One federal agency’s advice to workers who received Elon Musk’s email on productivity: treat it like an opportunity to highlight your accomplishments.
After the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to all federal employees over the weekend requesting five bullet points on what they accomplished at work over the past week, the Social Security Administration told all agency employees that the email “is a legitimate assignment and should not be reported as spam.”
“You must take the action requested by the deadline,” SSA’s human resources department told employees in an email, reviewed by Business Insider.
It added: “Review your work over the last week and identify the most impactful mission-critical work accomplishments that advances our public service mission, as well as the Administration’s priorities. This is an opportunity to highlight the important work you do that helps impact the lives of those we serve.”
An SSA employee who received the email told BI that management told workers to respond to the email as advised, and that the agency’s management will have a meeting this afternoon to get more information on the next steps.
SSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
The email comes after federal agencies terminated thousands of their workers over the past week, in line with President Donald Trump and Musk’s goal to reduce waste and slash the government workforce. Dozens of workers — including those who voted for Trump — told BI that they were upset that the administration is targeting the federal workforce. Some fired workers were told cuts were targeting low performers, upping the stakes on Musk’s latest ask.
Some other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, have instructed their employees not to respond to OPM’s email.
“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” the agency posted on X.
The email sparked mass confusion across federal agencies, leaving many workers frustrated to have received the email on a Saturday with minimal guidance on how to respond. One federal worker told BI that the email was “pure harassment;” another worker said that they did not plan to respond to the email.
“It’s absolutely crazy to be treated like this by a president,” the worker said.
Musk also posted on X that failure to respond to the email would be treated as a resignation. The email sent to workers did not include that claim, and Musk later posted on X on Monday morning that it “was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email. This mess will get sorted out this week.”
The OPM gave employees Monday at 11:59 p.m. EST as the deadline to respond to the email. The National Treasury Employees Union told its members that those who have not received guidance from their agency should wait to respond; those who have received guidance should follow it, whether that means responding or not responding to the email.
“This situation remains very fluid, and we are actively seeking out clearer information to pass along,” the union said. “It is incredibly unfortunate that you were required to complete this wholly unnecessary request.”
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