CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk leaves the stage holding a chainsaw after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
By Ben Zeisloft February 25, 2025 at 7:38am
Elon Musk said on Monday that federal workers who fail to respond to a second email asking what they accomplished last week will be dismissed from their positions.
The head of the Department of Government Efficiency, who has been leading efforts to diminish the size and scope of the federal government, announced last week that “all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.”
Failure to respond would be “taken as a resignation.”
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
The email indeed asked employees to respond with five bullet points “of what you accomplished last week” and told them to copy their managers, per a report from NBC News.
“Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments. Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pm EST,” the email added.
Daily Wire commentator and podcast host Matt Walsh posted on Monday evening that the Trump administration should “fire any federal worker who didn’t answer the email.”
“Fire any who complained publicly about the email,” he said. “Fire any who complained privately about the email. Fire any who did anything but cheerfully and promptly answer it.”
But Musk revealed that President Donald Trump appeared to be giving workers a second chance to reply.
Should workers who fail to respond to this email a second time be fired?
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” Musk said.
“Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” he warned.
Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance.
Failure to respond a second time will result in termination. https://t.co/04xzgScXfj
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 25, 2025
The initial email provoked controversy among some, and even a lawsuit from a group of federal workers claiming that the administration could not fire nonresponsive employees, according to a report from Axios.
Others commended the move and compared the effort to routine productivity checks in the private sector.
Trump defended the email on Monday, telling reporters in the Oval Office that “there was a lot of genius in sending it,” according to a report from The Hill.
“We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people, ‘Please tell us what you did last week.’ If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working,” Trump described.
The Hill noted that some agencies, particularly those dealing with national security or confidential information, would not require employees to answer the request.
FBI Director Kash Patel asked staff to “please pause any responses.”
The Department of Homeland Security said that “management will respond on behalf of the Department and all its component offices.”
Ben Zeisloft is the editor of The Republic Sentinel, a conservative news outlet owned and operated by Christians. He is a former staff reporter for The Daily Wire and has written for The Spectator, Campus Reform, and other conservative news outlets. Ben graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with concentrations in business economics and marketing.
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