‘Report Last Week’s Work via Email by Monday or Resign’: US Federal Staff Receive Email After Elon Musk Asks Employees To ‘Justify Work’

Washington, February 23: US federal government employees received an email late Saturday asking them to summarise their work accomplishments from the previous week by Monday night or risk losing their jobs, media reported. The emails were sent shortly after Elon Musk, who serves as US President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, issued a brief notice about the ultimatum on the social media platform X, Xinhua news agency reported.

The emails came shortly after Elon Musk, the billionaire head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, posted on the social media site X that not responding to the email request would be viewed as a resignation. “All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” ‘What Did You Do Last Week?’: Federal Employees Receive Emails Demanding Weekly Reports To Justify Their Work or Resign.

Musk issued his post just hours after President Donald Trump posted on his own social media network, Truth Social, that DOGE should get more aggressive in its attempts to downsize and reshape the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce. “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk said in a post.

“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” Federal employees — including some judges, court staff, and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approximately 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the Associated Press reported. The deadline to reply was listed as 11:59 p.m. on Monday, although the email did not include Musk’s social media threat about those who fail to respond, the news agency added. Elon Musk Gives All Federal Workers 48 Hours To Explain What They Did Last Week.

Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce, either by being fired or offered a buyout, as the Trump administration works to streamline the government. Trump has repeatedly talked about Musk as the functional leader of DOGE, which is not a cabinet-level department, but the White House said in a court filing this month that Musk had no authority over DOGE and was not an employee of the program.

(The above story first appeared on Fresh Headline on Feb 23, 2025 09:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website freshheadline.com).