn’t take the prompt seriously.
The email quickly circulated online, providing the internet with what they understood was a direct line to Musk and the team at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Journalist Jon Schwarz replied with a weekly roundup that might’ve looked eerily familiar to the billionaire technocrat.
“Honestly, I think I should be fired for this, but that’s your call,” Schwarz wrote at the end of the email addressed to OPM.
Schwarz sent in another, even more absurd itinerary, just to prove that one could email Musk “as many times as you want.”
Lawyer George Conway also got in on the fun of fabricating fireable offenses under #Emails2DOGE, and posted a list on X Saturday detailing his own week, which included the bullet point, “Made this list and encouraged other people to make and post lists of their own to mock Trump & his boss Elon.”
Conway also instructed Grok 3, X’s artificial intelligence, to search up “five stupid things Donald Trump did this week.”
The meme and news account Washingtonian Probs collected a number of responses that were slightly more crass, but I’m sure Musk appreciated the candor.
Others kept their rejoinders simple.
Federal employees filed a lawsuit Monday, in part responding to Musk’s email, alleging that the DOGE czar’s threat of sweeping firings was “one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.”
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