Elon Musk Issues Ultimatum To Federal Workers: Document Work By Monday Night Or Risk Being Terminated

President Donald Trump‘s chainsaw-wielding, cost-cutting partner Elon Musk threatened federal employees with termination on Saturday, if they did not respond to an email from the Office of Personnel Management highlighting their work last week. The email asked workers to reply and provide “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager” before Monday at 11:59 p.m.

While the OPM message does not imply that a lack of response could lead to an employee getting fired, Musk took to his social media site X, formerly Twitter, and said, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

In a statement, OPM said that the emails are “part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce,” and that “agencies will determine any next steps.”

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the top union representing federal workers, has already said the organization would challenge any “unlawful terminations” that result from not responding.

“Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people,” he said in a statement. The AFGE represents more than 800,000 federal workers.

“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” Kelley continued, adding that “AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”

This is the latest move by President Donald Trump‘s administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to purge federal workers and upend long-held government spending practices. The exact number of employees who have had their job cut is unclear, though it is estimated to be in the tens of thousands—a purge that could amount to the biggest job cuts in American history, according to reporting from CNBC on Sunday.

Musk’s post came hours after Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, that he thought “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB.” “BUT,” he added, “I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.” Musk, who has a net worth of over $380 billion, employed this same email tactic at his company, Tesla, and when he took over Twitter.

The OPM email confused—and frightened—federal workers across the country.

“It’s terrible,” one Department of Education employee whose work has been slowed by executive orders and layoffs told Business Insider. “It feels like harassment, especially sending it out on a Saturday and boasting about it in advance on X so that everyone could be checking their email afternoon in anticipation of its arrival.” Another employee told BI they’re concerned about who will review the emails, while a third wondered “how much money is being wasted” on this process.

Michael Fallings, a federal employment law expert, told CNN that Musk doesn’t have the power to do what he threatened on Saturday and any negatively impacted federal employees are within their rights to file a claim challenging the action. Fallings noted that, in part, because the demand came in over the weekend and contained an arbitrary deadline, it amounts to an “unreasonable and unnecessary request.”

Musk on Sunday called his latest request “a very basic pulse check.”

After sending out his initial post on Saturday afternoon, Musk spent much of the next day resharing posts in favor of his ultimatum and responding to those who critiqued the billionaire.

Later Saturday evening, Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota shared a screenshot of Musk’s post with the caption: “This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick.” She added below, “I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss – there’s an email in your inbox on Saturday night saying, ‘Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else.’”

“I’m on the side of the workers,” Smith continued, “not the billionaire asshole bosses.”

Musk then responded to the senator, asking, “What did you get done last week?”

“I hate to break it to you but you aren’t my boss,” Smith wrote. “I answer to the people of Minnesota. But since you bring it up, I spent last week fighting to stop tax breaks for billionaires like you, paid for by defunding health care for moms and babies.”

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Some agency heads, including, notably, the new FBI Director Kash Patel, told their employees to hold off on responding to the email from OPM and await internal guidance.

“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel wrote, according to a message obtained by CBS News. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”

The acting undersecretary for management at the state department, Tibor Nagy, sent a similar message to his employees, saying leadership would respond on behalf of the agency. “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” he wrote.

If Musk were to respond to the OPM email noting what he and DOGE had done throughout the past week, he could mention, in part, bringing a chainsaw on stage to the Conservative Political Action Conference, seemingly ignoring one of the mothers of his children, Grimes, who was desperately trying to get his attention regarding a medical situation of one of their kids, and claiming, falsely, that DOGE had saved the country $8 billion by cutting a contract related to immigration (it was actually, according to a review by The New York Times, more like $5.5 million).